OSS headlining

Hi Chris,

It’s something I have done a few time recently (A2s) and many many times in the past (Jaguar XJS and Saab 900 Turbo).

Earlier in the year prior to the lockdown I was going to offer this as a service. The pandemic kind of got in the way of this and I no longer currently have the space to do it due to home renovations. The garage is full of building materials etcetera.

This is certainly something I am still going to offer as a service but see it more of a summer task as I need to fully dry out the old headlining biscuit (the compressed material board the fabric is adhered to).

Once I start this as a service it will require you to be in my driveway for a few hours whilst I remove your tired headlining and fit a reupholstered on which I would have prepared for you in a colour of your choice. I’d be keeping you old biscuit to prepare for the next A2. Hope that all makes sense.

The charge for this hadn’t really been thought about as I stopped this idea in the current climate. What I can tell you though is the rough time for this is:

1. Approximately 2 hours to fully clean the headlining biscuit ready for your fresh new fabric. This will be done in the background and completed before you get here.
2. Roughly 1 hour to adhere your new fabric and finish off the trimming around the edges.
3. 1-1.5 hours to remove your old tired headlining.
4. 1-1.5 hours to fit your new headlining.

Long story short, within 3 hours (don’t forget my 3 hours work behind the scene) of you arriving you should be on your way with a replacement headlining fitted. We will obviously would have had contact prior to your arrival to discuss your colour choices.

If you was looking at a non standard colour then there would be additional labour/time to reupholster the A&C Pillars. Sun visors aren’t that easy as you cannot seller ate them for a true factory finish. This is something that I’ll play around with after the spring to see what finish can be achieved without damaging said sun visors.

It’s hard to put a price on this as I won’t be doing this to live from, just to help people out where I can as I have plenty of experience in doing this task. If I was to suggest £30 for wash hour that would obviously total £180 which I think it probably too much. As I said this would just be a hobby to help people so probably £20 per hour totalling £120 plus the fabric of your choice. The fabric usually costs around £50-£80 colour depending along with 2 tins of Trim Fix HT spray adhesive.

I’ll announce it in here once we’re all safe again and I’m ready to go.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
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Hi Chris,

It’s something I have done a few time recently (A2s) and many many times in the past (Jaguar XJS and Saab 900 Turbo).

Earlier in the year prior to the lockdown I was going to offer this as a service. The pandemic kind of got in the way of this and I no longer currently have the space to do it due to home renovations. The garage is full of building materials etcetera.

This is certainly something I am still going to offer as a service but see it more of a summer task as I need to fully dry out the old headlining biscuit (the compressed material board the fabric is adhered to).

Once I start this as a service it will require you to be in my driveway for a few hours whilst I remove your tired headlining and fit a reupholstered on which I would have prepared for you in a colour of your choice. I’d be keeping you old biscuit to prepare for the next A2. Hope that all makes sense.

The charge for this hadn’t really been thought about as I stopped this idea in the current climate. What I can tell you though is the rough time for this is:

1. Approximately 2 hours to fully clean the headlining biscuit ready for your fresh new fabric. This will be done in the background and completed before you get here.
2. Roughly 1 hour to adhere your new fabric and finish off the trimming around the edges.
3. 1-1.5 hours to remove your old tired headlining.
4. 1-1.5 hours to fit your new headlining.

Long story short, within 3 hours (don’t forget my 3 hours work behind the scene) of you arriving you should be on your way with a replacement headlining fitted. We will obviously would have had contact prior to your arrival to discuss your colour choices.

If you was looking at a non standard colour then there would be additional labour/time to reupholster the A&C Pillars. Sun visors aren’t that easy as you cannot seller ate them for a true factory finish. This is something that I’ll play around with after the spring to see what finish can be achieved without damaging said sun visors.

It’s hard to put a price on this as I won’t be doing this to live from, just to help people out where I can as I have plenty of experience in doing this task. If I was to suggest £30 for wash hour that would obviously total £180 which I think it probably too much. As I said this would just be a hobby to help people so probably £20 per hour totalling £120 plus the fabric of your choice. The fabric usually costs around £50-£80 colour depending along with 2 tins of Trim Fix HT spray adhesive.

I’ll announce it in here once we’re all safe again and I’m ready to go.

Kind regards,

Tom
Hi Tom, any further thoughts on this enterprise?
Paul
 
Paul. It's very easy to remove the headlining, you can see my guide here:


Recovering is more challenging as the glue used is an impact adhesive. Finding someone to cover it is also a challenge. Specialist upholsters seem to concentrate on classic cars - presumably the owners have deeper pockets! I paid £192 inc. vat last year.
 
Paul. It's very easy to remove the headlining, you can see my guide here:


Recovering is more challenging as the glue used is an impact adhesive. Finding someone to cover it is also a challenge. Specialist upholsters seem to concentrate on classic cars - presumably the owners have deeper pockets! I paid £192 inc. vat last year.
Hi Alan
I also need my OSS headlining retrimed. May I ask where you had yours done? As I am fairly local to you.
I already have a spare headliner card so if that one was retrimed I could do a straight swap
 
Paul. It's very easy to remove the headlining, you can see my guide here:


Recovering is more challenging as the glue used is an impact adhesive. Finding someone to cover it is also a challenge. Specialist upholsters seem to concentrate on classic cars - presumably the owners have deeper pockets! I paid £192 inc. vat last year.
I've read through you guide and very informative it is too. I would like to have a go at the recovering myself purely for the challenge, my headlining has to fit the open-sky though and I'm trying to guage whether that would make the task easier or harder.
 
I've read through you guide and very informative it is too. I would like to have a go at the recovering myself purely for the challenge, my headlining has to fit the open-sky though and I'm trying to guage whether that would make the task easier or harder.
I think easier as there is (maybe) no groove, but I stand corrected.

I wish you luck but having scrapped off the glue once you wont want to do it again ;) plus the outer panel is more fragile.
 
Hi Tom, any further thoughts on this enterprise?
Paul
Evening Paul,

I thought hard and long about this enterprise but it never took off as I couldn’t justify it to be honest.

If I was to commence then I had to do it right which would include liability insurance to project myself should I accidentally cause damage to someone’s A2. Additionally I would have liked to offer a full VAT registered receipt to show that I was of course declaring the additional income to HMRC. Another nail in the coffin was the minimal pricing I was looking to charge.

Cutting a long story short, after some 6+ hours work to clean, prepare, reupholster, remove and refit a headlining biscuit, then paying the taxes etcetera was looking like I’d have just enough to fund for a McDonald’s dinner for the family. Not really much to show after the time I would have spent in the garage away from my family.

I know some would haven simply not declared an additional income but it’s not the way I wanted to proceed, not worth the risk.

The information that Alan links above is spot on and should certainly enable you to have a go at this task yourself. I also understand that Adam has branched out the OSS refurbishment service to include headlining reupholstery so you could give him a try if you deem yourself unable to have a go.

Sorry this isn’t the news you probably wanted to read but I’m available for questions and advice anytime. Best advice is to watch as many YouTube clips on how others have done it. Ensure the biscuit is immaculately grease free after removing the old fabric. Take your time and remember that the adhesive is a contact type, if you lay the new fabric incorrectly it can be almost impossible to lift it to reposition it without loosing the foam from the fabric; again take your time.

Here to assist over PM or a video call, always happy to help out where I can.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
In the end I found a great small company who covered the headlining, A pillars and D pillars in a charcoal grey material for approx £300. They are a husband and wife combo who have a small workshop in Long Ashton near Bristol. If you do a search you will find them. They did a fantastic job.
 
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