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[Frenchy267]

Hello everyone, new to the Forum here. So I just get right to it.

I’m trying to redo the headliner in my 2004 BMW 525i. Instead of trying to do the OEM material again I decided I wanted to do suede. I have already purchased the suede fabric, however, he doesn’t have the foam already attached. I still need to purchase the foam unless I don’t have to.

So I guess my question is in regards to installing the new material; what is the order in which everything is installed/glued?
Do I glue the foam to the headliner board first? Or do I glue the fabric to the foam first and then glue everything to the headliner board?

Thank you for your time!

[BigRig]

Oh man, I will wait for the response on this. I would not attempt gluing that much suede to foam myself. I will sit back and learn.

[Frenchy267]

BigRed, I’m hoping someone has done it already. I’ve seen a video of someone installing suede but it was suede with a foam backing already. So it just went over how to glue everything to the headliner board. 🙏🏽🙏🏽

[BigRig]

Yes suede with a foam backing is safe and sound. Unless you have some great experience spraying glue I would hold off on trying to glue your suede to foam. I like your project and keep us up to date.

[Frenchy267]

Well hopefully someone sees this post and can provide some sound advice/pointers, because I do not have the suede with foam backing. Just the suede, and foam separately.

[BigRig]

You are likely going to have to purchase headliner foam to get the desired 1/8 thickness and your order would be to adhere the foam and suede togehter THEN adhere to the headliner.

Can you post a picture of the existing headliner?

[Frenchy267]

This is the headliner after I removed all the old foam. This is just the headliner board. I probably still need to put some 300-400grit to it to make sure the new spray adhesive sticks

[John]

Hi @Frenchy267 welcome to the forum!!
Yes you can defantly buy 1/4 inch foam and glue it down first and then glue down the suede. Sometimes this is the better option for headliners with a lot of shape to them.

You headliner has a lot of shape to it. You need to make sure that the suede you bought is un-backed or has a lot of stretch to it. Other wise with normal backed suede theres no way to do that one without seams.

Hope this helps

[BigRig]

@John , I worry about the glue seeping into his suede material if not sprayed correctly. He is new to spraying glue, is there any tips for this?

[John]

@Bondo497 Very good point!!!
I forgot to mention that unbacked suede is thin and if you spray the glue to heavy and wet it will soak through and show on the face. Make sure you test spray first on to some cardboard. You want the spray to be a fairly fine spray like it is in my videos. If its spraying thick and globby you need to adjust your gun settings. In some cases if you can't get the glue to spray fine enough you can thin it with acetone.

[Frenchy267]

Indeed. I heard that after you spray, you’re supposed to let it set a little bit like 5 min to let it get tacky before setting the material down. I also bought an extra 1’x4’ piece of foam and suede to use as tester pieces. Unfortunately, I only have time to do this stuff on the weekend. So I will surely post results this coming weekend. Thank you very much for the advice.

[Frenchy267]

Hi @Frenchy267 welcome to the forum!!
Yes you can defantly buy 1/4 inch foam and glue it down first and then glue down the suede. Sometimes this is the better option for headliners with a lot of shape to them.

You headliner has a lot of shape to it. You need to make sure that the suede you bought is un-backed or has a lot of stretch to it. Other wise with normal backed suede theres no way to do that one without seams.

Hope this helps

On the “stretch” part, I tried stretching my tester piece and it didn’t seem to have much stretch to it. Is there a certain type of suede material that has stretch to it? If so, what’s the name for it so that I can see if the fabric store by me has it.

[John]

Most automotive suede come in 3 ways. Backed , Unbacked and Headliner backed. The headliner backed and unbacked are meant to have stretch to them. Regular backed suede is stronger and meant for higher traffic areas like seats.

You can see here how albrights has all 3 types in Synergy suede.
https://www.albrightssupply.com/Automot ... Click=3957

[IvanD]

I did this with regular suede (Ultrasuede Toray(R)) which is very much like Alcantara. Unbacked.
It's pretty thick, like 1mm+, doesn't stretch very well. But it does a little.

I did not do any foam and it came out OK.

1. Practice on something else. I did A/B/C pillars first. Then I did rear shelf (harder)
2. Remember it's OK when you wait more than 5 minutes or so, you can and in this case probably should "reactivate" glue with a heat gun. Don't even try to glue before you wait 5+ minutes. Use Weldwood glue.
3. I didn't use spray gun. Actually I tried spray gun on A pillars but didn't like it and did everything else with brushes.
4. Buy dozen+ chip brushes of different sizes. I glued in about 1ft stripes. Starting from middle and going backward foot by foot. then going forward(from center) foot by foot. Simple. Just mark about 1ft on fabric and headliner, apply with a new brush, wait 10 minutes, heat, apply. Move to the next strip. Then I did perimeter at the end where all the stretching needed to happen.
5. On material I got it was really hard to make glue bleed through. I was brushing glue on without worrying too much. Test on a piece first.

This worked for me. I didn't have to rush, didn't need any help, didn't feel like I'm working with unmanageable piece. There was couple places with wrinkles, but visible to me only.

With ultrasuede there is "direction". You want "hair" to lay when you move your hand front to back. On vertical surfaces you want it to lay when you move down.

P.S. That car is totaled now (E34 525) and now I got replacement, will do all the same maybe little better to another E34 I got.

[BigRig]

@IvanD,

Your a gem man!