You'll save hundreds (maybe even thousands) of dollars if you do this job yourself compared to what a shop would charge you. Hundreds of Z owners have already completed this swap over a weekend with nothing more than basic hand tools and a little bit of patience. On top of the money savings, you'll pick up plenty of knowledge about how these cars are actually built and assembled. That hands-on experience will give you a lot more confidence if you want to take on other restoration work later.
This job relies on careful prep work and the right technique. But you don't need professional experience to get it right. Automotive-grade headliner fabric (the kind with foam backing) will handle summer heat differently from generic upholstery fabric. A quality spray adhesive gives you a bond that can hold up for another 40 years in your car. Rush through the glue application or skip over the template step, and you'll wind up with wrinkles everywhere and mounting holes that just won't line up right. At that point, you're looking at having to strip everything down and start from scratch. Follow these steps, and this turns into a very satisfying project that changes how your Z looks and feels from the driver's seat.
Let's go over the essentials to make your Datsun Z headliner replacement a success!
Table of Contents
What You Need for the Job
You need the right materials ready to go before you pull apart your headliner. The fabric needs to be of automotive grade and also needs to have foam backing already attached to it. This foam backing matters because your Datsun Z is going to get extremely hot inside during those summer months. Normal upholstery fabric from a hobby store won't hold up well when the temperatures get that high. If you don't have that backing layer, the standard fabric just won't hold its shape too well. You'll start to see wrinkles and sagging develop within a few weeks of installation.
You'll also need spray adhesive. 3M 77 is what most Z owners go with, and it does the job for a reason - it gives you a strong bond but still gives you a few minutes to adjust the fabric if something isn't lining up quite right. Plastic spreaders are also needed for working the fabric smooth once it's down. Metal tools will tear through the material or leave permanent marks that'll be impossible to hide later.
The condition of your original backing board might mean you'll have to replace it at some point. The old cardboard backing has a tendency to crumble and fall apart after it's been through decades of temperature changes and moisture damage. Owners who replace it usually go with either thin hardboard or dense foam core board, and either option seems to hold up just fine over time.
SMS Auto Fabrics comes up pretty frequently in the Z owner communities when the conversation turns to interior materials. Their automotive-grade headliner fabric comes with heat resistance built in and already has the backing attached (which saves you a step). The original pattern fabric is becoming harder to track down each year. Most owners will look at what SMS has available and choose something that complements their interior well, instead of spending months on the hunt for a perfect match that might not even be available anymore.
How to Remove Your Old Headliner
Plenty of owners make the mistake of trying to wrestle the headliner out as it's still in the car, and it just makes everything harder than it needs to be. The much easier way is to slide the entire backing board out through your hatchback as one whole piece. That way, you don't have to work around the awkward angles and cramped space, and you'll have a lot more room to work on the board when you get it outside of the vehicle.
The dome light is going to be your first step because you'll need to disconnect it before the board can come out. Before you touch any wires, grab your phone and take a few pictures of how everything is connected. Wire routing on early Datsun Z models can be pretty quirky, and you might forget how it all goes back together when you're ready to reassemble. Next up, remove the sun visors and whatever trim pieces hold the board in place. Put all your screws and clips together in a labeled container because replacement hardware for cars this old (we're talking about 40 or 50 years here) can be hard to find. After everything is disconnected and loose, you can work the board out through the hatch opening at an angle.
Remember - these headliner boards are 40 to 50 years old at this point, and they can crack or crumble pretty easily if you're not gentle with them. You should support the board from underneath as you move it around and try not to bend it too much in any direction. Decades of age can make these boards pretty fragile - they can look great and still be surprisingly delicate.
A cracked or broken board during removal is actually pretty common, and it's not going to derail your project. All those pieces can still work just fine as a template when you're ready to cut out the replacement.
Make sure to save every piece and even the smaller fragments because you'll need to line them all up together to recreate the original shape and take accurate measurements.
How to Replace the Old Backing Board
Odds are your Datsun Z's original cardboard backing is in pretty rough shape. These cars are nearly 50 years old at this point, and the backing board tends to crumble into pieces if you try to pull it out of there.
First, you should make a template before the old board crumbles to pieces. Lay some butcher paper (or thin cardboard works too) over the existing headliner and trace around the entire outline as you go. Make sure to mark every mounting hole location, as you can still see them - the dome light, the sun visor mounts and all that. These reference points really matter!
Most car restorers eventually swap out the original cardboard for something that'll actually last. Thin plywood and hardboard are the two most popular replacement options. They hold their shape way better compared to what the factory installed back in the day, and any hardware store will have them in stock as full sheets that are pretty easy to trim down to whatever size you need.
Some model years have wiring channels built right into the headliner itself, and if yours happens to be one of them, you'll need to mark those paths on your template too. Grab a marker and trace along where the wires actually sit in the original board. Later, when you recreate those channels in your new backing board, you'll want to have everything mapped out ahead of time.
