Interior Heading Lining in Olde KE Corollas

[Banjo]

My KE-30 2 door sedan turns Fifty next year, & it is in fairly reasonable original condition.  However, the years are taking it's toll, on the

non-metal parts.

 

The other night I was out driving;  testing some of my LED light conversions, & suddenly; the rear vision mirror glass fell down.  It didn't break luckily.   However, the reason it fell down, was that the plastic holder/frame for the mirror, had basically turned to dust.

 

 

Luckily, I had another one from a my olde KE-55 2 door coupe, which went to Corolla Heaven a few years back, with a case of servere cancer in the top rear quarters.

 

The previous night I was removing the interior light, to clean it up, & oil the switch, which was a bit stiff.  I noticed that the head lining was turning to dust also.. In the illuminated environment, I could see all this dust coming down from the fabric, everytime I touched the light fitting.

 

The lining is not torn, & at first glance, looks pretty good. It is a bit stained, in places, along the seams, & I was thinking of maybe spraying it.

 

However, I'm concerned about breathing all those little particals in the air; with Winter on the doorstep, when often the windows will be closed.  Time methinks, for a new headlining.  

 

So I searched this forum, for "head-lining"; & there were several suggestions from over 10 years ago, which basically suggesting taking out the liner, & taking it to your friendly "motor trimmer", to cut & sew a new one.

 

That's fine, but for one major issue.

 

The lining in the early Corollas, is suspended on rods, across the interor, which clip into the top body frame, with special little plastic clips, which are impossible to source.  I remember well, when I stripped the KE-55 2 door coupe, they almost all broke.  Others on here, have also asked where you can get these plastic clips.

 

The common problem these days, with head-linings are, that the material, whether it be fabric, or vinyl, separates from the back board; & sags.  Early Corolla's head-linings, were not made that way.  There was no back board.

 

I was wondering if there is any plastic or vinyl linings on the market, with a thick insulating backing, that could be simply glued to the underside of the roof, & just "cut & tucked" over the top metal surround lip.

 

 There are plenty of lining materials, available with a thin foam backing, but it would be nice, if there was one with a 25-30mm thick foam or insulating backing.

 

So completely out of my depth here, so hopefully, someone on here has had this problem previously, & solved it.

 

Open to all suggestions !

 

Cheers Banjo 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2023 by Banjo

[crdiscoverer]

On the mirror situation: The AW11 MR2 has an almost identical mirror to the KE3X/K5X. Screw locations, arm length, etc. with the added benefit of having a dimming switch which Corollas of this vintage almost never had. So, there's a good tip for all of you, go and snatch those AW11 mirrors before they are all gone.

On the headliner, mine is still using the metal frame and it's been redone I think a couple of times while reusing the same rods. I don't recall those plastic clips but wouldn't it be easy to simply 3D print them using one that's still good? If they are simple to fabricate perhaps you won't even need a sample. I've fabricated a few missing bits and pieces with the printer we have at work and for stuff that isn't visible it does a great job when the parts you need are unobtanium.