Yet Another Coupe Headliner Replacement

I swapped my light grey headliner with the dark grey one from a wreck. Here are the photos and instructions

All the information here is provided AS IS with no guarentee of any validity.
DISCLAIMER (as said by mvrk10256): you fvck up its not on me.
DISCLAIMER #2 (as ammended by me): I fvck up, still not on me.

About me:
I am just a young kid who likes to tinker with stuff... I have no fear of breaking this car because in the back of my mind, I think that one day the bank will repo it. Families cost more then I thought lol. I come to these forums to help me maintain my care and I give back by contributing. If you like the information you see here and have some extra cash, feel free to donate some to me and I'll do more of this kind of thing.


This is my original interior, I hated the light grey and fabric door panels... so out with the old and in with the new. Also the PO smoked in it. This is the only way I could finally get rid of the smell.


In this replacement, I replaced
Visors
3rd Break light
5 interior lights
Door panels (fronts not shown, see BSW instructions or one of the other DIYs)
Dash Trim (not shown)
Headliner
A/B/C pillar trim
sunroof sunshade
holy **** bars
& rear view mirror


Here goes:


I started at the back, removed the two torx screws for the back door panel

Then the dry cleaning clips, just the philips screws inside, no need to remove the actual clips.

Next I removed the sunroof trim and the holy **** bars. The screws are exposed by removing the plastic trim clip

Next I did the center motion dector, removing the wire from its holder.

Next I removed the piece of trim that covers the rear break light and the little push clip that atatches the headliner. In my photo, the rear break light is at the top. Remove the break light by removing the electrical connection and pushing the black clips outwards towards the C pillars.

Next I removed the back seat. Lift it up at the front, then pull it back.

Remove the plastic arround the rear window regulators (yeah the order I am giving you is different then how I did it. Trust me you want to do this before removing the seat bolsters)

Then the rear seat side bolsters... be very careful here or you will break them. Pull out from the TOP and then lift up. Do NOT pull out from the bottom.

Next I did the rear door panels. Lift the rear window seal/trim up, get behing the panel and pull towards you to disengage the clips.

Next I removed the flip down seats... one big torx screw and a clip then the seats lift out

Amazing what you find under seats.

Now I remove the B pillar trim... remove the push clips and then pull down and out from the bottom

Now the seatbelts need to be detached. You can feed the belt through and discard your old B pillar trim pieces.

Now the rear C pillar comes out. Start with the light. Pry where shown.

Remove the screw behind the light

Pull from the top

Now the visors... there is an electrical plug that goes in to the visor so do not let the visors drop.

and the visor anchors. One has a push clip behind it.

Now we move on to the A pillar. Remove the HPS trim by starting in the center and rolling the front towards the window as you pull out.

Next remove the three torx screws. These are a *****. I found a torx bit on a ratchet was the easiest... but a drill or electric screw driver would have been real handy.
A torx screw driver takes a long time and its hard not to strip the screws out. I think this may have been the toughest part of the job lol.

Pull the a pillar out starting from the top

Remove the sunroof motor panel (from the back of the car to the front), the dome lights, and then the screw that holds the headliner in.

Remove the headliner out the door. There is no need to remove the seats but I reclined mine.

Here is the car ready for the drag strip (not really)


Next remove the glass and pull the slide shade out. See delmarco's sunroof writeup as it is the best writeup on the subject out there.
My old shade was actually destroyed.



Installation opposite of reverse

Once I clean it I will post pics of the finished interior.

Good write up and cant wait to see it!

Only one reply? This is amazing! Thank you! I don't need to take anything apart but it's so handy to know it's there now

geeez, this looks like a lot of work to change out the headliner, maybe I should reconsider doing this one lol

And of course thanks for the write up!

One thing you forgot....IDK if it is essential that you do it, but when I did mine, I unhooked the battery.

dude, your photo links are all broken. could you fix 'em?

^ +1
looking to do this soon since mine is completly sagging in the front on my 2004 no sunroof coupe, wtf bmw?

yea i need to do this as well, BTW none of your pix are showing

OP has not posted here for >2 months. Good luck.

Sorry guys, I will put the photos back up when I get back to Canada. It's really not all that difficult. Feel free to ask questions.

+1 yeah I agree you might want to unhook the battery, you could put a screw through an air-bag wire and really mess things up.

