i love the geckos!!!!!!!!!!

 

thank you so much for doing this !!!!!

now do you mind posted a DIY for re warping the headliner

 

i did mine without taking out ANY of the pillars..
just saying you dont have to go thru all that work..
just most of it

 

I wish I would have taken pictures of that but I didnt. Its not too hard to do. I used a gel form of contact cement that i had to brush on by hand with the help of my friend. If i had access to an air gun I would have used that and it would have been much easier. Just take your time and try not to stretch the material unevenly because it causes problems.

I guess you could get it out without taking the pillars off but it made it much easier, plus I painted all the pillars black so I kind of had to.

 

Subcribed.

 

thanks for the write up, looking to do this one day

 

anyone looking for good high temp spray adhesive... try 3M Super Trim Adhesive 08090. I've been running some tests on it to what sticks and what doesn't. Glued cardboard together, glued fabric to pvc (coating both sides), and glued fabric to pvc (coating only pvc, not fabric). I let these dry and then baked them in the oven at 180F for 1 hour. While still hot I tried pulling them apart. Results were...

cardboard to cardboard - glue was rock solid at 170F and the backing just tore of the cardboard, which I expected.

pvc to fabric both sides coated - glue seeped through the fabric a tiny bit just enough that i noticed it. Pulling it apart at 170F resulted in the graphic side of the fabric ripping away from the padded side, the glue held firm. I doubt any headliner fabric falling down resulted from the fabric coming undone.

pvc to fabric with only pvc coated - no glue seeped through so it looks better, same results as above in the pull test at 170F.

Edit: Tried the pvc tests again in boiling water to see if moisture would make a difference. Result - wet fabric ripped, glue held firm.

Conclusion 1 - I need to glue more stuff and see what happens.
Conclusion 2 - use 3M Super Trim Adhesive 08090 for pretty much every automotive spray adhesive job if you want it to be good and when gluing fabric do not spray it on the fabric part.

 

Yeah this is cool, I liked the pattern of your old head liner also... How many yards did it take to do the headliner?

 

Mine took around 2.5 yards. I got 4 yards to make sure I could fit in the door panels and be certain to have enough. Haven't had time to get the doors done yet but the headliner is definitely under 3 yards.

 

this exactly

 

Just thought I'd point out something I discovered. Those top clips, I couldn't get them out at all. What I did was pull the weather strip back and pop out the bottom clip. This is gonna sound bad but it works; you can then pull the whole bottom part out and bend the plastic followed by pulling the whole panel down and toward the front of the car. The clip will slide right out of its housing with barely any trouble. Getting it back in is as simple as doing this in reverse. The bending didn't damage my panel at all.

Don't try to just pull on the panel to get the clip to come out, its some kind of special clip. I ended up breaking the clip housing off the back of my left panel and had to epoxy it back together doing that. I figured I'd try something different on the right and that when I figured this out.

 

Still thinking about getting mine done...just need to find a decent fabric that catches my eye

 

I like it, thanks for the write up! +rep for you

 

found a better way to remove a pillar covers. will update when I'm done with job. take bottom out first

grab where the two pieces of plastic meet at the lower window, pull out from there, this will unclip the lower clip first. at that point the upper clip is easy to pull off. it's designed so the clips face each other, so it's a pain to do the top one first as it won't budge.

 

Hey, sorry to bring back an old thread, but how much material did you purchase to do the roof and door panels?

 

I didn't know they were bringing "Cash Cab" back.
I loved that show.

Just kidding...
Good Job very creative. Makes your Fit...one of a kind. And in this day and age? That's worth it alone.

SORRY:
Just noticed the age of the original post.
Those Geckos have been crawling around for some time now.

 

 

The A panels top clip has to be broken to be removed. Here is the pdf instructions saying so

 

Yeah, those A-pillar airbag clips are a PITA. They are designed to be one-use only. Awesome job! Wondering now how this has held up, given the time that has passed...

 

Sorry about the BUMP but I'm in the midst of removing the headliner in a 2008 Fit and wondered if this method applied to all Gens of the Fit or a specific era?