I think I have a loose bolt at the front/right of the first section of the roof, and want to know how to properly remove the headliner without breaking it....Has anyone done this and give me pointers?

 

Ok so I found no videos or instructions on how to do it.....BUT I did do it and will be posting a video on youtube soon.

Thankfully it wasn't loose bolts on the latch assembly.

It was the rubber coverings on the pins. On the side where the noise was coming from, the rubber was flattened to allow wiggle room. I wrapped the pin with electrical tape and that worked for the time being.

is the rubber covering available somewhere?

 

How to remove the first section headliner.


not a great video, done with my phone....but at least you can see where the clips are

 

That's helpful! I might have to look at my roof pins now.... I have a little bit of rattling coming from the rear roof section when it's folded up..

 

I haven't been able to find the rubber sleeve for the pins...I don't think they can be bought separately, sadly. And I don't think they come off easily. I tried to turn the rubber sleeve 90 degrees and it wouldn't budge.

BUT, once my daughter comes down again I'll measure the diameter of the pins with a good section of rubber and compare that to the diameter of the pins themselves, then figure out the difference in diameter....
Knowing that, I'll know what gauge copper wire to use to wrap a bare section of pin to make the diameter and cover it with heat shrink tubing. Copper instead of galvanized steel as it is softer, thus sacrificial.

If I knew how to draw specs, I could have someone CNC them out of Delrin. I thought about buying a used assembly just to play with how to remove the rubber sleeve....but they are expensive too.

 

you should probably be able to use heat shrink tubing i would think

 

Yeah that would probably work too.
I have a thickened epoxy used for boats, called thixo, that could be used to fill in the flattened section. Then cover that with the heat shrink. The epoxy is hard, but not as hard as metal so would be kind of sacrificial under the heatshrink.

I am kind of jealous of her car....I really like it...wish it were the 3.5 liter though...it has the extra injectors to clean the back on intake valves.