OK, the saga continues (see other threads on rack removal).
I'm starting a new thread on headliner removal in the hope that this will help the next poor hapless souls who has to go through this.
Summary of roof rack removal situation: have several nutserts spinners.
Went on several tangents trying to do too many things at the same time and trying various desperate ways to get rid of these spinners. Nothing looked great. Conclusion: I decided finally to remove completely the headliner. Was trying to see if I could just undo the back and tilt it down a bit, but I saw that it was starting to fold in the front so I did not want to take any chance of it breaking.
Overall, the job is technically unchallenging, at least the first 95% but tedious. You need to remove all the trim panels inside basically plus the lights, the belts, the visors, all grabhandles, the sunroof switches etc. You have to go slow when you take out the panels cuz they are full of clips and you don't want to break anything. But it's no rocket science, just go slow. Estimate: if you do nothing but that, unlike me, it could be done in 2 or 3 hours.
A couple of tricky situations will arise at the end, however. That thing is huge, and one person shouldn't try to remove it alone IMHO unless you have a multitude of mechanical supports. It looks very fragile and Dan says it's *costly*. I ended up removing the rear clips and supporting the headliner about 2/3 of the way back with an adjustable support that I raised all the way. At that point I only had the front (visors and grabhandles) still tucked in. That is fine. But it will get nasty when I'll remove the last clips and the thing is then unsupported. I'm going to enlist the whole family to hold it and I have placed a couple of 10' long pipes on high supports inside the truck lengthwise so we can lower it gently and it will be supported over its whole length. And then hopefully take it out in one piece. I would say that this is the part where some thinking and prep will greatly pay off. You don't want to be with half the clips off and then realize you are missing the necessary supports...
more later
blah!
E
At least when it's completely off I can then work at my leisure on these spinners...
I'm starting a new thread on headliner removal in the hope that this will help the next poor hapless souls who has to go through this.
Summary of roof rack removal situation: have several nutserts spinners.
Went on several tangents trying to do too many things at the same time and trying various desperate ways to get rid of these spinners. Nothing looked great. Conclusion: I decided finally to remove completely the headliner. Was trying to see if I could just undo the back and tilt it down a bit, but I saw that it was starting to fold in the front so I did not want to take any chance of it breaking.
Overall, the job is technically unchallenging, at least the first 95% but tedious. You need to remove all the trim panels inside basically plus the lights, the belts, the visors, all grabhandles, the sunroof switches etc. You have to go slow when you take out the panels cuz they are full of clips and you don't want to break anything. But it's no rocket science, just go slow. Estimate: if you do nothing but that, unlike me, it could be done in 2 or 3 hours.
A couple of tricky situations will arise at the end, however. That thing is huge, and one person shouldn't try to remove it alone IMHO unless you have a multitude of mechanical supports. It looks very fragile and Dan says it's *costly*. I ended up removing the rear clips and supporting the headliner about 2/3 of the way back with an adjustable support that I raised all the way. At that point I only had the front (visors and grabhandles) still tucked in. That is fine. But it will get nasty when I'll remove the last clips and the thing is then unsupported. I'm going to enlist the whole family to hold it and I have placed a couple of 10' long pipes on high supports inside the truck lengthwise so we can lower it gently and it will be supported over its whole length. And then hopefully take it out in one piece. I would say that this is the part where some thinking and prep will greatly pay off. You don't want to be with half the clips off and then realize you are missing the necessary supports...
more later
blah!
E
At least when it's completely off I can then work at my leisure on these spinners...
