It's been a minute since I've been here, but had some medical stuff that needed my attention .Still have the 06 R53 and it was time to do the headliner. Did the usual prep. I used laquer thinner to get all the glue residue off and make it nice and clean. Hobby Lobby had a sale and I got three yards of black for $24. Got two cans of 3M headliner adhesive and I was good to go, or so I thought. First time around truly sucked.(see pic).It got some wrinkles and when I tried to get them out the project went down in flames. Back to HL, three more yards and $40 dollars later I had a covered headliner that came out much better. Went back in the car easier than getting it out. Getting everything back on took way longer than I thought it would. Didn't put the rear grab handles on since the MINI is a two seater(never cut the holes in the headliner for them). I'm happy with the results even thought it cost me an extra length of material..
On another subject, I like having a full size spare tire. Since the back of the MINI is flat I thought about carrying a spare in the back. I bolted some D rings in the platform and strapped the tire down, but I'm not sure of this. Be interested to hear some thoughts. Anyway good to be back on here and nice having a new headliner..

 

Headliner looks good! I've done one without sunroof a couple of months ago and it's certainly not easy.

As for the spare tire; as long it can't break lose to crush your head in a crash I would just leave it as is. If you want a cleaner look you could toss a tire cover on it.

 

headliner looks great! nice work

what is the tire bolted down to?

 

The straps on the tire are bolted to the plywood shelf I put in after I did the rear seat delete...I hinged it at the cross member so I could access the battery.. The self itself is not bolted to the car though. As I said I'm not sure I'm keeping this set up with the tire....

 

I don't think I would trust the plywood to hold that heavy wheel and tire down in a high speed deceleration type of event. That would be a large amount of mass and momentum heading your way, depending on the physics of the accident, of course.

On the other hand, great job with the headliner! You made it look so easy😁

 

yes sir. i like this idea. i guess you could tie it down to the frame below. weld in some latches

 

My headliner is a saggy mess above the hatch area, only thing left that bugs me about my ride. This goes on my "least-fun-possible" list of car projects but has to get done eventually. Yours looks great!

 

I did mine a few years ago - as you know it's tedious but it was well worth the effort.
I was able to find a company online that sold headliner specific material that was an exact match to the factory space gray.
My upholstery skills aren't great so the outcome wasn't perfect but still looks pretty good. There's small bubbles (barely noticeable) and a few small wrinkles - things I can live with and it certainly looks better than the old saggy one.
As for the spare, I just used the existing luggage tie downs in the rear.

 

Probably ditching this idea for the spare due to safety reasons...May do some research to see if MINI ever did a donut spare for the R53....
Thanks to everyone for the kind words on the headliner...

 

I know Detroit Tuned and ECS sell the correct spare, it's again just a matter of where to put it. I don't have one on hand yet but have been thinking about if I could fit it securely vertical behind the passenger seat.

 

I assume that’s the 15” donut (doughnut?) spare from the R50?

 

Yes, R50 spare fits. In the event of a front tire blow out with an R56 brake upgrade like me, you'll have the double task of swapping the rear tire to the front and putting the spare on the back. I don't believe there's a 4x100 bolt pattern spare out there to resolve this, but much better than nothing in a pinch.

 

I'm pretty sure I have an R50 donut spare sitting in my garage somewhere. That car was purchased in May, 2002, so the tire should probably be replaced, but I'm happy to ship it to anybody who wants it for my actual shipping cost.

 

Nice Job

 

Looks great! This is my next job. So did you break any clips or any have any tips on some of the difficulties?

 

Best advice I can give is go slow...I found that a thin plastic spackle knife helped with the weather strips.( 1+4 inch)…Prep is key. Make sure the backer is clean...Put plastic down on what ever surface you are using..Lay the liner on and make 8-10" folds towards the middle(I started with the back)I also covered the remaining fabric with cardboard(the part that's not folded up)I sprayed just enough adhesive across the middle between sun roofs and fastened it down, Worked my way up. alternating side to side doing short 8-10 inch sections. The cardboard on top keeps overspray from adhesive off of fabric. Repeat for the other half. .I did mine solo ,but I could see how help would have made it easier.
Trim it to about 1"...Then fold it over and glue it. I only cut out the sun roofs/lighting/mirror/and sun roof controls. It was easy enough to find were the other stuff goes by feel and just slit the fabric when the liner was installed. I thought Getting it back in was gonna suck but it went back in with little trouble. Pillar trims snapped back in no problem. It was a little fiddly getting all the trim pieces screwed back in , but it came out better than I had hoped....
The first time I did it I tried to glue too much at once and the results showed. Take your time and do small sections smoothing it out as you go..

 

good tips, thank you sir

 

Thanks Jagermeister. Good stuff here.

 

My Local Upholstery guy did it for $100, took him 3 hours. No hassles and no mess...looks great!

 

That is crazy cheap! Almost worth the drive to Cali from NY!😉

 

I did some searching and the well known places wanted $500-600 and were booked for weeks. I found this local guy in an industrial area with the usual body shops and engine places around, it's just a roll up shop. Does great work. Had him fix my worn side bolster and you couldn't tell it was ever worn out. That was $150, but sewing and leather involved. Oxnard has a lot of these kind of places and I'm glad he speaks pretty good English, since my speaking Spanish isn't great but I can understand it pretty well.

 

I need to do this! My 2003 headliner is rather unattached. Currently I cannot afford the time, but that might change quickly if the trim falls off again. As to that: does the sunroof trim clip on only in the front where the wiring pieces are? My trim seems to be too small. I can get the front reconnected, then one of the sides or the rear comes off. Are their clips I might be missing? (bought the car used). I'd at least like to shore up the trim until I can put in a new headliner.
Thanks, Jim

 

Does anyone know if they sell the actual mold for the headliner roof anywhere?

 

@john411 assuming you mean the entire headliner itself, the cheapest and likely most approachable way to acquire would be from a local partout vehicle to you. It likely would be cheap, new fabric and spray glue can be had rather cheap off amazon and you have a new headliner.

 

I don't recall seeing any clips on the sunroof trim. Mine fit fine as a pressure fit. Although it was loose when I still had the old headliner in. Maybe the new material I used is a little thicker and helped with the fit.