Dealing with shabby headlining material.

The headlining of the Australian Morris 1100 consists of a single piece of vinyl material bonded to a 5mm thick sheet of open cell foam padding. This is glued directly to the underside of the metal roof.

Quite a straight forward arrangement but one which sees the thin vinyl subjected to considerable heat if the car is parked in the sun. Over time the vinyl dries out, shrinks and cracks and it is highly unusual to find a car with original headlining in good condition.

The original pattern vinyl is, of course, no longer available in Australia or the U.K. Even if a scrapped car has good headlining, removing it to install in another car is fraught with problems. First the vinyl will probably be a bit brittle and prone to tearing along the length of the car. Secondly, the foam is likely to have become crumbly and will leave a thin layer on the metal roof as well as on the back of the vinyl material, resulting in a very messy salvage job even if you do manage to remove it from the car in one piece.

You might be tempted to glue some replacement vinyl or fabric over the existing material. But this is a bad idea as the extra weight will soon cause the original material to come away from the roof and sag.

If originality is important then you might like to consider this. The headlining of the Australian made Austin 1800 is the same material as the 1100, but unlike the 1100 it is glued to a piece of 5mm fibre board which is slid into place through the windscreen aperture. The fibre board is a much better insulator than the open cell foam which is why many 1800s still have good headlining.

The good news is that removing headlining from a scrap 1800 is quite simple. The vinyl peels off the fibre board fairly easily and cleanly and because the 1800's roof area is larger (marginally) than the 1100, the grubby edges will not be a problem. Take the cleaned vinyl to an Automotive upholsterer and get them to glue it to some new foam and then into the car.

New vinyl headlining material of similar grain but different pattern to the original is available from the UK ( www.woolies-trim.co.uk ) but the cost of shipping to Australia can be quite high due to the shape and weight a roll of even just a couple of metres.