Looking for suggestions for Series 2 headliner and interior repair

XJ
1

I keep trying to decide if I can do anything to repair the interior of my 78 XJ6L.

Here’s the story: I left this in the hands of a so-called restorer when I was out of the country. He was to replace the shredded seat covers, droopy headliner and repaint the exterior.

When I got the car back, he’d done the repaint and replaced the seats with fabric-covered S3 VDP seats. That was as I had expected and agreed. He’s also tried to fit S3 door panels and interior trim (pillars, cantrails, etc) and failed, of course, because they were not designed to fit. He’d destroyed the headliner biscuit and interior trim parts in the process too. So what I got back was functional but not good.

The door panels are custom made and nicely padded but poorly fitting in places and screwed onto the doors (see the black screw covers at the bottom?)

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The VDP armrests were screwed on. I am trying to find some used S2 door panels as I would like to get back to the factory look including the storage pockets.

The cantrails and trim at top of the front and rear windows were also custom made and not a great fit but, with some screws (see the tan screw covers?), I got them into place and I can live with them as they are.

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The headliner annoys me, even after living with it 8 years. My guess is he covered a piece of plywood and stuck it up there. It’s way too low and actually the wood sags a bit. I can’t decide what to do with this.

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Replacing it will mean destroying what’s there and I’m not confident of how to replace it. I can’t see me finding an intact S2 biscuit and, if I could, I don’t fancy taking out the windshield to install it. I have thought of 3 options and would appreciate others opinions:

1 - try to fit one of the universal kit for bow-type headliners like the earlier Jaguars had.
2 - try to make a biscuit in 2 parts. Make a male mould of plywood shaped to fit, make a fibreglass biscuit over it, cut the new biscuit in two to install a fix seam once in the car, then cover with headliner fabric.
3 - have headliner fabric glued directly to sheet metal roof (I have a Jaguar World article on this).

Option 2 is probably beyond me so I am inclined to try Option 1 and, if it fails, fall back to Option 3. Any thoughts?

Thanks
David
1978 XJ6L - US spec, FI, converted to manual T5 5 speed gearbox

2

Probably a bit late for you, but.

Before I started the body and paint on my saloon, I made a “spare” bisquit out of fiberglass, using the roof as a mold.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPg4tC5eXXNbj5HHPsD5IH1B7_ssIso4cNKc_PxQrNbfmTrQFByt9K6RQjwGf7qjw?key=S0hLVDlYYkhjak5vN0xaSWg2bWZRdThmbjdkZ2ln

Took a weekend. I started by covering the (clean) roof, gutters, windscreen etc with a thin dropsheet - to make it easy to get off. Then I built a cofferdam around to stop runs. Then I laid chop, then some mesh (the blue stuff) then some woven. Because the resin runs off the curved surface you have to work layer by layer, waiting for the last one to harden a bit before applying the next and rollering/brushing new resin on. I only made it 1/8" thick - I didn’t want it to get too heavy or rigid.

It worked pretty well, but it’s not something I would try on a car I wasn’t going to repaint, although I didn’t actually make a mess of the car, despite not really paying attention to drips and paw prints.

The big gap in the middle is deliberate - that is where the folding roof was to go.

3

Wow what a hack job on the headliner!

I ruined the headliner biscuit on my XJS years ago and the upholstery shop solved it by first glueing paperboard between the cant rail and the roof to bridge the gap. Then a thin compressed foam and the headliner glued on top. It looked pretty good when all was done.

-John

4

Andrew,

That’s impressive! Is it a Mark II?

Yes, I don’t need a repaint so I don’t think I’ll risk it on this car now but good to know the technique.

David

5

John

Can you elaborate? How was the paperboard supported or attached to the roof or cantrails? I’d have expected it to sag over time.

David

6

S-Type. Still working on it.

7

David,

my PO had the headliner kit glued directly at the roof (option 3). It looks great, is probably more durable than original as the glue works a lot better on metal than on the “biscuit” and increases headroom considerably, but I attribute the “tinny” sound when closing a door largely to the missing sound proofing and the marginal heating in winter to the loss of heat insulation.

In your shoes I’d probably go for option 4, i.e. get good used original cantrail, door cards etc. from another car, if they got lost, plus a headliner kit and try to replace everything. If you remove the passengers front seat the new “biscuit” should fit through the respective rear door of a LWB car.

