The Lotus Grand Tourers

After weeks of prevarication I finally had a go at the headlining yesterday and here are the results :

I wedged the rear section in place with bits of folded card, then sprayed the roof and headlining together.
This seemed to work pretty well as I avoided having to manoeuvre the treated headlining through the door and into the back of the car.



For the front my wife helped with getting the glued headlining into the car and aligned.
You can see the foam roller I used to smooth the sheets into place, working from the middle outwards as recommended.
I used the whole can of Trimfix, so hopefully that's enough to prevent it dropping any time soon !


Thanks to Tony for the advice and encouragement to finally take the plunge with this job - just the panels to do now .

Cheers,

Looks great! My understanding is that the usual droopy liner is not so much failure of the original glue, it's the foam backing to the headlining that disintegrates over time - hence all the horrible dust that covers everything when you take the old lining off. Let's hope the new stuff is made with longer-lasting foam.

rbgosling wrote: Fri Jun 06, 2025 14:42 Looks great! My understanding is that the usual droopy liner is not so much failure of the original glue, it's the foam backing to the headlining that disintegrates over time - hence all the horrible dust that covers everything when you take the old lining off. Let's hope the new stuff is made with longer-lasting foam.

I'm sure it will. For one thing, the guy who puts a new headlining in knows what a kerfuffle the job is and not being anxious to do it again, generally takes much better care of the vehicle than the previous owner who left it out in the direct sun all the time till the headliner fell in the first place. Nice work!

Thanks for the positive comments guys.
A bit more progress - see below :




It's clearly not up to professional standards, but I'm reasonably happy with the results so far.

And I finally found a local seamstress who is prepared to have a go at the sun-visors - I will let you know how they turn out.
Just one of the rear quarter panels to do now and then fit everything together.

I'm still not looking forward to the last quarter panel, but have become distracted by a faulty headlamp - see separate post.

Cheers !

Finally got all the headlining bits in the car - didn't quite make the end of June, but not far off.




I left the metal tags off the section above the doors, but cut strips of headlining material to tuck into the door seal as an alternative.
This seemed to work quite well.


The headlamp motor is also now fixed and working well.

Two other key milestones achieved in the last couple of weeks :
1. Driving in the rain with no leaks
2. I've now done over 200miles in the car since I bought it

Cheers All,

I like your idea with the headling strips - i might steal that!

Pete