MatraSport Forum

The headlining in my car is held up by a load of drawing pins. I guess the roof has been off at some point in it's history.

Has anyone got any good tips for sticking the headlining up properly or will it mean removing the roof again?

Antony

I will listen closely to this post, as the headlining in my murena seems to have a slight bulge downwards.. leaving a bit too little headroom for me to fit comfortable in there  :-\

I think I need a bit more explanation - what is wrong with the original way the headlining was mounted ? - those plastic "rivets" similar to those holding the trim on the door ?

Are they not adequate ? - or  simply missing alltogether ?

Hi
I think that it is the inside roof lining that is falling down.

I think that this problem is standard for the Murena . Mine roof lining was hanging loose for many years before I finally repaired. Somebody noticed that the roofing was hanging down, and I had to reply that it had been like this for the 10 years I have had the car. Then I decided to fix it.
I took the complete inner roof lining out of the car. You will have to remove the rear-view mirror, the sunscreens and the rubber around the doors. There must be some screws at the back I do not remember exactly.
Then I placed the hard shell (some fibre material) up side down on a table and fulled the cloth off completely, covered the hard shell with some special glue for carpets. In order to be sure that the cloths got good contact with the fibre shell I covered the whole thing with 10 cm dry sand, and left it over night.

Hans

My headlining is drooping and needs to be sorted out to get veteran status for the car.

Has anyone else done this recently and have any more tips (what screws at the back?). The dry sand sounds like a good idea.

For a bit of extra clarity:
There are 3 x recesses in the lining above the rear partition window. Remove the self tapping screws and washers.
They are 4 x plastic castellated plugs along the front edge. Prise these out.
Remove the sun visors. 2 x screws outboard on each. The inner edge plastic fittings for the sun visor hinges can be prised outboard.
Remove the interior light and disconnect the wires. (Mine were a bit short so extended them before refitting)
Rear view mirror can stay on.
Some pictures attached of a bare roof lining for clarity.

Thanks! That's excellent  :)

What sort of adhesive did you use to stick the lining back on?

Any more info that might be helpful?

I needed a bit mot head room for a crash helmet
So i removed the lining and used van lining carpet that had some
Strechyness and came out great

I have never done a lining recovering myself. I sourced a good secondhand roof lining panel covered in the right material from Simon in Germany.

However this is the glue that is suitable for the brushed nylon headlining supplied by Woolies in the U.K:

http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/p-1554-high-heat-resistant-aerosol-adhesive.aspx

And here is their headlining materials:

http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/c-93-brushed-nylon.aspx

I have seen Darrens roof where he has removed the lining completely and actually lined the roof panel itself and it does look excellent. So much so that it looks factory fit O.E. I did consider this for mine but I wanted to keep the originality  of sunvisors and interior light which I know you will have to in Switzerland.

As an aside if your door seals have worn through where your feet rub getting in and out the car these are the perfect replacement:

http://www.woolies-trim.co.uk/p-1282-plush-sponge-snappon-door-seal-black.aspx

Graham ive refited my visors with the orignal parts now

Excellent. How did you do this?

A picture would be good.

I will start a new thread  now with my little repair project.

Thanks. Unfortunately, that link says:

"NB. Regret we are currently only able to send aerosols to UK mainland addresses"

I'll see what I can find in Switzerland.

I used a spray contact glue / fixative by 3M that is also used when mounting i.e. posters in frames. I worked great. :)

I've had a look today at the headlining and the screws at the back are no problem.

However, at front, there are plastic caps. I assumed that these were just over the screws and that they would lever off easily. That is not the case.

Pic in the link:

https://flic.kr/p/mucxq9 (https://flic.kr/p/mucxq9)


I have attemepted to remove them using two flat screwdrivers - one inserted under the edge on each side. Still won't move. Can anyone please tell me how exactly these caps are located and how to remove them?
I'm worried that exerting more force could break something...

They are the standard car moulding fasteners. That is, they have a stem with thin plastic rings about 1 mm apart. The only way to remove them so they can be reused is to push a flat, slotted piece of metal under them and then pry them out. A standard dinner fork, with one tooth cut all the way off could do the trick.
I recently had mine out when I replaced the wind shield and they suffered a bit of damage in the process, but could be used again.
It is possible to buy new fasteners in various colors.

The photo is of a larger version, but the same type as the ones you are fighting. ;D

Thanks :)

I have just been speaking to my local garage and they showed me similar plugs and the slotted removal tools in various sizes.

The mechanic said that these things tend to break if you hardly do more than look at them - especially with an ambient temperature of currently approximately 10°C.

He recommended warming them slightly with a hair drier (not an industrial hot air gun, as this would be excessive).

I shall now see if I can make a suitable tool to prise them out.

I have purchased a can of this which seems ideal:

 http://www.uhu.com/en/products/creative-products/detail/uhu-spruehkleber-3-in-1-1.html?step=1595.5882352941&cHash=0c6792a8b98328876826f01560835172 (http://www.uhu.com/en/products/creative-products/detail/uhu-spruehkleber-3-in-1-1.html?step=1595.5882352941&cHash=0c6792a8b98328876826f01560835172)

(http://www.uhu.com/typo3temp/pics/56bef86976.png)

I made a tool for the plugs:

https://flic.kr/p/muMaK8 (https://flic.kr/p/muMaK8)

I used a hair drier to warm the area gently and was able to free them all using that tool without damaging the outer surface of teh plugs or the headlining itself - and the plugs still look good enough to use again:

https://flic.kr/p/muP4C3 (https://flic.kr/p/muP4C3)

As an aside, it was nice to see that the zinc bath dipped steel frame of the car is still like new after over 30 years :)

https://flic.kr/p/muP3Bq (https://flic.kr/p/muP3Bq):

https://flic.kr/p/muMNLa (https://flic.kr/p/muMNLa)

The removed lining and card:

https://flic.kr/p/muP3Ys (https://flic.kr/p/muP3Ys)

https://flic.kr/p/muMPVp (https://flic.kr/p/muMPVp)

Taking off the lining:

https://flic.kr/p/muP4Zq (https://flic.kr/p/muP4Zq)

I vacuum cleaned both surfaces, as the spray-on glue instructions say the surfaces should be dry and dust-free.

I sprayed the card only: this is option 2 with this glue. Alternatively, both surfa es can be sprayed - in which case it acts as a contact adhesive, which I thought was too risky. The third alternative wpuld be to spray one surface and wait 20 minutes before joining. This would permit later separation and re-joining numerous times according to UHU.

After spraying the card, I  immediately put the lining into place, adapting it with the handbrush visible in the previous pic above.

It now has to dry for about 24 hours.

It all went well - until the last moment of getting the headling back into place, when this happened:

https://flic.kr/p/my4iYn (https://flic.kr/p/my4iYn)

Damn! ::)

Great work... I hope you'll get the mirror back on the wind screen :)

Oh dear. Never used it but Loctite 319 plus Activator 7649 may fix it?

http://www.produktinfo.conrad.com/datenblaetter/225000-249999/245353-da-01-en-loctite_319.pdf

A good auto parts store will have adhesive meant for gluing the metal block onto the glass.
You were lucky that it did not take a piece of the glass off too, when it came off. That has happened to me on a previous car. ;D