Headiner panels

[bkilby]

Dirftwood did a pretty cool job on his:
See this thread
I know a guy that installed the BJs kit in his WT Cherokee and it did not fit well. As far as I know he is in contact with BJs to discuss options. The 2 door Cherokee headliners are not the same size as Wagos and 4 door Cherokees. The BJs kit is a board with headliner material on it. It may be expensive but you are not going to find a shop to do it for that price or better.

And it is free shipping. That alone could be $$.

[backroadin']

I made mine out of plastic sign board (the corrugated stuff) and speaker box fabric. I cut slits on the backside for the bends along the sides and front and used 3M spray adhesive to bond the fabric. Used the original bolts but used some slightly larger flat washers instead of the factory ones - probabaly didn't even need to do that. I made some small pieces of sheet metal and rounded/formed them to use as sortof a large "washer" for the front corners. I also wrapped the roof supports with the same fabric and everything went up pretty good. It's not as good as stock, and probably doesn't offer the same level of noise dampening, but it looks a lot better than what was there - and it was pretty cheap.

[backroadin']

Oh, it's been up for over 10 years and still looks good. The plastic has sagged a tiny bit in the very front section since that's the largest area without any support, but the fabric is still stuck on good.
Tin snips cuts that stuff like butter too, BTW!

[Kaiserjeeps]

To help support the head liner and reinforce folds where you cut the backside, I had an idea... On soft vinyl headliners, the material that the sleeves are made out of where the metal bows go through is called "bow drill". Bow drill is the strongest material I have ever tried to tear. I couldn't at all, no matter how hard I tried.
To help strengthen the cut folds, bow drill could be cut into strips and once the headliner was in the shape it need to be, the bow drill could be glued in on the back like fiberglass work. Using a glue that worked with what ever board was chosen. I know some of you guys use plastic, so you would need to make sure the contact adhesive did not attack it. That would give the fold some strength back. A thin plastic strip folded and glued on the back would also make it stout.
Then for the overall roof support, a piece of aluminum or steel that spanned the roof could be glued on the top side of the board with bow drill layed on top of the metal with glue to secure it. I would think 3/8 round would have some strength. Or 1/4 square. Fast tack 92 is a sprayable high temp capable headliner contact adhesive. Invert the can and clear the spray nozzle in a garbage can when you are done. Or you will never spray through that nozzle again. Bow drill can be bought by the yard online or at your almost local ulpholstery shop.
Just a thought on how to keep the sags away..

[backroadin']

Some really good ideas there! Thanks

[Rusty76]

Great ideas here. Totally going to try and DIY this one. Plastic sign board sounds good.

[Towtruck]

I used plastic sign board as a doubler/backing to repair the sagging carboard on my J10. But it eventually warped from the heat beatng down on the roof panel. It last six or seven years before failing.

When I get the new liner from BJs, I'm planning to cut 1-2 inch wide strips from the thin springy sheet steel used for the case of an old cloths drier. I think three fore and aft strips glued to the top side of the card board will be adequate to help maintain the shape for an extended period. I'll have to devise a way to hold the curvature before fastening them to the panel. Will probably drill holes in the strips and maybe use hot glue as fasteners. Depends on what the fabricator uses for the card material.