Going to try to fix the shape of my Civic's headliner assembly

[Delicieuxz]

A while ago I left the moon roof open overnight, and it rained, causing water to gather on top of the headliner assembly, soaking it, and deforming it. Now it sags and looks like this:




I've now removed the headliner from the car, and I'm going to try to reform the sagging part by getting it went enough that it doesn't hold its shape, and pressing it down with some blocks of wood while it dries, so that it hopefully dries and hardens up in the shape it originally was in.

I don't know if this will be successful, but I'll post the result, here. The headliner assembly cardboard is already pretty flimsy feeling, so I hope it can take this kind of manipulation.

If anyone has a cheap 96 - 00 Civic headliner assembly (with the moon roof cutout), I might be interested in purchasing it, if this doesn't go smoothly.

[Berzerker]

I would think Pick a part has plenty.

Berz out.

[Delicieuxz]

Cool. I might check them out if this doesn't work. But I got no money, so I'm trying to fix before I move on the replace option.

[Delicieuxz]

I tried to soak the sagged area of the headliner as much as I could for about 40 minutes, but it felt like it hadn't absorbed a lot of water in that time, and that it was mostly just the surface that was wet, while the board was overall still very firm. I also soaked the fabric on the other side.




Then I put a lot of weight on it to try to press it flat while it dries.






If it's not shape-corrected once it's dry, I might try again, and soak it for longer.

[Delicieuxz]

After a couple of days being pressed like this while drying, the result looks practically perfect.






I put the heavy stuff back on top of it for now, because the headliner assembly is still damp, and I'll let it dry like that for another day. I made sure the fabric on top of the headliner assembly was soaked when I originally started pressing it, to give plenty of time for the headliner board to absorb more and soften.

Once I have it back in my car, I'll clean the headliner with some soap.