Headliner foam board issues.

Edited: 9/3/2009 11:11:09 PM by Jance Customs

I had a local guy cover my headliner in vinyl but it only lasted 2 days before it fell. I stripped the headliner and then went and got the material from him so I can do it myself. He layed foam over the existing headliner material and only glued one side. The vinyl stuck to the foam, but the foam did not stick to the original headliner.
 
Anyways I had to completely strip the headliner down to the foam board. I ended up removing all the fiberglass but now the foam board is basically nothing but foam... It's way to soft and flexs easy. I added some fiberglass hardner to some areas to give it strength. Now I don't know if any of it is even useable. Is there anyway to use what I have or am I just wasting my time? I can get a replacement ABS plastic one for $300 but I hate to buy one if I can make this work. Thanks!
 
I know the board looks like crap but some areas will have 2 layers of foam. 
 
I was going to insert billet strips in the slots but now I'm not going too. The slots actually makes it flex worse, so I might be wasting my time?

IS IT SOLID FOAM OR IS THERE A HARDER MATERIAL UNDERNEATH? I HAD ALLMOST THE SAME PROBLEM WITH THE HEAD LINER IN MY S10, SO I ENDED UP TAKING A WIRE BRUSH TO THE FOAM AND STRIPPING IT ALL OF DOWN TO THE  HARDER BACKING, I DONT KNOW WHAT IT WAS, JUST A HARDERE FOAM I THINK, I USED SPRAY GLUE AND STUCK THE MATERIAL RIGHT TO IT, IT NEVER LET GO! I DUNNO IF THIS IS ANY HELP BUT ITS WORTH A TRY!....  ONLY 22 DAYS AWAY!!!

It has a harder backing but it's still very weak. It's a lot like the green foam that they use to stick flowers in. My biggest worry is that once I get the foam and material glued to it and install it, it will fold like a taco. The middle has no support and it already sags when i hold it over my head.

Anymore ideas before I lay the foam?

what are you trying to get? upholstered like factory but smooth new cloth? if the strips are giving you some weak points maybe try to put some fiberglass resin in the slots ONLY that could stiffen it up. BUT be sure to secure it down at its relaxed position i've heard if you fiberglass a doorpanel or headliner flat it could warp all to hell.  should be enough to give it some strength without loosing the absorb-tion of the foam part of the headliner for the adhesive to hold the cloth up.  might even stick better to smoothness of the fiberglass better. ive never fiberglassed a headliner before but i dont see why it cuoldnt add some rigidity.

I'm just trying to recover it in foam and then cover it in suede. Since I added some resin to around the dome it made it really strong but it added a little bit of weight to it. I'm afraid that if I do to much resin it will make it way to heavy in the middle. I'm thinking about just putting a lot of velcro on the back of the headliner when I install it. Still working on it! Thanks for the reply!