Following on a discussion in another thread about repairing door cards, here are mine in medium gray Alcantara. I recovered headliner, A,B, and C pillars, door card inserts, and the package tray. A lot of work but the result is well worth it. Merry Christmas to all!
The adhesive is Weldwood Landau Top Adhesive. It's heat resistant so areas like the headliner have a better chance of not delaminating from heat transferred through the roof. I also applied a heat shield fabric to the backside of the headliner shell.
This is great work! I have a badly sagging grey headliner from an early 91 car with black interior. Did your car come with grey headliner? I know that black interiors got a black headliner until approximately 9/90 so I may go that route when I redo mine... although I think the grey looks good over black.
Thanks for the compliment. It turned out better than I expected.
Mine had an original gray headliner so I went that route. Since I could not get an exact match with other interior pieces I opted to cover the pillars and the package tray.
The Alcantara comes in a very nice black. If you decide to get your headliner recovered I highly recommend you spend the extra money and get Alcantara. There are look alike materials at much lower cost, but they all have a foam backing which is the weak point that causes eventual sagging due to heat deterioration. Alcantara is thicker and unbacked.
One thing I did on reinstall was to place a heat shield fabric on top of the headliner shell to keep heat from the roof penetrating through the shell.
I had a gent who does custom interior work do the installation because Alcantara does not stretch well and has to be steamed to get a good fit around the curves and corners.
Did you look at suede? Or is that what you're saying is the look alike material that needs foam backing? Someone mentioned to me that suede is a good option.
Alcantata, also known as Ultrasuede, is a synthetic material specially designed for automotive interiors because of its fade resistance. Ultrasuede is heavier and is used for furniture applications.
With headliners, the key is material light weight to help prevent sagging. Alcantara comes in two weights, one for headliner applications and one for seating.
I looked at samples from about 10 manufactures of headliner material. All but Alcantara were very thin with foam backing. Alcantara was thick and weighed less, great characteristics for headliner use.
I did not look at suede. My sense is that it might be too heavy and not be terribly fade resistant.
Now to find an upholsterer in NYC who can handle this ... Hmmm, anyone know anyone good? I love it. How do you think black alcantara door cards would look with black leather?
Thanks, Gregg -- that's what I was thinking. I don't want to make it cheesy by going overboard (steering wheel, shiftboot, parcel shelf, pillars) although if I could make a suit out of Alcantara, I'd wear it every day when I got home from work.
Yiu could use KDI Custom Interiors in Havre de Grace, MD. Tim, the owner and sole craftsman, did a fantastic job on mine. He's been in business for about 20 yesrs and has had Ferraris and Lamborghinis entrusted to him, and knows BMWs well. He's 260 miles frim me here in Virginia, but it was well worth the drive.
About 10 days. He covered a lot of pieces: headliner, sunroof cover, package shelf, four door card trim pieces, A, B, and C pillars. Labor was $700. I bought the Alcantara from Gulf Fabrics in Florida @ $109/yd. Best to call and get on his schedule as he keeps pretty busy.
Excellent interior rework. I have a couple of questions I wanted to ask: where did you get the console cup holder and did you do the retrofit on the rear interior light to include the individual reading yourself? I was planning to do that change myself but notice the wiring is different in my car even though it is a 93.
The cupholder was made by a member of bimmerforums on the E34 section. He was selling them a few years ago, but I haven't seen him offering the cup holders for sale in the last two years. The forum member goes by the user name sfgadgetguy. It's a very nicely made piece, and the color is pretty close to spot on. I got one in parchment for my son's E34 and the color was also nearly spot on.
The C pillar lights were plug and play. I remember thinking I would have to splice wires to make it work, but I found the correct connector buried deeper in the C pillar.
Many thanks for the info, GregT53. I'll see if I can track down sfgadgetguy and also check further in the C pillar for the correct connector for my new lights. Didn't mean to highjack your thread.
Adam/Clemster recently said he has a bunch of mint headliners for sale FYI
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