Sagging or droopy headliners

The original DeLorean headliners came in two colors, light gray and dark gray, and up until about mid-way through the 1982 model year they are fitted to gray and black interiors, respectively. From about VIN CD010574, all cars used the light gray headliners regardless of interior color.
 
Factory headliners have a pressed fabric base - literally made from shredded fabric that has been mixed with binding agent and pressed into the shape of the headliner - a cut-out section of the original material base is shown below and you can see the shredded fabric material. The resulting piece is covered by a foam backed fabric material in either the light or dark gray colors.
 
 
A commonly seen issue with the headliners is that the material will sag or droop when the foam backing between the fabric and the form deteriorates from heat and age. Once this occurs there is no way to re-attach the existing fabric to the now disintegrated foam.
 
In the old days, the solution was to strip the material and remaining foam from the pressed fabric base and recover. However, as this has been a fairly common occurrence since the late 80s now, many times the fabric bases have already been recovered sometimes as many as two or three times! Depending on the level of care taken by the person who previously recovered them, they may be damaged enough that recovering them would result in a "lumpy" finished part.
 
Additionally, the pressed fabric bases tend to hold moisture - either from water leaks or humidity - and contribute to the musty "old car smell" often found in DeLorean cars. Because of this and the aforementioned problem with damaged bases, several years ago we began selling new headliners in either light or dark gray with a composite base that won't hold moisture and when the time comes that they need to be recovered due to deterioration of the foam-backed fabric covering, these composite bases will clean off nicely.
 
Though all pieces are available individually, we strongly encourage they be replaced in complete sets. The material colors will change slightly with the different lots of the material as produced by our supplier and in any case, due to age, trying to get a new piece to match an existing 30+ year old piece in your car is impossible.
 
Our kits come with illustrated instructions and a special tool used to remove the door headliners.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
While the composite headliner bases are new, we do reuse the metal clips found on the back of the two center pieces. We take a core charge at time of order until you send the old clips back to us  - we don't need or want the entire headliner, just the clips as shown below. You may find it easiest to just cut the piece of the old headliner where the clip is attached and return it. 
 
 
Written by James Espey, DeLorean Motor Company (Texas)