1988 Buick Electra Estate Wagon - Removing Headliner

Hi, all:

I have found a replacement rear and front headliner from a donor wagon and wish to install the two pieces on my Electra. While I was very careful removing the donor headliner, I damaged several of the white clips that appear to serve two purposes with the rear piece: hold the headliner in place, and allow the metal trim to secure itself to finish off the look.

If I do the same in trying to remove and install the headliner in my Buick, I fear I will have solved one problem while creating a bigger one: My local Buick dealer advises that these fasteners are no longer available.

Can the trim pieces that hold the headliner in place be removed by hand, or is a special tool required? If by hand, what is the 'trick' to removing the trim without destroying the white clips? If a tool, can anyone point me in the right direction?

Any help appreciated.

If none available, check back in a couple of days -- depending on how I proceed I will be able to offer someone a really great replacement headliner, or some undamaged, unavailable clips for same, or if I'm really miffed, a 1988 Buick Electra Estate Wagon without the rear headliner installed but with a nice spare one with an insufficient number of clips to install it. Or I will be the guy you see driving around sitting tall with the existing headliner continuing to be held in place by my head.

Adam

 

Hi again Adam,.....I have never seen your Buick, I honestly hav'nt seen another Buick wagon perioud other than ours out here.

Yeah, those darn clips, I had the same ishues when I did the headliner in my 83 Cutluss. I removed the trim with vynal siding tools and a thin home made stainless steel 90 pry bar. I broke 2 but was able to find the pieces and epoxy back together. The real problem was reinstalling, the plastic clips although covered were so brittle they broke and I was screwed more or less.

Your not going to like this but....I did have to use a couple expossed srcews. , got black ones from a auto parts store, care fully drilled and set.

BUT......you found parts for your wagon??? Please share the info, who, what, where, PLEASE! I am only in need of one tiny piece for the drivers door handle,




Tedy,Victoria

 

What year is your LeSabre, Fat? Got a pic of one that's still on there?

 

Adam....do you have all the Factory Service Maunuals? If not...take the car to a GM body shop and ask them how they come off without ruining them. They should have a book if they don't already know.

 

I've been struggling with exactly this problem on my Custom Cruiser. The clips are virtually impossible to remove without damaging them and replacements are not available from the usual sources (like AuVeCo.). Sorry.

 

I wonder how an upholstery shop would handle the problem?

 

I checked with several local upholstery shops looking for the clips and their answer was always "we just drill holes and use screws". :banghead3:

NOT the look I was going for.

 

Actually....I had an 87 Olds CC and an 88 Electra wagon that I loved, but, they both had a pristine headliner so....I'm not familiar at all with the clips in question or even where they are for sure??

 

Thanks for input

Hi, all:

Some very helpful input here, for which I'm appreciative of the time taken. Thank you all.

I've not moved ahead with the replacement and will talk to the Buick dealer to see if they can be of help. That said, I guess I could live with the screws if that were the only workable alternative. Better than the headliner-as-a-hat look I've been sporting whenever I'm in the wagon.

I'll update later this week. Vancouver meetings tomorrow and I'm hoping to get the the Interceptor to Seattle for servicing on Wednesday, so the Buick will have to wait for a few days.

Adam

 

I got 3 of the last 6 headliner trim clips (or at least they told me they only had 6 left) that GM had in the computer last year when I redid the headliner in my Parisienne. Sorry. They are pretty much impossible to remove without breaking, but just go slow and you may get lucky.

Some advise. When I did mine, I only removed the center piece of trim that is the divider between the two boards, and the trim that ran along the passenger side of the car. I left the front piece along the windshield, the rear piece by the tailgate window, and the 2 pieces that went along the drivers side in place. By leaving those pieces in place I was able to silde the boards out from behind them and slide them back in with no problem. The more trim that you leave in place, the less chance of breaking clips that can't be replaced.

 

1988 Buick Electra Estate -- Headliner replaced!!

Hi, all:

First off, thanks to '84Parisienne' for advice on removing the headliner. Brilliant!

I removed the rear panel areas (storage bin removed first, then both driver- and passenger-side rear trim panels removed; the spare tire panel is, of course, just a slip-out panel) from both sides of the rear compartment.

Then I removed the C-Pillar trim pieces on each side of the rear seat.

Then, I removed the stereo speaker covers. With these two speaker covers removed from the pillars, I was able to slide out the rear side-to-side metal trim piece at the tailgate, destroying only one clip; I had extras from the headliner donor vehicle, a 1990 Caprice Classic Estate (yes, I know, it had the rear seat belts, and mine does not, but, really, two holes in dark-blue headliner are not a big issue compared to the sagging mess that was my headliner).

After removing all the fixtures, i.e., front and rear lights, visors, visor clip, and coat hooks, I did indeed remove the centre side-to-side plastic trim that serves as a finish seam between the front and rear headliners. It's plastic, but exercise caution in removing it as it seems to me that it could fracture if bent too much.

Then I just carefully pulled out the headliner, disconnecting the wiring for the rear compartment light (and for the front, the front overhead light, and the passenger's vanity-mirror light).

Installation of the new rear headliner was a one-man job. I slid one side into place as suggested. I started with the passenger side, figuring that if I had trouble with the driver's side and damaged it, well, at least I wouldn't have to look at it every time I checked my right-side blind spot.

I aligned the headliner with the part of the middle side-to-side trim piece that stays affixed to the roof when the plastic trim cover removed.

Then, I used a three-inch putty knife blade to assist the driver's side edge into its trim slot. I used the rear-light opening a a hand-hold to very carefully pull down the middle of the headliner, which served to decrease its width, and make insertion into the driver's side trim slot easier. This putty-blade work was extremely easy; I was very patient and took my time.

