How to Repair a Cadillac Headliner 

Thank you TheUpholstery1, I saw the video where he cut the shell and had no clue how he made it look good again. The way that you described how to remove the headliner worked perfect, thanks again

You need to remove the back seat and also the rear deck lid trim, then the side panels should just slide out.

Jed I have a 83 coupe deville and I am trying to figure out the same thing. How did you do it without breaking the clips?

Not sure on the dates of asbestos production dates. All I know is Chip Foose had mentioned in a Overhaulin episode that some of the older headliners had asbestos in them for strength and that you needed to remove them with extreme caution!! and use a protective mask.

***** Thanks for that update. I did go to Harbor Freight and got two different trim-tool kits as I was not sure of the best one to use. The plastic clips are brittle and I am trying to avoid breaking any of them along the way. Unfortunately, neither the full Caddy manual (official GM) for my car, nor other books, have data about which of the tools to use or how to use them for removing the trim from the clips. Thanks also for your rapid reply. My original liner is from 1985 and the "new" one is from a 1981 car, but I tend to believe it had come from a third Caddy as it had duct tape on it and had clearly been taken out at least once or more. After I used the dye to freshen the appearance, that made it almost appear to be brand new. Before the dye, I had also used Freebreeze on the cloth side and used rubbing alcohol to clean the board side. bye B

+Brennan Callan searching youtube for info before i start, I've got a 1982 eldorado and I'm about to redo the headliner, I may or may not have a few questions soon