Good luck

Jochen

8

Sorry, Lou, forgot that link for the headliner http://images.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http://www.myrtleltd.com/includes/templates/classic/images/slideshow/xj6-12-x300-xjr-headlining.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.myrtleltd.com/daimler-jaguar-xj6-12-x300-xjr-replacement-headlining-p-413.html&h=430&w=800&tbnid=G10HOQwNw5jS8M:&vet=1&tbnh=90&tbnw=167&docid=6nHfBBkxgdWskM&client=firefox-b&usg=__NpRnsdobrGWyoIH4nFvqnFYr_B4=&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwja5urtue3RAhWGcBoKHcTVDjoQ9QEINDAG hope it works

Best

Jochen

9

Jochen

Thank you. I hadn’t thought of the cabin temperature issue if I have the headliner glued to the roof. My problem would be the opposite of yours as I am in Florida and the cabin may get too heated.

The Myrtle Ltd kit looks a great solution but the cost to get one shipped to the USA makes it a bit too pricey.

David

10

my headliner came out in pieces - I’m sorry to say, but I was able to fix it with spray adhesive and strips of cotton cloth. then I applied the headliner fabric. I have pictures someplace If you’re interested. It was a pfaff to get out. Oh, and this was on an XJS which is pressed fiberglass.

11

David,

I don’t know if you got round to fixing your headlining but I just did mine over the last couple of days.

I repaired mine some years ago using the original biscuit and although it looked fine it eventually failed.

I did some research and I found this -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmsIzDUMinw

If you watch this from 32 minutes in it gives you the options for the headlining.

I decided from their advice to opt for the latex backed wool cloth and glued it directly to the roof.

It looks great and was not that difficult to do.

If you still have yours to do I can tell you how I went about it and how to avoid one or two mistakes I made due to lack of experience.

I still have the cant rails etc to do.

Dave

12

Thanks, Dave. My headliner is on my list for next winter because I ran out of time this year and summer here in Florida is too hot for that kind of effort!

I will follow-up​ with you then if I may, please. I am interested in how you do your cantrails. They look a bit tricky.

David

13

Ok,

When I watched the video I linked to everything he said about the original material and biscuit rang true from past experience on my Jaguar and my previous Rover so I decided to try the Latex backed wool cloth.

I cut four 2" wide strips of thin MDF, but you could use plywood, and cut them to length so that they fitted in between the sides of the roof and sprang them in so they bent upwards towards the roof panel. I used these to hold the material up against the roof.

I then cut the material about 2" oversize all round and fished it above the strips of MDF to hold it close to the roof.

I then removed the two front strips and let it hang down into the car. I applied a spray adhesive to the back of the material and the roof but leaving a border of about 6" at the perimeter unglued.

Pressed the material up to the roof using a smoothing action from the centre to exclude any air pockets. Then I removed the two rear strips and did exactly the same for the rear half.

The 6" that was left hanging down I was able to pres this up to the roof and cut it exactly to fit.

Went around and sprayed adhesive to the border that was hanging down and then pressed that up to the roof for a perfect fit.

It looks great and my thoughts on this are if I were to do it again -

I would experiment with some off cuts of material with regards to the adhesive because it seems that when I sprayed the adhesive the spray pattern overlapped, giving a double thickness of glue, you can just see some very faint lines in the material. I have to stress that I am being really picky here.

I would protect the face of the material and would try using some self adhesive plastic carpet protection. The type that can be peeled off after use because I did manage to get a small spot of glue onto the face of the cloth as I did the border. This did come off but it was a fair bit of hassle.

When I shut the doors on the car it does sound slightly more tinny than with the biscuit but I still have the cant rails to do and the glass to put in so it my be better then. I have to say that this is very slight difference and I am probably being way too fussy.

Overall I’m quite satisfied with the results.

I hope this is all a help to you.

I will post my findings when I get round to the cant rails but it may be a few weeks till I find the time.

Dave

1 Like
14

Dave

That’s a great tutorial.

Thanks

David

15

I like it! I will give that a go next time

16

Hi,

In the end it worked out better than I expected in as much as the faint lines in the material have disappeared.

Gives me a bit more confidence in doing the cant rails which I made a start on this week.

I’ll post my findings on that too as it may be a help.

Dave