I bought my Fiero without a headliner at all, apparently the guy before me put in an aftermarket sunroof in, and left no headliner, not even the backing.
What my question is... has anyone tried to form their own backing? My idea was to get a large peice of cardboard and get it resonably wet, then somehow form it to the roof of the car and either paper machai it, or put a layer of resin on it for it to harden to the shape. If anyone has tried this or if anyone can give me certain information which could be useful it would be most appreciated!
Here is a pic of the aftermarket sunroof, BTW: I also have some headliner material that I bought last year, its about 2-3mm thick with a foam backing.
I think your best bet would be to get a non-sunroof headliner from a wrecker or one of the aftermarket fiberglass ones. Then cut the hole to match the aftermarket sunroof. There's probably no way to support the headliner around the sunroof opening so the aftermarket fiberglass ones might be the way to go since they'll be stiffer. Check e-bay and the Fiero Store for those.
Or, you could try converting to a factory sunroof.
i forget who has em but do a search on the kevlar / carbon fiber? headliners a guy is selling, he was selling them on E-bay for a while. Pretty sharp looking in any color you want.
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02:11 AM
BtotheB Member
Posts: 2581 From: Peterborough, Ontario Registered: Dec 2001
Pic didn't show up. Is the aftermarket sunroof smaller than the factory one? If its close to the same size, try a sunroof headliner. If not you'll probably wanna cut out a hard top headliner like Stinkin_V8 suggested.
If you ask me converting to the factory sunroof would be more trouble than its worth. Course I've never done it, so it might not be all that hard.
Brad
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07:20 AM
Master Tuner Akimoto Member
Posts: 2267 From: South Florida,USA Registered: Jul 2003
It is you best option to just convert to factory sunroofit is not that hard .....just did mine yesterday but took a different approach and it came out great,I would send some pics but they need to be resized.
Yeah, the factory sunroof swap isn't really *that* difficult, except for those dang front A-pillars. It helps to have a really hot / sunny day to work. (Yeah, this is the right time of year for that! LOL) They are glued down with a rather sticky substance, which heat helps release, and the top roof section likes to easily break off from them if not really careful. As you can see in the above picture, if you don't mind doing a little body work to where the A-pillars meet the rest of the roof panels you can just snap the whole thing off there and cut / paste to fit. I had to do that once, and in the few years I owned the car the joint never opened up or looked like anything had been done. Since you already have the headliner out, you can get to the mounting bolts quite easily. And generally the Fiero sunroofs are larger than the aftermarket ones. Then of course you can also snag the sunroof headliner out of the donor car, and re-cover it in your fabric of choice without having to try and make one from scratch. Good luck with it!
------------------ Bob Williams Multi-colored '87 Mutt, a work in progress! (3800SC installation in super-super-ssuuppeerr-slow-motion progress... Well, it used to run... Stupid... Axles... Argh...)
The Fiero Store sells a fiberglass headliner. Either with or without the hole for the sunroof cut out. You can also buy the kit which includes glue and fabric for the DYI'er. I'd agree with the other posters that you can easily install a factory sunroof if you want to.
Is there something I can do to make the A-Pillars come off easier other than a hot day? Also, what would I glue the replacements with?
Matthew_Fiero,
The warmer the better, but you can do it in cooler weather. It's just harder and you have to go slower. When I did mine, I used a hack saw blade bent into a curve to cut the glue and slid a piece of cardboard up behind it to keep the glue from resticking. The closer you get to the top of the roof the harder it gets (and the easier it is to crack the "A" pillar) because Pontiac also ran a strip of sealer along the front edge of the roof. Make sure you unbolt the roof completely before you start. I reattached the new sunroof with auto glass ribbon sealer available at auto parts stores.
There must be a way, other than replacing my whole sunroof setup. What if say.. I got a chicken wire sheet, and molded it to the inner roof, then covered it with fiberglass and upholster it?
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12:53 AM
Master Tuner Akimoto Member
Posts: 2267 From: South Florida,USA Registered: Jul 2003
Hey Matthew as yo can see by the pics posted I went a different route doing my sunroof conversion,I got a donor car with every thing and dropped my headliner and loosened 4 screws in the middle 4 up front to release the roof panel . I used a dremel tool to cut near the top of the A pillar then proceeded to push off the front of the roof by the windshield (one screw on either side counter sinked in a hole) with a hammer stick and that released the butyl rubber used to hold the front of the roof.After prying it loose the new roor is placed on and the cut is marked and aligned with the pillars I used a grinder to chamfer the joints then body filler is used to finish off the install.I didnt have to pull the fenders or disturb the area by wind shield . I now have a factory sunroof and love it BTWthere is a vendor in florida that sells a fiber glass headliner also DKOV sell a carbon fiber version because the original liner some time is all broken and weak and if you try to cover it the results are not 100% perfect ...........hope that helped.
What I've decided on doing is purchacing the sunroof kit, removing the section on my car by any means neccessary (if i have to take it off in 20 peices I will). Then simply install the new one, using windshield glue.
Then hopefully the burden of having such a small sunroof will be off my shoulders.
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06:04 PM
Apr 16th, 2004
FieroGT87 Member
Posts: 3195 From: St. Louis, Mo, USA Registered: Jul 2001
Master Tuner, Is that my old sunroof Glad to see it went to a good home. Nice job, looks very good. Which Antenna is that, I like it. I should go ahead and fill in the hole on my fender while I'm painting.
------------------ Earl Rice 87 T-Top GT 5 Spd 3400 Gen III Turbo in progress
[This message has been edited by FieroGT87 (edited 04-16-2004).]
