Hard Top interior vinyl header

[Pinder]

Just freshened up the head liner on the hard top using SEM paint  and what a difference it makes. no stains left.

[Pinder]

Here is the paint I used. I ordered two cans of Phantom White and only really needed 1 can for 3 light coats which covered any stain issues. looks perfect.

[Pinder]

The color is phantom white. Its an off white and as far as I can tell a great color match. (although I dont know what it looked like back in 1970)

[lreppond]

What a great idea!  Looks terrific. 

[AdelaidePagoda]

If there was a Top 10 High Impact Pagoda hacks (that are relatively easy to do and relatively low cost) listed on this forum (and there should be), this would be certainly on that list. Bravo!

What else is in your Top 10?

[Pinder]

This is definitely an easy one to do if your head liner is not torn. What amazes me is that it does not look like its been done and just looks like its brand new.

Another good one I enjoy doing is polish aluminum parts such as the relay covers, door striker plates etc. can be done with a cheap buffing wheel that may be not "correct" but looks beauttiful.

[Pinder]

here is a picture of one of the relays / voltage regulator

[Pinder]

striker plate picture

[AdelaidePagoda]

Gorgeous, they look new!

[mdsalemi]

This is definitely an easy one to do if your head liner is not torn.

Torn isn't the only problem. My headliner was discolored from my Uncle's nasty smoking habit. But more than that, the very thin layer of foam padding between the roof metal and the line was basically dust after 50 years. No amount of paint is going to fix that. It would be one remarkable top that's all original and still isn't disintegrated by now.

[zoegrlh]

Yes my headliner is like Michael’s, foam is now dust. I don’t have the hardtop on my SL much, but had to put top on to transport car on auto transporter to ship to Florida. However did not transport after all (another story).  So I put car back into my garage. Left hardtop on, the. Spring came and it was time for me to do some spring cleaning and get car ready for the AACA Grand Nationals in Virginia Beach. So I placed it in a local spring car show as a tune up for the Grand National event. As I drove to the local show, drove with windows down. I began to see all this dust in the cabin, why am I getting all this dust, and then realized that it was blowing from the tiny holes in the headliner. Yes the foam backing of the headliner was becoming just dust. Well when I got to show had to do lots of cleaning, dashboard, seats, boot cover, you name it dust everywhere. So now I have a winter project to do in replacing the headliner. Will need to order the headliner material, and the rubber seals  for glass. Just another day in Pagoda land. Bob

[Pinder]

Yes. I used a shop vac to suck up what ever dust was coming down. It does not Snow inside the car anymore. Prior to that I polished the roof using a DA buffer and the vibrations help shed the dust. it will loosen it. It also migrates it way to the vents at the top of the back window after its DA polished. Yes there is nothing like replacing it but if you loosen up enough of the old dust and vacuum it with a shop vac it makes a difference. Do it a few times and you  will notice it will eventual stop. Other approaches I had thought of was to lift a small area at the front of the liner and insert a tube hooked to a air compressor to force it all out but the vacuum and DA polished seemed to do the trick for me.  I dont know if  the SEM paint will cover tobacco stains.

[Rahul]

I had the same headliner dust issue when I bought my 280SL, and like Bob drove with the windows down only to get grit in my eyes!

I spent an unhealthy amount of time repeatedly running a vacuum over it which seemed to do the trick, but I suspect that will be a medium-term fix.

I recall some advice (I can't remember if it was in these forums or elsewhere) which suggested opening one edge of the headliner, vacuuming out the degraded foam particles, and then reclosing the headliner, rather than doing a full replacement. Maybe thats the way to go?

[Rahul]

Aha, we must have posted at the same time Pinder!

[Benz Dr.]

here is a picture of one of the relays / voltage regulator

Your cap for the shock mount is on upside down. 

[Pinder]

Thanks Dan. A job for the weekend.  I remember installing it few years ago and thinking which way up and guessed wrong.

[mdsalemi]

If you are vacuuming up dust in your car that is coming from the disintegrating or disintegrated headliner, that means the foam padding is gone. Once all the dust settles, literally, you have no pad left at all!

Given that, I am not sure why anybody would invest any time in dealing with the headliner and pad in this situation, and certainly no money until they can save up for a new one. The labor is somewhat intensive, but the part is not that expensive. Then when you do it, you put a new pad in, and it’s probably good for the next 50 years…😉

FWIW like many others who live in the north I never used my hardtop. Therefore, it sat unrestored in the basement of my home for over 20 years! I didn’t have the hard top restored until I moved south to North Carolina. At the time I bought the new headliner, it was less than $200.

[Pinder]

I think I didn't explain what I meant; the top is off the car with liner facing upwards and then using a shop vac vacuum sucking up whatever comes through. flip the top the right way round and use DA polisher to create vibrations to loosen dust and repeat until it no longer sheds dust when you slap the top with your hand. you can check results with  a sheet of white paper while you do this to see if you get any dust. Repeat several times. This worked for me (maybe not a traditional way to fix it but its worth a try). Another approach as mentioned by Rahul is to gently peal back part of the liner and insert small vacuum pipe. I have not tried that approach as I'm OK with the result of shop vac through the holes. 

Right  now I dont have the top mounted as I just finished replacing the soft top and don't want to fold it down and put creases in it. 

Ideally I agree is to do with new material.