Have a saggy car roof? Well, it’s nothing unexpected. With tons of adventures throughout the year, every car gets old with time. And one of the signs of your car getting old is a sagging roof.
What actually makes a car’s roof lining saggy? It’s primarily because of overheating. The lining of a car’s roof is joined mainly with powerful glue. With too much heat, the glue might melt and lose its adhesiveness.
But there are easy DIY guidelines on how to fix car roof lining without removing it. This article will tell you everything you need to know about it.
Table of Contents
What is a Car Roof Liner?
A car roof liner or headliner is what makes the interior of the car aesthetically pleasing and comfortable. It is actually the material that covers the roof of the car.
Made mainly from polyurethane, a roof liner for the car actually has three layers. First, there is a hardened backing made of the fiberglass board. This hardened board is covered with soft cushion-type foamy material with glue.
Then the whole thing is covered with a thin fabric covering. This covering is the part that is exposed to us.
An important thing to mention is that this roof covering is a one-piece item. So if it becomes damaged, usually the whole thing needs to be changed.
Fixing Car Roof Lining
Sometimes, there is no other way than fixing your car’s roof. You can no longer ignore the sagginess while inside it. In this article, we’ve discussed some of the best and cheapest DIY techniques for fixing car roofs. Do have a look.
Steaming and Rolling
Since because the roof lining cover is primarily held in its place by the installed glue, with time and exposure to heat, it becomes less sticky or weak. So the first obvious technique is to revive this glue.
With the help of a steam cleaner, you can melt the dried glue, and with some luck, it may regain its stickiness. Try to ensure aiming the steamer as close as possible to all of the headliner’s sagged spots. But be careful not to burn the delicate fabric, of course.
When you’ve noticed the glue has melted, use a paint roller to reattach the fabric to the frame. A paint roller is very helpful in this process since it will help spread the lining evenly without any crease or wrinkle.
But this method only works best when the sagging fabric is at the edges or the corners of the roof.
Using Glue
If reviving the installed glue doesn’t work, then the next best option is to opt for the old-fashioned glue. This is also the most effective and cheapest way when you’re looking for how to fix car roof lining without removing it.
The thing you’ll need for this trick to work is a powerful glue that works for fabrics. Because ordinary glue will not be able to withstand the adverse weather and heat conditions that the car will get exposed to.
You can either use a glue gun, or a cheap spray adhesive will do just fine. But a glue spray is more effective as it spreads over the place evenly. Just spray the glue on the upper side of the fabric and some on the foam under the lining.
Let the glue dry for a couple of minutes since most fabric adhesives don’t get sticky at once. Then join the fabric to the foam and stick it back by pressing firmly with your hands. Make sure to remove any creases.
When you’ve seen the ceiling regaining evenness with no bumps, you’ll know that you’ve done the job well. This process gives a great result on the convertible headliner of a Miata as well.
Pinning It
If you don’t have time to glue the car roof, then the next cheap option is to use sequin pins. Although quite effective in making the headline good as new, these pins might need frequent reapplication.
Even if half of the headliner fabric is coming off, you can use sequin pins to hold them up. But we’ll suggest you use pins for smaller areas of sagginess.
First, inspect the headliner for sagginess and decide how many pins you would need to fix it. Then try to visualize the way you’d pin the fabric for a better and easier job.
You can even be creative while pinning the fabric by making them square, diamond-shaped, or any other visually pleasing shape you want. All you need is to push the pins with your thumb through the fabric onto the foam.
Double-sided Tape
Taping is also another excellent way of DIY fixing the car roof. But you’ll need specialized double-sided tapes for this which you can buy from any auto shop in your locality.
The double-sided tape is a unique invention that helps people with fixing almost anything. The process is also very simple. Just stick one side of the tape to the roof of your car and another side to the headliner.
While this is great for sagged edges that are easily accessible, the method is, however, not recommendable for a long period. Because the adhesive quality of the tape, although very strong, will only work for a few months. So, this can be used as a temporary approach.
Staples and Hair Spray!
As weird as it might sound, stapling the headliner to cure sagginess is actually a pretty neat idea. We don’t know who came up with this trick, but it works quite well for a temporary period.
It is also important to note that if you use your regular paper stapler, it might not work. So, for a better result, we suggest you get a staple gun. Use it to shoot on saggy places in the headliner. But be sure to check there are no creases on the fabric.
Shoot those staples neatly and in an orderly way to make the headliner look good. And also, be keen not to tear the fabric while stapling.
The next step after stapling is to use the hair spray. Spray on all the stapled areas directly. This will help melt the adhesive initially used by the car manufacturer. As a result, both the material and the board will bond again.
Final Words
We’ve explained many DIY fixes on how to fix car roof lining without removing it. But remember that all these are temporary fixes, and this means they can fail sooner or later. Therefore, try to protect your car’s roof from the very beginning, and as soon as you see any sagging, start saving up for a permanent fix.
