I have read of a few folks with headliners falling apart. Mine finally got to the point where something had to be done. It was either replace the entire thing or try gluing. I figured I had very little to loose in trying to glue it. If It got screwed up I'd just replace it anyway.

My objective was to reattach the material without the glue saturating the material. I had some clear RTV around and figured if it did seep into the material at least it was clear. I applied the RTV to the backing board over top the foam. The RTV soaked into the foam pretty well. To reduce the chance of the RTV soaking into the material, I let the RTV set until it was just tacky before pressing the material in place. Success! If you look too closely, it is slightly lumpy from the foam backing but most would never notice.

Stan

 

Looks like a great job! Hey, i'd really like more details about how you did this. Did you apply the RTV with the headliner still in place in the car? If so, how could you manage to get the RTV above the foam, or indeed even above the liner itself?
Or maybe i misunderstood-- was the liner already so loose that it was falling way down, so you completely detached and removed it from the panel, applied glue to the panel, and then "re-mounted" the liner by lifting/pushing it back up against the glued panel.

What exact RTV product did you use?

Thanks for any details.

I'm going to have to do this to my '05 V50 as well, as the liner is starting to come loose. Guess the downside of Volvo's insistence on greener products (presumably a more environmentally friendly glue and/or foam backing) is that sometimes they don't work as well. I had the same problem with the headliner falling down on my old 860 wagon. But with that one it was relatively easy to slide the whole ceiling panel out through the rear hatch and work on it. No such luck on this V50 (though i like the car much better in every other way).

 

The repair was made with the headliner panel still in place. The cloth was dangling as the foam had deteriorated. I removed the loose foam from around the area and applied the RTV to the board/foam side. After letting it setup a while, I lightly pressed and smoothed the cloth in place. Since the RTV had setup just enough to adhere to the cloth without soaking through.
Stan