anybody remove the headliner? if so, i'd greatly appreciate a few tips.

gonna install a permanent roof rack, and don't want to drill into any wires, airbag stuff, etc.

07 Fit Sport
Tom

 

I ran a wire for my Valentine 1 radar detector the other day. Ran it up the A-pillar (behind the airbag, thank you.) When I went to run the wire under the headliner, I found that it was rather flimsy. It is a molded fabric that bends pretty easily.

If I were going to remove it, I would assume that you'd do the following:
- remove the hand grab bars
- remove the interior light
- remove the sun visors
- remove the rear-center belt attachment thingy

I should drop right out, from what I've seen.


Good luck!!

 

so you don't think the plastic on the pillars needs to be removed? if i don't need to remove the pillar plastic, then this will be easy.

for some reason i thought the pillar plastic panels overlapped the headliner?

thanks.

 

Didn't happen to take any pics of this process did you? I am going to be doing the same thing once I get my fit and I have yet to do this before. Now, I just need to pony up the $500 on the valentine... though I may settle for the X50 or RX65 as there's really not much laser in use in my area.

 

The Valentine 1 comes with a direct connect hookup. I haven't done the hookup yet, but will this coming weekend. I just ran the wire the other day.

The V1 uses standard telephone wire line cord for its connection, which is nice since it is available in about any length or color that you need. I chose to use a standard 6' grey wire that came with a phone that I had. The grey matches the headliner better, and blends better.

I didn't take any pics but here is a summary:

- Removed the coin box thingy over the fuse box.
- Pulled back the weatherstripping around the door frame on the driver's side
- ran the wire beside the dash and into the fuse box area leaving about a foot of it there
- ran the wire up the pillar under the grey, plastic trim.
- using a flat-headed screwdriver, gently pulled back on the airbag, and routed the wire under it, about 1/2 way up the pillar, and pulled it out the other side.
- removed the driver's side visor (2 screws on the outside.)
- removed the visor clip (just turn it 1/4 turn and it comes out.)
- routed the wire the rest of the way up the pillar, under the plastic
- routed the wire into the headliner, back from where the sunvisor connects, then across to the center of the headliner.
- ran the wire out right above the rear-view mirror, and down through the mirror stabilizer thingy.
- mounted V1 on the passenger side, right above the rear-view mirror, just below the black dotted area.
- adjusted the wire length till I was happy with the length to the V1, then pulled back on it into the fuse box area where I enough to get to about the steering column.
- I'm going to tap into the wiring for the auxillary jack (lighter plug) with the connector that came with the V1. I'll have to pull the console out for this, so I decided to wait till I had plenty of time.
- put the weatherstripping back, it just pushes back in place.
- don't forget to put the coin holder thingy back in.

Hope that helps.

 

Nice! Thanks for the description. That should help a bit when it comes time for me to do it. And sorry if this is slightly off topic, but it does involve the headliner somewhat I suppose!

 

some nice infos in here

 

Can anyone post pictures. I'm curious if the holes exsist for the Cross-Bar from J's Racing in the rear...

 

So from what I read here, You didn't actually take the A-Piller plastic part off the car. You just pushed your wire in behind it. Is that correct? I'm wondering about how to safely remove the A-Piller plastic part as I want to run the wires up to the roof line. I have a mirror with compass and outside Temp that I wish to install and I'm wondering about the A-Piller plastic part because it is stamped with "Side Airbag" on it. I don't want to have the airbag deploy if I pull it off to run my wires. So any help in this matter would be a great help to me. Thanks in advance.

 

There is plenty of room behind the plastic. I didn't remove it, it just pulls back - when you remove the weatherstripping, you'll see how easily accessible it is. Just make sure you run your wires UNDER the airbag so that it wouldn't interfere with the airbag in the case of an emergency.

 

Thanks for the fast responce!!

 

No problem! Hope it helps!