Commodore Headliner: Is the nightmare over?

About a month ago, the headliner sagging in the Commodore started to get worse, so I come up with the genius idea of trying to fix it. My brother-in-law Luke did the headliner on his, and it stayed put for a few months until my sister was driving it and someone texting rear-ended it and wrote it off. It can’t be that hard, right?

So I pulled it out, cleaned all the foam shit off it, bought some Sikaflex spray adhesive and had a fair crack and putting it back on. The day after, I wasn’t really happy with how it worked out, so I rang the local upholstery place to ask them how much it’d cost to just have them do it.

I was rather okay with the costs, it was basically about two-thirds of what it would cost to just order a new one, but I could get it done quicker (in the summer, that’s kinda what you want) and I could just pay someone else to deal with it so whatever.

They did it, then charged me $50 to install it, which I sort-of felt screwed over by since I didn’t need them to do all of the install after all but that wouldn’t save me anything - note they didn’t have to remove the thing from the car, as I’d already done that.

Less than a week later, and it’s sagging in the corners already - the glue hasn’t adhered at all. I took it back to them, and they eventually decided that the glue I used was interacting with their glue and not allowing it to stick.

I’m not entirely sure that’s my problem, and I argued with them for a while - considering that I tasked them with doing a job and they as professionals didn’t know this glue would affect their glue, I don’t really think I should have to wear everything in this. Their solution was for me to buy another headliner and install it, so I’d be out several hundred dollars and end up with a used headliner.

After arguing with them for a bit more, we eventually arrived at a compromise - they would try glue the same material again, for free, and use buttons to attach it in the corners if it wouldn’t stick. Over a week later, and the adhesive looks promising in the warehouse, but they stuck buttons on it anyway and I went to pick it up this morning.

“Come back after lunch.” I did, and then they dropped another bomb, they didn’t want to install it for free - they could install it but it’d cost another $50. Fuck that, I’m not giving these pricks any more money, I’ll install it my fucking self. I brought it home, got it installed and noted that several of the plastics they removed the second time now have bent clasps on them, which they absolutely didn’t have when I removed them the first time, the only way to bend them that way is to put them back outside of the holes and thump them.

So considering I paid a premium for a shit looking headliner, about two hundred bucks or so short of what I could have had a brand new one shipped here for, I’m not particularly happy with it.

But as long as it doesn’t sag, I’m at least not as unhappy as I was a week after we first picked it up.

Horsham, VIC, Australia fwaggle

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Horsham, VIC, Australia

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