Headliner Cheap Fix

Like others I've read about, the rear of my E46 headliner was completely falling down. Not willing to purchase a new liner just yet, I decided to do a thumbtack fix for now. Well, it turned out much better than expected, so i figured i will post the results. Material cost was about $6 in paint and less than an hour in time. You may even already have all the products laying around: Spray paint, thumbtacks, and painters tape.

Here's what I did:

Paint some generic thumbtacks the color of the headliner fabric. I stuck them in cardboard and sprayed 3 coats of light grey cheapo paint.


Next, I got some painter's tape and made a mark on it for every 2 inches (for about 4' in length).

IMPORTANT PART: Then, have someone hold the loose headliner taught (or use some extra tacks like I did) while you position the tape across the back indention of the liner. Putting tacks in this area is key. I first tried to push tacks into the upper horizontal part, but the tack would bend on the fiberglass backing. Tacking in the slope of the liner allows for the pins to pierce all the way to make the head flush with the liner. Plus this location is the best place to get the most pull with the least amount of tacks, and can be a little less obvious location when looking from the front of the car.

Push in the tacks at the intersection of the 2" marks and the edge of the tape, starting from the center and moving out. Only push them in half way, so to make it easy to get pull the tape off.

Pull tape off, push tack in flush, and wam bam a temp fix on the cheap!


The final was surprisingly nice... especially , considering the effort, cost, and temp solution!


Hope this helps!

karM- very nice job.