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DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner

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Old Aug 24, 2018 | 07:23 PM
  #1  
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Default DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner

I just wanted to share with you all my project in wrapping my Camry's headliner and pillars in a black suede like material. I made a short video on the project here:

Here's what I started with, my black leather interior swapped Gen 5 with stock gray upper pillars and headliner:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-gexhnwa.jpg
All of the accessories around the headliner have to be removed including the overhead console, dome light, sunroof surround, sunvisors and grab-handles. I broke a lot of things, including these two clips on the overhead console:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-gmg3nbw.jpg

Once the headliner is down, there's a couple of electrical connections:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-v5fp3um.jpg

Including one that's soldered to the glass for the defroster:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-ohxcv4u.jpg

Whoopsy I broke that too. I'll have to get to that before winter:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-cywzwh8.jpg

After a lot of jiggling and bending the headliner came out the front passenger door:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-qi1sriz.jpg

The sunroof shade slides backward once you remove the black stopper/drain port:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-jf5nsmz.jpg

Bare interior:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-2dvmu4f.jpg

For the sunroof shade I trimmed back some of the stock gray fabric so it will side easier when the suede fabric is glued on top:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-zur5s0e.jpg

I started with 3M 90 spray adhesive:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-ko1dln4.jpg
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-1m64tmu.jpg

For the pillars I used 3M 77:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-ux3wwpd.jpg
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-gafaoqe.jpg

The headliner took a lot of trials. 3M 90 didn't work so it was supplemented with 3M 77. See the video for more details:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-kpt3fio.jpg

Here's everything wrapped, just waiting for glue to dry before going back in the car:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-zwcdksl.jpg

Well it looks like I waited too long, despite being marketed as a strong industrial strength adhesive, the 3M 90 stuff did not hold on the headliner after a few days and the black fabric popped back up:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-bgzqq4v.jpg

So time to bring in the big (messy) guns - contact cement:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-rlqbuny.jpg

I had to rip back a good portion of the headliner:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-fv8kwpy.jpg

Contact cement goes on both sides then dries for 10 mins, then once you stick it, there's no adjustment!
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-7bw39eg.jpg

All of the plastic pieces were painted black to suite:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-yeg4cu9.jpg

The only thing being was the sunvisors - I have not devised a method to properly take them apart yet since they are plastic welded together!

Suede pillars and headliner all done, it looks beautiful:
DIY: How I Suede Wrapped my Headliner-y7mhxe9.jpg

Enjoy!
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Old Aug 25, 2018 | 07:41 PM
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Would love to do have a suede/alcantara headliner on my GS but it just seems like so much work. Good job though.
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Old Aug 25, 2018 | 07:43 PM
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Man you are the king of DIY videos and tutorials. Well played. You'd make a great 'car shop' teacher at a high school or trade school
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Old Aug 25, 2018 | 08:29 PM
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very nice DIY video, looking for my brothers toothbrush right now.
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Old Aug 26, 2018 | 02:06 PM
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Credit where its due, thats a pretty cool project.
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Old Aug 26, 2018 | 07:48 PM
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Very nice! I love my sueded headliner, I'm sure thats a huge improvement to your Camry.
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Old Aug 28, 2018 | 02:56 AM
  #7  
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I was thinking of just painting mine black while it's on the car... hehe, too much trouble to remove and too fing hot in Houston.
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Old Aug 29, 2018 | 03:14 PM
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Originally Posted by Hoovey2411
Man you are the king of DIY videos and tutorials. Well played. You'd make a great 'car shop' teacher at a high school or trade school
Thanks, I get that a lot .... I'm a good teacher behind the camera, but not in front!

Originally Posted by monkey92
very nice DIY video, looking for my brothers toothbrush right now.
Definitely a requirement for this project!

Originally Posted by SW17LS
Very nice! I love my sueded headliner, I'm sure thats a huge improvement to your Camry.
It sure is a huge difference...in addition to my black leather interior swap, it feels like a different car now!

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Old Sep 1, 2018 | 07:16 AM
  #9  
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that's an awesome amount of work
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