Headliner falling down.

I have a 89 LeSabre and the headliner is falling down. I plan on keeping this car and want to fix this problem. What is the easiest way, besides replacing the whole liner, to fix this? Is there some kind of adhesive I can use and how would I go about it?

Much Thanks

Check ebay for a cheap way to hold up ( I would not use them, but may work), some folks offer a bag of "pins" that can be shoved into the liner and board. Look up headliners. I have no idea how well this works. I owned an 89 Lesabre and believe or not replacing the liner is not difficult on it. If interested I can look up the place I bough mine(on the internet) and you can give it a try. Only took me 2 hours to do and looked great. The site has online instructions on an 89 Buick and once you look at it you will see how easy it is. Far easier than the other vehicles I have done.

Here, give it a check -

http://www.wlsheadliners.com/tutorials/lesabre/

A couple of things more. Whatever you do, don't try to remove the dropped cloth rather than repair it. You will be sorry. The foam has deteriorated and will fall everywhere. For that same reason don't try any adhesives. You won't find anything that will work on this mess. All you have left is a very thin cloth skin without the foam and a lot of junk. To fix it properly you need to remove it, clean it, and put new material on.
If you go for the new headliner, don't be over aggresive when cleaning. Just take a brush and remove as much loose foam as possible. don't be tempted to pull any small sections of plasic off, as you will leave small valleys when new material is installed. get a helper when putting old line on if you can. Once it touches the glue you can't shift it, so be careful. I did this by myself, but made a small goof due to lack of help. However it was hardly noticable. Will look far better than it does now believe me, even if it is not perfect. Very reasonable cost.
Also, be patient when removing, don't force it. Best to lay your front seats back as far as they will go to help manuver the liner out.

Jim, that is excellent advice on the headliner foam and fabric. Wish I knew that years ago after attempting a repair on a Cutlass. Foam bits were everywhere. Glue in all the wrong places.
I knew of someone who went to a boat supplies dealer and bought 3 ash bows and screwed them at the ends to the roof edges. The arched wood held up the liner and was a $25 fix. Given the age of the car it was appropriate. I would pursue the more permanent and cosmetically appealing fixes for a car that still has good value.

jsgold,That is exactly what I tried with my 79.Black foam everywhere.The only good think about it was all the old black foam sticking to my head made me look like I had hair again.I haven,t tried it yet.But I remember reading an article about jcwhitney having plastic panels that pop in over the existing head liner the article said they looked pretty good.I have never seen one though.I did try to reglue my old material in place.It worked fine for about one day then it was falling down again.Carl

Same thing happened to me on this Buick. It drive me crazy until I finally fixed it. Had not done one before, so was afraid of cost and possible problems. As it turned out, cost about 40-50 bucks and took a couple of hours. A hassle but not nearly as bad as I thought. Have done several since then and the 89 was still the easiest. The moulding on this car simply snaps off and is not difficult. I have seen pins and wires offered for these things, and have seen people put tacks in to try and hold up. Re gluing won't work because there is nothing for glue to stick to. Just crud. If the car is going to be kept for any length of time best to just replace. You can buy some of these headliner materials from local fabric shops, auto shops dealing with aftermarket items such as sunroofs etc., and the glue from Advance or NAPA. My son's 91 Corsica had a hard to find color and a local company that does this for a living was happy to sell me the fabric for 25 bucks. Total cost was 35 bucks. Of course the kits are nice as you have a lot of choices of color and you have the glue, right amount of fabric, and clips on some kits (for ceiling light). My father's old 89 Olds wagon is next to be done, when it warms up.

I'm curious to know how many car owner's that headliners fell down, smoked or had someone smoke in their car on a regular basis. I had heard many years ago that the headliners were more apt to fall down in vehicles where there was cigarette smoke present, as some components of the smoke "ate away" at the glue that held the headliner up. I didn't know if that statement had any fact to it. Only one car I ever purchased used had a falling headliner, and that former owner smoked in the vehicle.

No. What happens is that the foam deteriorates over time due to heat from the roof. The glue almost never fails, it is still on the (fibreglass) headliner shell (and is almost impossible to remove). The only thing intact is the very thin surface part of the material with no foam left on it, or very little. And with the foam being "rotten" and broken down the material left has nothing to stick to. Just a lot of old rotten foam. If your car is exposed (like most) to summer heat year after year the foam simply dries out and that's all she wrote. When replacing these things all you can do is remove the old foam and add another layer of glue to fibreglass for new foam to stick to.

No. What happens is that the foam deteriorates over time due to heat from the roof. The glue almost never fails, it is still on the (fibreglass) headliner shell (and is almost impossible to remove). The only thing intact is the very thin surface part of the material with no foam left on it, or very little. And with the foam being "rotten" and broken down the material left has nothing to stick to. Just a lot of old rotten foam. If your car is exposed (like most) to summer heat year after year the foam simply dries out and that's all she wrote. When replacing these things all you can do is remove the old foam and add another layer of glue to fibreglass for new foam to stick to.
Thanks for the clarification. I often wondered about that, and the response I received from an acquaintance concerning the cigarette smoke "eating away" the adhesive kind of made sense.

I had the headliner problem in an old Ciera. It's was frustrating to have that thing partially draped over my head while driving. I finally peeled the fabric off and took the whole thing out and painted it the same color as the interior, kind of a dirty tannish color. The paint made the foam set up hard and it actually kind of looked good if you didn't look directly at it. Most people didn't even notice it because the tan just melded in with the rest of the interior.