The sky is falling

Well not the sky, but the headliner in our old trusty Civic.
In the rear view mirror i could see it buffeting.
It was coming off the back of the headliner and although not a big deal it was a bit distracting, because the motion of the fabric would be catching my eye.

So I brought it to a friend that's a car guy for some suggestions and/or recommendations.  First he said...get a new car.  Ha!  Then he said staple it.  But then he said, you'll have to take the headliner down and just get some new fabric and glue it.

So that's what I did.  It's not always clear to know how difficult or easy it is to remove a headliner or any sort of diy work. And getting it out of the car can be tricky.  It's a big 4ft x 5ft piece although flexible you don't want to put a kink in it.  Otherwise it won't go back up properly.

The Civic headliner comes out pretty easily.  Or maybe it's just because I've done this sort of thing before, on the Subaru.  You need a nylon pry bar to pull out the trim that holds the headliner to the roof.  Also you'll need to remove all the lights and handles and even the rear view mirror.  There are only 2 trim push plugs that actually hold it in, and they are at the back window.  You definitely need the proper pry tool for that.  Which i have.  A flat head doesn't work.

You can see how the fabric seems to have shrunk and its separating from the headliner.  I thought it was just one part, but the whole rear portion was separating.  And that's what was seeing buffeting as I was driving.
I was going to just take a pic and try to source a similar colour, but i took it all off and brought it with me instead.  Better IDEA!  Since the ladies at Fabricland pointed me to the right bolts to select.  Micro-fleece.  I was looking at a bin full of colours and thought. Seeing as I'm red-green colour blind, the first thought that came to mind was that I am the wrong person to select colour.  I was asking the young lady for assistance, but she really wasn't offering much.
It was mostly reds, oranges, browns and a light-ish colour.  The one I went with, I chose because it was the one I thought I'd get in the least trouble with.  Although it did have this waffle pattern that I was unsure about, but it was what was there.  Luckily for me, Tresa said it was okay.  She wasn't picky about this thing. Phew.  Dodged one there.
$11.00 / m x 60" wide. And I needed 2m to make sure I could drape it over the headliner and then trim the excess.
I went to HD to get a spray contact cement.  What I found was a 3M product and this Elmer's.  Only the Elmer's specified fabric.  And the HD guy in the paint area said if it doesn't say fabric, don't use it on fabric.  It was what I thought too, and made perfect sense to me, just needed to hear it from someone else so I can blame them later. Ha ha.

Well I discovered to NOT use that Elmer's spray adhesive.
When the car gets hot.  It no longer sticks.
Better to use one that is heat resistant.  Like this one.  Permatex spray adhesive.
You can get it at CanTire.   And spray both headliner and fabric.

It really IRKs me when I'm waiting patiently behind another person who's being served, to ask the store person a question, is another shopper come along after me and queue up by the counter when they know I was there before them.  If they were to jump the queue, for sure, I would POLITELY let them know that I was there before them.  I've seen/heard kids say to their parents "but these people were here before us".  Parents, listen to your kids.

Back to the Civic.  draping the fabric is better with 2 people. Especially one with a grid-like pattern.  I sprayed 3/4 of that can on the head liner.  Don't be cheap.  It's only 9 bucks with tax.
Once it's on and pressed into all the little subtle indentations, wait at least 30m for the glue to set.  Then you can trim and reinstall.

It turned out better than I had expected.  The colour may not be the same as the old one, but it matched the upper door trim and weather stripping trim.  So it kind of looks like it was meant to be.

It took maybe a few hours to do from start to finish.  I think it took about 45 mins to remove the headliner.  Because I started mid afternoon, and I headed out to Fabricland at 4pm and finished installing everything before sunset.  It's quite easy.  Although I'm
sure it's a several hundred dollar job.

For a little over $30.00.  It felt really good to rejuvenate the little Civic.