# Anything for sagging ceiling that actually works?



## RotaryRyan (Oct 20, 2004)

My ceiling in my 95 200sx sags in some places. Have you guys found anything that actually works to keep it up?


----------



## Bonka (Jan 9, 2004)

Short of taking it apart and gluing the damn thing back on, I used magnets. I got mine from an old orthopedic back mattress thing my mom use to use, it had hundreds of these little round magnets in them. I tore the foam up and grabbed the magnets


----------



## Radioaktiv (Feb 12, 2004)

spray adhesive works the best from what ive heard


----------



## pete? (Jul 6, 2004)

id say just get some new headliner material (the jo anns fabric by me sells material in the upolstry section that is accualy called "headliner" and all different colors) and just re do it. the reason you should re do it is because it has foam backing on it and normally when it starts to sag its because the material separated from the foam part and there isn't any way to "reattach" it without it looking really bad


----------



## RotaryRyan (Oct 20, 2004)

well, i will take a closer look at it and see what i wanna do. 

Thanks,
ryan


----------



## Bryan200sx (Jan 23, 2003)

staples and glue worked for me. Or thumb tacks. Im going to redo mine its not that hard at all and its >$20 in materials.


----------



## RotaryRyan (Oct 20, 2004)

Its not sagging that much, im just thinking ahead for what i will do eventually.


----------



## Osirisdudeman (Oct 19, 2004)

my gf once had a toyota and she fixed hers by cutting 20 or so X with her pocket knife

then krazyglue

looks good if you take time and do each X at a time!


----------



## RotaryRyan (Oct 20, 2004)

Osirisdudeman said:


> my gf once had a toyota and she fixed hers by cutting 20 or so X with her pocket knife
> 
> then krazyglue
> 
> looks good if you take time and do each X at a time!


What do you mean? like cut the fabric, then put glue under it?


----------



## sentdawg (Oct 27, 2004)

man i jus tookmy car to an upholstery shop and and he only charged me 50 bucks...did a good job to..no more saggy ceiling...lol plus i got new carpet


----------



## RotaryRyan (Oct 20, 2004)

sentdawg said:


> man i jus tookmy car to an upholstery shop and and he only charged me 50 bucks...did a good job to..no more saggy ceiling...lol plus i got new carpet


Yeah, across the street from me is an upholstery shop. i should ask them how much it would be.


----------



## sentra_hilo (Apr 23, 2003)

if i were you i wouldnt use spray adhesive. it doesn't last very long. i used that for about a month and it kept falling. just get it redone at an upholstery shop. mine costed like $100


----------



## RotaryRyan (Oct 20, 2004)

Yeah, I dont really want to use spray adhesive. which is why i havnt


----------



## Blank (Aug 21, 2003)

if you do go with spray adhesive use a lot... like 3 times as much as you think you need... it shouldnt fall back down because it isnt agitated...

headliners fall when thier glue breaks down... any chemical you clean with will kill that glue, the only acceptable way to clean a headliner(other then spot cleaning little areas) is high temp steam...


----------



## UofLsentra (May 25, 2003)

*Changing isn't that hard... just takes a while*

I had this happen to my car in July/August when I spent the summer in Florida visiting my girl. Short story: Left my car in the sun, without the windows cracked, and forgot to put up my sunshade in about 115 degree weather for most of the day, so it sagged like a bitch on the driver's side.

A friend of mine who works at a car shop helped me do this and it only took like 3-4 hours and $38 ($15 for glue 10-15 for fabric and $12 for dinner). I've since done it to 2 cars. This is a 2 person job. You can do it by yourself, but would be a lot harder for a lot of steps. 

Here's the deal with the head liner. It is a big hard cardboard mold that takes the shape of your ceiling. It has holes for all the stuff you put up. The fabric attached actually a two piece part. This is a skinny foam piece that is a 1cm thick and actual cloth glued to it. It comes glued to the foam as one piece and that's why when it sags, you're screwed because you can't do a factory quick fix of that. You can get the fabric from any fabric store. I went and bought mine. I brought my visor in to match the color and they didn't have an exact match. I have gray interior but the headliner I had was a really dark gray. So when they didn't have dark gray, I got a light colored gray. It looks even better because it brightens the interior, it matches, the seat color better, the carpet better, and adjacent to the stock color visors it looks like a cool 2-tone custom job. If it's a little wrinkled, that's cool because it'll smooth out when it stretches, bad wrinkles are bad though.

From the fabric store or an autoparts store get some 3M Fabric Glue. It comes in an aerosol can. Don't get the heavy duty because the glue is a lime green and can stain through. Avoid colors if you can, yellowish color is okay, white one is best. Test the can in the store and make sure its not a stream but a spray mist. If they don't let you, go somewhere else to buy. 

