Headlining

[SpudMurphy]

I have to recover the compressed cardboard headlining panels. Mine is a grey and black interior as fitted to all the middle east cars.

I know that DeLoreanGo sell a kit - but has anybody recently bought material that is a close match from any other vendors?

If so from where? and was it foam backed or was the material and foam separate?

Cheers

[Rissy]

I visited various trimmer stands at the NEC (favourite being Martrim) and talked to them every year at the classic car show, asking for samples of various grey shades and explained what it was for. I also took along a new sunvisor to compare with. It took me literally years until I found the perfect match. The stuff I got in the end, I believe, was left over from a run by BMW (model unknown) and the trimmers only had one roll of it, so once it was gone, that was it. So I got some of that and have sat on it since, waiting until I get around to using it for my car.

Many swear by submitting their headliners to Lee Pattison, who's a professional trimmer and an owner too. He does great work, and because he's in the business anyway, he's constantly aware of what is available where, material-wise. So it's maybe worth contacting him. He will of course only be interested in doing the retrim for you himself rather than sourcing and supplying you with the material.

[SpudMurphy]

Thanks for the reply.
That's an interesting story about your quest for the right colour.

It's reminiscent of my search for the Holy Grail - a particular type of speaker grill cloth used on Leo Fenders Amplifiers after he sold Fender.
He continued to manufacture under the Musicman banner and his grill cloth is "close" to the Fender type, but "corksniffers" know the difference (The latter weave is a different rectangle size)!

I want to do this work myself and use Lee for the really "hard stuff". It seems like a lot of people have recovered theirs successfully - I was just wondering if there was somebody, preferably in the UK who had found a good match?

[SpudMurphy]

anybody?

[Stuart Rees]

Kevin, I found some light grey headliner at an upholsterer near Llanelli. 
It's lighter than stock but it matches the '82/'83 light colour carpets and contrasts well with the black interior.

I think Miles from Bristol gave a great link on facebook too...

https://martrim.co.uk/car-trimming-suppl...lining.php

I think it's a toss up between Maserati grey and Silver grey.

Stu

[Chris P]

I take it that 'corksniffers' are similar to 'rivet-counters' in the Land Rover world!

I had my fill of such folk when I was running Derby Plating.

I'm about to do mine on 1699 and have got some material from DeLorean-Go with looks near enough to me.

[TristanC]

I’ve got the DeLoreanGo material too.... still haven’t got the confidence to tackle it though