I think my van must've sat outside in the sun for its entire life because the threads holding the headliner together are disintegrating. As in, if you think about them in a negative way, they pop.

So, my wife and I decided to do something fun with the replacement. See below...

1) Original headliner. Dirty, smelly, stained and literally disintegrating.

2) Note the threads popping. This was happening all over and worsened just by opening the windows while driving.

3) Headliner torn down. Original bats of insulation on the floor. Nasty, smelly. Goodbye and good riddance.

 

4) Underside of roof cleaned and scraped to remove original spray glue. Butyl sound deadener applied. Couldn't afford to do more but even this much made a huge difference. From "boom" to "thud".

5) "Reflectix" radiant barrier applied with spray glue. Basically a single layer of bubble wrap covered on both sides with a layer of foil.

6) Using the old panels as templates for the new ones.

 

7) Sewing in the pockets that hold the headliner rods

8) Inserting the headliner rods.

9) Insulation spray-glued into place. We tried using the recycled denim insulation, as well as 1"rigid foam, but both proved too thick to fit under the headliner. In the end, I had no easily available choice other than fiberglass.

 

10) LED lights installed around perimeter of cargo area. Switch mounted next to radio. Soon to be installed: dimmer!

11) LED wiring. They make it so easy nowadays - as long as you're using very thin 20 or 22 AWG wiring. Of course, LED's don't need anything heavier. Thanks Amazon!

12) The Finished Product. Boy are we happy with the way it turned out. Funky cool, in our opinion. Note the LED's around the perimeter of the ceiling.

 

Hi, We are in the process of gutting and installing a new floor, insulation and headliner in our 1988 Clubwagon. I'm curious as to why you did the tiles of the reflective insulation first?