A rubber stamp roller, if you have one, too.


1. Take apart the interior. Door insulation, seatbelts and panels behind seat belts, defrost wires, back panels, front panels, and the little "buttons" in the head liner(don't remember if I took out the dome light on mine on some you have to), the visors, the oh shit handles, and clothes hanger. It all just pops off, I was surprised. If anything ever sticks when I take stuff apart in my interior I just use one of the little paint can openers you get at Lowe's when you buy paint it works really well for anything in the interior. 

2. Pop out the headliner. Lowers your seats all the way back, drop your ebrake, open all the doors and try to get it out of there the best way you can. Pay attention because you'll have to put your new nice one back in later. Pay attention to these 2 foam pieces that are above the head liner that will fall out, because you need to put those back in before you install the head liner. 

3. Rip off the head liner fabric from the cardboard backing. There will be foam/glue mixture attached to the cardboard. I used a metal wire brush that is used to clean a BBQ grill to get it off. If you have a metal wire thing you can put on a drill you could do this really quick. This is the most time consuming step because you need to get off 90% at least of that stuff stuck on the headliner. Scrape, shake off scrapes, scrape, repeat, repeat until done. 

4. Take a break, your arms are now tired. 

5. The longer you take on this step, the better your results. lay a huge blanket on the floor, wash your hands well and lay the cardboard liner on the blanket. Lay the fabric atop of the liner, double check it fits. I started at the "front of the car" and worked my way to the back, for this. Roll up the fabric. Spray the glue on the whole width of the headliner but only 10 inches of the length, let it set for about 10 seconds. unroll 10 inches of the fabric onto the cardboard. Pull it taut, not too tight and use the rubber stamp roller to smooth it all out. Fingers would leave finger divots on the finished job. Spray the next ten inches, repeating the process over and over until you're done. You need a razor/box cutter to snip the pieces and fold them across odd edges. Cut it and wrap. Its takes some time. The longer you take, the nicer the job. Its up to you. No one will notice most of the imperfections except for you. Take care to make sure its not too taut where the visors go, the depressions for the visors need to be pushed and pressed a little longer so it doesn't undo. 

6. Let it dry for a little while. I wait the amount of time to make Pina Coladas and drink them. 20-30 minutes. 

7. Flip it all over. Use your cutter to cut x's in all the littles holes, in order to install the stuff. 

8. Make sure all the seats are down and stuff is out of your center console, head rests are out, stereo face out maybe, and extra stuff is out of your car. You are going to put the headliner back in the car and don't want to mess it up so all the room you can get helps. Every cm! Double side tape or glue the foam "insulator pads" where they fell out of the roof to the roof. Now pop the headliner back into place(takes a little effort but it is a pop kinda). Put all the buttons, handles and visors back in. In my sentra the visors were a bitch to put back up. I had to force them back in. They went back in though. Have a little patience.

9. Put everything back in the car in reverse order. Defrost, pillar arms, etc. 

10. Clean up the mess in the garage. Keep the car in a garage or shade if possible. My parents let me leave my car in the garage for the next week and a half because they were being nice, its been out of the garage for 4 months since. Shade works, too. If you want to leave it in the sun that's up to you, just being careful not to have the same problem happen this time again. 

11. Sit back and admire. Your name is Ish and you just pimped your ride.

I might have left something out, not sure. Now its time to eat. This took too long to write.


----------



## RotaryRyan (Oct 20, 2004)

Wow, thanks alot man. I think you gave me the courage to do this myself:cheers:


----------



## Blank (Aug 21, 2003)

that was an excellent write up... gotta keep this thread bookmarked.


----------



## pete? (Jul 6, 2004)

RotaryRyan said:


> Wow, thanks alot man. I think you gave me the courage to do this myself:cheers:


my thoughts exactly......... i was going to go into it blindly but this has given me all the info i could have ever asked for (p.s. i used this on our club forums too but i used your name :thumbup: ) out standing :thumbup:


----------



## UofLsentra (May 25, 2003)

Glad I could help. I know how annoying and embarassing having my ceiling flap in the wind was. My B14 has never had the cool factor, since I have no money for big exterior mods or even non-scratched hubcaps. I alway keep it nice and uber-clean, armor-all wheels and car bra, and wax the paint, but with saggy ceiling it was officially a ghetto sled. When that happened I had to fix it. 

Those steps are more or less accurate, would probably be a pain in the ass to do yourself though, so get a friend for this one to help. And maybe say your car first weekend, his the 2nd.


----------