+afrenchfrito Hi there, I did complete my replacement, but I was fortunate enough to find a headliner from a 1981 Eldo. I believe that the headliner had come from another car as I could see it had been taped with duct tape. IDEAS: Go to an auto store and buy a kit of tools for removing trim/panels. You will use a Phillip's head screwdriver to remove the sun visors, map light console, the cloth's hooks, and side clips. This helps you to avoid damaging the plastic clips which are not easy or cheap to replace. BE CAREFUL and take your time! Release that there is an order to removing your trim, dashboard, and other plastic and metal pieces and IT IS NOT MENTIONED IN Chilton's book, Haynes' book, or the official GM manual. To remove the headliner, you MUST remove your dashboard (FIRST). This allows you to remove the side plastic pieces that are next to the dashboard and they go up to the headliner. Our cars are old and that plastic is brittle. Then you must remove the metal trim, but the manuals do not tell you to START AT THE REAR WINDOW and work forward. If you do not do it this way, and if you do not slide them from the FRONT TOWARD THE BACK, you will be breaking plastic mounting clips that you cannot easily find. Once you remove the outer hardware, (trim), those should be placed into a box lid or somewhere secure so that you can know what parts came from which ever locations. If you have a large piece of Styrofoam board or card board, those can be helpful as you can write on the board, but poke your parts into the board or tape them in place for later use. You should draw a patter of your headliner on the board to tell you precisely from whence they came. SIDE CLIPS: you can do most of the headliner removal by yourself, but leave the side clips in place so that you have a second person help you when it comes time to drop the side clips (those are the black clips on each side of the headliner that are above the window edge). There are two large white clips at the rear window and you must be careful to avoid breaking those as I could not find any new clips to replace them. All of the plastic in your car has been deteriorating over the decades. Go easy on it. STEERING WHEEL and SEATS: have your tilt-steering wheel in the retracted position to have it as close to the engine as possible. Then tilt the wheel down. Have your seats far to the rear as this all makes it easier to lower the headliner and bring it out the passenger door. BE SURE that when you do this operation, either you are in a large garage where you and your partner can open both doors, or just work outside on the driveway without being confined in a tiny garage. SCREW DRIVERS: putting a Phillip's head screw driver onto each side of the car is helpful for when you and your partner both need to work in unison to get that headliner removed and the "new" one installed. SOME CADDYS have either Velcro or double-sided tape in the center of the headliner. This is also never mentioned in the books. When you have removed all of the hardware/fasteners/trim/map light/sun visors, and you wonder why the headliner will not drop down, that is your problem! If you plan to save your current headliner board, you must be cautious in how you remove it from the car. Otherwise, you will create a hole in the center of the headliner. COLORS: if you can find a perfect headliner in another Caddy, that is great, but also unlikely. Let us pretend you find one, but it is the wrong color. There are dyes (same can as the spray paint) and you just need to clean all dirt/debris/fuzz/other particulates from the old headliner that will be installed into your car. USE the product Freebreeze to clean up the possible smells. I had gotten my headliner from a car that a smoked used and I left the headliner sit in my garage for several weeks after cleaning it and using Freebreeze. One store that sells paints and dyes for your car is MIRROR GLAZE. They have been around for over 45+ years. Either take your car there or take the pieces you need to re-dye to them (one is fine) so that they will get you a set of samples and you match what you believe is the closest color to what you need/want. I have not seen any other stores anywhere that do as good of a job to match as what they do at Mirror Glaze. Most stores just have you look at the lids of the cans. Unfortunately, for the dyes, they all use a black lid and it is not helpful. Then I used the dark blue dye that matched my interior and it looks original to my car. By allowing the dye to have a couple days to dry BEFORE INSTALLATION, it also means there is not more off-gassing of fumes. The dye (paint) can also be used to recover your dashboard at the same time. It is likely a different shade than the headliner. Same issue for your various trim. Allow yourself the time to take care of all of these separate tasks properly. NEVER HURRY. Your sun visors can also be re-dyed and that is the identical color as your headliner and as the two back panels that have the side lights. REAR UPHOLSTERY: the books also do not tell you, but when pulling out the headliner, you will have to remove those as well. REMOVE THESE PANELS BEFORE YOU REMOVE THE TRIM. This is a great chance for you to clean all of these panels of decades of filth that might have accumulated. REAR ASHTRAYS/LIGHTERS--If you ever use your lighter plugs to run 12-volt items, then it is a great chance to use a Dremel Tool with a small wire brush and clean those corroded contacts. It is natural for metal to oxidize and when lighters fail to work, oxidation is a strong reason for it. Removing those panels means you start with the side (cloth panel) and that means you need to have the plastic-clip trim removal tool or you are likely to harm the board and/or clips. Most of those clips can be purchased in the HELP SECTION at your favorite auto store. Then you need a Phillip's head screwdriver to remove the panel that is in the mid-section of the rear seat. This panel keeps the headliner up in place, so it must be removed. Once you remove the screws, it has to be gently lifted, as there are metal brackets that keep it in place at the side-windows. The middle panel has two plastic blades that fit into the lower panel and you do not want to break those off trying to pull the panel toward the center of the car. LIFT UPWARD, not inward. This is never discussed in the books either. Then you should remove the lower panel that is next to the seat cushion. Along the arm rest are two screws that hold that lower panel into place. The screws inside of the lower panel at the ash tray keep that ashtray supposed onto the lower panel, but those are not key for removing the lower panel. Once you remove the lower panel, there are two wires for the lighter plug. The positive wire has a large round clip connector and that can easily be removed too. That plastic is old and brittle, so be careful. SIDE PANELS (with the lights). When GM designed our cars, they did not anticipate us disassembling them to replace the headliner, therefore, you will have the problem that you have to either leave those panels inside of