With the rear headliner in place, I removed the two clips from the roof frame upon which the rear side-to-side trim piece was affixed. This takes quite a bit of fiddling. With the two clips removed, I added one from the Caprice, and after lying on my back and thinking about it, inserted the clips into the trim piece, aligned the points of the clips with their receptacles in the roof frame, and carefully pressed the whole thing into place. No clips damaged!

In the front, I removed the A-pillar trim pieces, and the B-pillar (seat belt area) trim pieces. From dismantling the Caprice, I knew that the front headliner trim pieces on the driver and passenger side are not at all fragile as were the back ones: I simply inserted a cloth-wrapped big screwdriver blade in the gap between the trim pieces and the upper door frame (done while standing outside the car) and gently pried them off. One snap, they partially release; second snap, they fully release and can be manoeuvred down by an inch or so; these two trim pieces were still inserted into the rear trim pieces, so that helped keep them generally in place, i.e., they didn't just fall to the ground, which was very helpful for a one-man operation.

I brought the front headliner in through the rear compartment,, and holding the rear of the headliner and using the front overhead light cut out as a hand-hold, snugged the headliner into the slot in the front windshield side-to-side trim piece. With that in place, and because the trim piece had been lowered, I could see how the headliner fit into the clips; I used my putty knife to secure the headliner in the clip. The passenger side was as easy (because the trim piece was pulled down, I did the same as I did on the driver's side, again using my putty knife to secure the headliner into the clip receptacle.

I got quite excited at my fast progress on the front headliner, and almost blew it: I forgot to fish through the wires for the overhead light, and the vanity. Fortunately, they had not gone far from their original holes in the headliner, and I was able to pull them through. But this was luck, not skill.

After that, it was a simple case of reinstalling all the pillar trim, and snapping the driver- and passenger-side trim back onto the clips. Then I reinstalled all the hardware.

So thank you, all, for advice, but especially '84Parisienne' for your wisdom. This job succeeded because of your clear advice counseling against removing all the trim pieces.

In one of the great ironies, though, while taking my time to consider how to do this job, I saw a 1991 Roadmaster for sale on www.usedvictoria.com. It's burgundy, with leather, and with 110K miles. It's ben garaged all its life, and looks quite nice -- the perfect car for odd trips to the beach and the annual run for the ten-foot Christmas tree, which is aboiut all my Electra has been doing for the last ten years or so.

So my 1988 Electra is for sale, and it, too, is listed on www.usedvictoria.com. Just search under 'Buick Electra.' I've attached pictures of both.

Adam

 

First of all, Adam....GREAT write up! Secondly....KUDOS to pari!
And...finally....DAMN!!!! It HAD to be blue!! I love that 88 Electra! My very favorite box wagon in the world. I can't find your ad so please direct me with better info....I would like to know the price.
Is that the 91 wagon that Fat Tedy posted on here....if it is....it's a beauty. If it isn't...still looks like a beauty.

 

Found the ad, Adam. That's one of the nicest 88 Electra wagon's that I have seen in a long time. Even with the tired engine it is a good price, too. I kid you not....if it was in a color that I like I would buy that car in a heartbeat! Someone is going to get a very nice one owner at a great price!

 

Good stuff Adam......Um, HELP....please, where did you find your parts car?

Yeah thats the Rodie I posted Fox


Here's a derect link for Adams wagon...

http://www.usedvictoria.com/classified-ad/1988-Buick-Electra-Estate-Wagon_12785519

 

1988 Buick Electra Estate -- Headliner replaced!!

Hi, all:

Fat Tedy asked that question in his original post, and I have been remiss, too focussed on my issues.

Well, apologies. The Caprice is located as follows:

Maxwell Auto Wreckers
Vancouver Island's largest used
van/SUV/truck parts wrecker

Phone (250) 383-2075
Toll Free 1-800-962-6551
3330 Trans Canada Hwy.,
Cobble Hill BC V0R 1L0
maxwells.ca@shaw.ca

It's light blue, with wood and all trim, with a navy blue interior, sans headliner and clips, of course. It's also missing the tailgate torsion bar, which is now on my Electra.

Which reminds me, when you take out that torsion bar, think carefully, really carefully, about undoing those bolts that affix the clip (into which the torsion bar fits) to the frame of the tailgate, especially if you stupidly, like me, are doing this with the tailgate dropped.

The first bolt came off no problem. second bolt shot off somewhere in the distance. And I kid ye not, several minutes later, a crow dropped from the sky right above me, dead as a doornail. And the bar, liberated from its hold, like Martha Stewart from Shawshank on a Saturday night, spun towards freedom and the dropped tailgate in a blaze of speed, spinning right down my forearm as it did this.

It was all over an half a second, but in that half a second, I saw my childhood, my awkward teenage years, my long-deceased Granny Cruickshank, and touched the face of God.

Three days later, I had this six-inch, wicked-looking bruise on my forearm. I told folks I picked it up at Fight Club. All laughed.

Anyway, back to the Caprice. The engine has been removed, and it has been hit light on the driver's front panel and headlight assembly, so, alas, written off. I can't recall the mileage, but the car is in lovely condition, so all is well with the interior and exterior trim bits that are left.

The fellow who helped me after I damn near torsion-barred my arm off said that a day earlier, someone with a Chevy Caprice Classic four-door raided some interior dashboard parts, but it all looks to be pretty complete.

So, happy hunting, Fat Tedy, and all others.

A good weekend to everyone!

Adam