Xj40 headliner question

HI all. Quick question , as i don’t have the car at home ATM .( in for head gasket ) i need to know what the measurements for the headlining , so i can order material for replacement , need length and width . Thanks Mark

Be sure to order 3mm foam if your car has a sliding roof. The thicker material will bind the panels during sliding roof operations.

Thanks Motorcarman , i actually read that earlier today , would you know the width and length i would need , i’m actually looking at a faux suede and they sell in lengths of 1.5m x 1.8m , the next is 2.5 x 1.5 . Thanks

Hi Mark, I did my head lining a few years back, the material I ordered measured 1.5M wide by 2M long. That left quite a bit of overhang all around the edges for trimming.
I ended up having to remove almost the entire interior of the car to get the head board out intact, front seats, rear seats and even the centre console and getting it back in again without creasing or snapping it is not easy. Most if not all of the plastic fasteners that hold the cant rails in place snapped off even though I used a trim removal tool so I would pre order a quantity of them so you have them to hand. The good thing is it gives you the chance to give all the leather and carpets a good clean and access places you normally can’t get to. I found £11 in pound coins and several German Marks under the rear seat which was a bonus, and also a car park pass for the 1997 24 hour Le mans !
Also with all the trim removed from around the front and rear screens you can access the A and C pillars in order to inject wax into the area as they are known areas for rust to start.

1 Like

A few years ago, not wanting to tackle this myself, I took my no sunroof 1990 XJ6 to a local trimmer and they were able to do this without removing the fiber board from the car, but just dropped it down in the car resting it on the seats. The job was only about $250 as I recall and turned out well. On a side note, I also own a 1965 Jaguar 3.8S with a headliner glued or somehow attached to the roof panel and in 55 years it has never drooped or become unattached. Jaguar must be going backward in processes.

At first I was reluctant to dismantle so much of my car to get the board out and began the job with the intention of trying to do it in the way you described. There was so much old glue and bits of the old foam stuck to the board it needed to be removed to clean it all off properly. Even with the front seat backs in the fully flat position the steering wheel was in the way to drop it down low enough to work on it properly. I’m guessing your 1965 S Type is an exception to the rule, I’ve owned lots of different early Jaguars over the years and they’ve all suffered with this problem. It is not the glue that fails, the thin foam backing of the fabric degrades over time and turns to powder.

Make sure yuo use high temp glue, I used regular stuff on my dash and had to redo it in 3 days!

Thanks to everyone for your answers , will order the lining at 2.5m x1.5m and see where we end up , wish me luck , haha . Mark

The extra might be needed if you have the sliding roof. The cutout in the headliner needs to have more material for overlap and gluing.

The sliding roof also needs extra for wrapping around the panel.

The exact cutout will not be enough for BOTH!

bob

I’m planning on using the screw pins when mine eventually droops, bugger it.

Beginning to think the drawing pin method may be the way to go , only i’m going to see it , could get artistic with pins lol .

I have seen interesting ‘artwork’ patterns in the headliner when cars are in for repair.

Some people can be ‘creative’.

I’m still waiting for the LED constellations? to appear in someones car.

Those clear twisty upholstery pins are quite unobtrusive and I’m never going to enter my daily in some concourse BS so they’re what I’ll be using after another couple of hot summers.

https://www.ebay.ca/i/293045405388

I tried injecting glue with a hypodermic syringe into the first few bubbles I noticed, it sort of worked but looked awful, when I tried pressing it back into place it left depressions that looked like the roof had been hit with a hammer from the inside and seemed to accelerate the speed the rest of the headlining dropped over the next week or two.