rear seat area or you can cut the wires and put in electrical connectors so they can be removed and replaced easily. PROBLEM: the wires are also getting brittle and old. You should buy a similar gauge wire and then use similar colors as well. Be careful in what wire you purchase. A solid wire is WRONG as you cannot get connectors to seize onto the wire. Now that Radio Shack is bankrupt, I cannot send you there. Find a wire that is flexible because putting a hard solid wire into your headliner area means that it will thump each time you go over a bump. I replaced the wires from the point that is just over the driver's head. Having too short of wires is a problem for reassembly. REASSEMBLY: throughout all of this process of removing your headliner and possibly one from another car, YOU SHOULD TAKE PHOTOS SO THAT YOU HAVE AN IDEA OF WHERE ALL ITEMS AGO. If you are getting your headliner from another car, use ZIP LOCK BAGS to save various parts. REMEMBER ALSO THAT YOU NEED TO USE THE FOAM/CARD BOARD TO KEEP THE PLACEMENT OF PARTS. When you are at a junk yard, it is not always easy to do all of these things when you never read information in the worthless manuals on these topics. JUNK YARDS: once you find a "new" headliner, be sure to take a friend with you to do this removal. ALSO, do not go there on a windy day. If you try walking across acres of a junk yard with a headliner, it is going to blow away and get damaged. HEADLINER REPAIRS: if the card board/foam board (depending on the years, they used either), you might find the board has cracks in it. You can use J.B. Weld or other products that are appropriate for minding the headliner board. Having a large table to work on the project is best. TAKE YOUR TIME. Do not attempt to visit the junk yard and remove your headliner in the parking lot and put your "new" headliner into the car all in a few hours! It won't happen. When I visited the junk yard, I did not go for my own Caddy parts. When I found the 1981 Caddy with a good headliner, I knew that day that I would have to remove it. HOW DO YOU CARRY A NEW HEADLINER HOME in the car that you plan on installing it? CAREFULLY. I put it into the passenger's side door and had to have it resting on my head for about a 20-mile drive. These old headliners are likely to damage, therefore, I had to drive with the windows UP. My air conditioning has not worked since the 1980s, so it was a hot ride home and likely looked strange to others on the roads and highways. HAVE A FRIEND WITH AN ENCLOSED PICKUP TRUCK OR LARGE VEHICLE that can help you transport the headliner. DON'T TRY WHAT I HAD TO DO. BUYING CLIPS/PINS/PARTS: here is the best place you can find THOUSANDS of parts that are new: auveco.com/ and it is a plant in Kentucky that still makes these parts available to anyone. You can learn their history and how that helps you to keep your old parts available. I would encourage you to replace all possible clips/pins/screws/parts whenever possible. For example, if you have exterior clips, pins, or screws, the weather, sun, dirt, and other elements have been deteriorating them over the decades. If your goal is just to keep your car functional, but not worry about everything looking perfect, then you still need to replace the various parts. Sometimes, you might find the needed parts in the HELP SECTION at your favorite store, but not always. TOOLS: 1. Two Phillip's Head Screw Drivers--some of the screws are not easy to remove as each wants a different style/type of Phillip's head driver. The point is that you and your partner need one that works on each side of the car for the removal process. 2. Interior Trim Removal Kit--sold at most auto stores. It is good to buy both the metal kits and the plastic kits. When you remove the metal trim, the plastic removal kits are less likely to scratch the paint. 3. Wiring tools such as (wire strippers, crimpers, wire cutters, dykes). Electronics stores are good for buying these tools. 4. Cleaners such as to clean the panels, light fixtures, Freebreeze, and so on. 5. Socket set for removing the dashboard screws. Having searched for hours and hours, this is likely the most detailed methodology you will find. I own at least five or more books about Eldorado Caddy's and while some might cover a topic better than the other, none of them begin to convey the data detailed in this posting. I sincerely hope it helps you save your car. I did take photos and I am considering making a short film on the project, but that is not likely to be started in 2015. There are other issues afoot for me. I have owned my Caddy since 1989 and performed all repairs other than the exhaust and alignment. I even installed two different engines into this car. Just writing this note has been over 90-minutes and I briefly discussed all of the reasons behind the few comments I made herein. This note can be expanded upon greatly to become its own booklet/book and a video. Time did not allow me to use my higher quality videocamera when working on the project. I only had a cell phone at the junk yard and at home to document my work. BELIEVE ME, you need to be taking photos during all operations. While we set goals to "do it all this weekend," that never happens and then you can forget what happened to various parts. By getting a headliner out of another Caddy, you also now have two sets of parts to help you reassemble your one car. It is important that you keep as much original as possible. Not that it is for a higher resale price, but the engineers had a reason for everything they did. They also had an efficient way the manufacturer assembled the car and you must comprehend that process BEFORE YOU BEGIN ANY OF THIS PROJECT! This is why I have detailed so much for you. I had worked in manufacturing and few "roadside mechanics" try to get into the minds of the automotive engineers' minds or the plant engineers' minds who laid out how your car would be built. This note included those concepts so you would avoid breaking brittle plastic parts. Best wishes, Brennan Aeronautical Scientist: Researcher and Designer of Aviation/Aerospace Safety Equipment. DISCLAIMER: all of this information what I did on my car. You are encouraged to read all possible manuals, interview experts on the various topics, contact local mechanics and car clubs for help; attend car shows to learn from experts, and seek out all possible information BEFORE you begin your project. I do not take responsibility if my posting creates problems for anyone. This note is only meant as "conversation" between car guys. My posting was placed here in the spirit of friendship to other car guys.

Good question Jerry. I did remove foam residue from my 1990 C Deville, what I used to remove it was a 3MM Dust mask and a low suction vacuum that I bought at Lowe's or Home Depot. It's like a gallon and a half or two gallon capacity. With a brush detail attachment from a Bissell sofa cleaner at the end so it scrubs and suctions I was so surprised how easy it was without damaging the shell or breathing this stuff .

NO NEED TO CUT IN HALF. COMES OUT FRONT PASSENGER SIDE. NO PROBLEM