Interior Update: G-Wagon Headliner

Original Stained Headliner

When reconditioning the hard top on my R107 280SL, there was TONS of info on the web. For the G-Wagon - not so much. 

Probably the worst part of the interior of the G-Wagon was the interior head liner. It was badly stained, had wires hanging out and was sagging horribly. I know there is a problem with the sagging on the SWB headliners, but this one was beyond acceptable. 

The headliner is very easy to remove and recover. Easier than most Mercedes-Benz headliners. Just about any headliner fabric or vinyl will work. I had already removed all the interior trim, but I don't think that is necessary if you only want do to the headliner. To remove: 

• Remove the dome lights from the back and front. Simply pry them out from one side, carefully remove the power cables and set the lights aside.
• Remove the push clips along the top where the two pieces meet. These are expanding push pin type clips and will be very brittle. So pry the center push part out then you can remove the expanding part left benind. 
• Then open the back door and push the rear of the headliner up and over the trim lip above the rear door.
• Do the same for the sides and pull the headliner out the back of the car. 
• Remove the sun visors.
• Then lift the front part up so you can remove it from the lip on each side. 
• Pull it down in the back and toward the back. 
• Remove it out of the rear door as well.

Once my headliner was out, I carefully removed the old fabric from the headliner by pealing it off. The headliner looks to be made from a mix of foam and organic materials that is molded to fit in the G-Wagon. The material looks like it would provide good insulation from the cold and isolate sound. I could see where water had damaged the material and caused the rear portion to sag. By wetting the back portion and soaking it with wet towels, I could get it to respond to pressure. I placed it in a room with heated floors with towels on the edges and placed a heavy weight in the middle. I let it sit that way for a week to restore the original shape. 

After that, I used the old material I had pealed off to cut the new headliner vinyl material MB41TAN to size, being careful to cut it large. I then sprayed 3M 80 Adhesive on the top 1/3 of the molded headliner and the vinyl. After tacky, I started working from the top middle toward the center. Then used a pressure roller to make sure it stuck well. Then I did the next 1/3 and finished off the final 1/3. After I was done, I used a razor blade to trim the excess.

I repeated the process for the front portion. Here I also used a heat gun to make sure all the nooks and crannies were properly fitted. I clamped down the parts that would not stay and let them sit overnight. 

While they were setting, I noticed the top of the car rang like a tin can. Even after treating the doors, there was a resonance to the car when closing the doors. This had to stop. I used Dynamat to treat parts of the car roof until the ringing stopped and knocking on the roof gave me a nice thud rather than a ping. Some folks cover the entire serface with Dynamat, but I did not think this was necessary because the headliner was so thick that it would give plenty of insulation form the cold. I also removed the dry rot foam between the roll bar and the top and replaced with with silicon calk. 

I then reversed the steps I used to remove the headliner to install it. Slide it in from the back, push up in the middle to get it to pop into the ridges. While I was up there, the front dome light would not turn on manually, so I removed the jumper going to the switch and grounded one side. Now I can manually turn on the front dome light with the integrated switch. I also ordered new large push pins from EuroTruck (WOW THEY ARE EXPENSIVE). The now headliner looks great and as a bonus I now had that new car smell. You can still see a little sagging in the back but not as pronounced as before. Super happy and not an expensive upgrade. 

Recovered and Repaired Headliner Installed