The big question I had before doing it was could it even be done without damaging it or taking out the glass?? And yes, you can in the coupe. Still not sure about the sedan.

I even gave my old headliner to someone here on the board. He drove home with it IN his coupe.

Best thing I have done to the car.

Re: the sagging headliner, you might be able to just drop it a bit from the front by removing the a pillars, then remove the fabric so it is just hanging down completely. Then, spray with 3m spray adhesive and re-stretch it back over.

Bump for some pictures.

Okay, Re-uploaded my images but there doesn't appear to be an edit button for me. Here it is in re-quote Enjoy

Originally Posted by jaymemaurice

I swapped my light grey headliner with the dark grey one from a wreck. Here are the photos and instructions

All the information here is provided AS IS with no guarentee of any validity.
DISCLAIMER (as said by mvrk10256): you fvck up its not on me.
DISCLAIMER #2 (as ammended by me): I fvck up, still not on me.

About me:
I am just a young kid who likes to tinker with stuff... I have no fear of breaking this car because in the back of my mind, I think that one day the bank will repo it. Families cost more then I thought lol. I come to these forums to help me maintain my care and I give back by contributing. If you like the information you see here and have some extra cash, feel free to donate some to me and I'll do more of this kind of thing.


This is my original interior, I hated the light grey and fabric door panels... so out with the old and in with the new. Also the PO smoked in it. This is the only way I could finally get rid of the smell.


In this replacement, I replaced
Visors
3rd Break light
5 interior lights
Door panels (fronts not shown, see BSW instructions or one of the other DIYs)
Dash Trim (not shown)
Headliner
A/B/C pillar trim
sunroof sunshade
holy **** bars
& rear view mirror


Here goes:


I started at the back, removed the two torx screws for the back door panel

Then the dry cleaning clips, just the philips screws inside, no need to remove the actual clips.

Next I removed the sunroof trim and the holy **** bars. The screws are exposed by removing the plastic trim clip

Next I did the center motion dector, removing the wire from its holder.

Next I removed the piece of trim that covers the rear break light and the little push clip that atatches the headliner. In my photo, the rear break light is at the top. Remove the break light by removing the electrical connection and pushing the black clips outwards towards the C pillars.

Next I removed the back seat. Lift it up at the front, then pull it back.

Remove the plastic arround the rear window regulators (yeah the order I am giving you is different then how I did it. Trust me you want to do this before removing the seat bolsters)

Then the rear seat side bolsters... be very careful here or you will break them. Pull out from the TOP and then lift up. Do NOT pull out from the bottom.

Next I did the rear door panels. Lift the rear window seal/trim up, get behing the panel and pull towards you to disengage the clips.

Next I removed the flip down seats... one big torx screw and a clip then the seats lift out

Amazing what you find under seats.

Now I remove the B pillar trim... remove the push clips and then pull down and out from the bottom

Now the seatbelts need to be detached. You can feed the belt through and discard your old B pillar trim pieces.

Now the rear C pillar comes out. Start with the light. Pry where shown.

Remove the screw behind the light

Pull from the top

Now the visors... there is an electrical plug that goes in to the visor so do not let the visors drop.

and the visor anchors. One has a push clip behind it.

Now we move on to the A pillar. Remove the HPS trim by starting in the center and rolling the front towards the window as you pull out.

Next remove the three torx screws. These are a *****. I found a torx bit on a ratchet was the easiest... but a drill or electric screw driver would have been real handy.
A torx screw driver takes a long time and its hard not to strip the screws out. I think this may have been the toughest part of the job lol.

Pull the a pillar out starting from the top

Remove the sunroof motor panel (from the back of the car to the front), the dome lights, and then the screw that holds the headliner in.

Remove the headliner out the door. There is no need to remove the seats but I reclined mine.

Here is the car ready for the drag strip (not really)


Next remove the glass and pull the slide shade out. See delmarco's sunroof writeup as it is the best writeup on the subject out there.
My old shade was actually destroyed.



Installation opposite of reverse

Need pictures!! Grrrr!!!!

Originally Posted by kannabis

Need pictures!! Grrrr!!!!

Site admin is going to correct the photos. See the post above

in for pics.

Pics with dark headliner?

Originally Posted by e4Tsex

Pics with dark headliner?

I'll snap some when I take it out of storage. Made a world of difference to the interrior feel.

pics yo

Wow impressive