The new backing material should be pretty close to the same thickness as whatever your original board was, and it needs to be thin enough to give you a little bit of flex when you work with it. It also needs to hold firm after you get everything in place. For most Z models, 1/4-inch hardboard is going to work really well and give you that balance.
Once you have your template positioned, go ahead and copy those marked holes onto the new board. Measure everything at least twice before you drill any permanent holes.
How to Use the Adhesive Properly
The adhesive is the biggest part of any headliner installation. Rushing through this part or skipping it altogether can cause the whole project to fail. You'll have to apply spray adhesive to each surface before they touch - the backing board gets a coat, and the fabric gets its own coat as well.
After you've applied the glue to each of the pieces, the wait time is actually the part that matters most. Give it between 30 and 60 seconds before you press them together. In that time, the glue gets to just the right level of tackiness to create a strong bond. Trying to stick them together too early means the glue will still be too wet and the pieces will slide all over the place instead of staying put where you need them.
You want to start in the center and work your way out toward the edges. That way, you push any of the air bubbles and wrinkles out to the sides, where it's way easier to smooth them out and get rid of them. Starting from one end instead and trying to work your way across it will trap the air underneath, and those air pockets are going to be a bit of a pain to fix after the fact.
Try not to touch the fabric surface as much as you can as you work with it. The natural oils from your skin will actually weaken the adhesive bond over time, and that's the last concern you want after you've already put in all this work.
Attach Your Fabric to the Board
When you actually put the fabric down, that's where your prep work finally pays off. You'll have to get it positioned just right before it touches any of that adhesive you spread on earlier because once those two surfaces meet, you're locked in. Peeling it back to fix mistakes at that point is nearly impossible. Always start from the center of the headliner board and then work your way outward toward the edges.
A plastic spreader is a solid choice to press the fabric down and push out any air bubbles that pop up underneath. A soft cloth works just as well if that's easier for you to control. The best way to apply the fabric is to start from the middle and work your way toward the edges with smooth and steady strokes. This helps stop the fabric from bunching or wrinkling and helps you prevent any problems once the adhesive sets up and bonds permanently.
Cutouts for the dome light opening take a little more patience and careful work than the other parts of the install. Make sure to use a sharp blade and to cut in small sections instead of trying it all in one big slice. The opening has to line up right with where the light fixture is going to mount, and any gaps around the edges are going to show up and look pretty unfinished when you're done.
Remember the edges of your headliner board - they need a little bit of work too. A lot of installers like to leave a small amount of extra fabric around the perimeter, and this lets them tuck it under the trim pieces when everything goes back together. It hides any raw edges and gives you a bit of wiggle room in case your measurements were slightly off. Other installers cut the fabric almost flush with the board, and this does the job when the trim pieces are still in decent shape and will cover everything up on their own.
Put Everything Back and Test the Results
After you have the fabric work done, the board needs to go back through the hatchback opening. The adhesive puts a bit of bulk on the headliner and makes it a bit harder than it was when you took it out. Use the same angle that you used during removal and don't rush the process - it'll go back in if you work with it slowly and carefully.
Reconnect the dome light wiring before you close everything up and lock it all into place. Now is a great opportunity to switch to LED bulbs if you haven't already. LEDs put out way less heat compared to the old incandescent bulbs, and the less heat that radiates up there, the better off your new fabric will be over time.
Go ahead and put the sun visors back on, and then you can get started on the mounting screws. The screw holes might not want to line up just right, and that's normal. The board could have bent just a little bit as you were working on it, or maybe the fabric layer added enough extra thickness to make everything sit slightly different than it did before.
If a screw hole doesn't line up right, don't force it. Just apply gentle pressure to the board and move it into position. An extra set of hands can really help out here - have someone else hold the headliner steady as you check the alignment and make small adjustments. This might take a little bit of trial and error until everything settles into place.
Once you've finished with the mounting points, spend a few minutes walking around and giving everything a careful inspection. Run your hand along the entire perimeter and feel for any loose areas or gaps that may have been missed during the installation. Apply some gentle pressure to each mounting area and verify that nothing wobbles or seems like it could move around when weight is applied to it. Test the dome light to make sure that everything is wired up correctly. Better to check it now than to button everything back up only to find out that something came loose or wasn't connected right during the install.
Build Your Dream Car
A headliner replacement is one of the projects that defines what classic Z ownership is all about. A wrinkle or two on your first attempt is pretty normal - something small that you'll see every time you look up. Even with those minor imperfections, it's still going to be miles better than that saggy, faded disaster that was hanging over your head before. Every Z owner who has managed to keep these cars looking sharp and running well learned by actually doing the work, and now you're in that club too. It feels great to know you tackled this yourself instead of writing a check to someone else or just living with an interior that's falling apart.
Every time you get in the car and look up at that clean, nicely finished fabric, it's going to bring back the effort you invested in it. Months from now, or years later, it still feels rewarding. The work you put in yourself is what actually makes the car better. That personal investment is what keeps these vehicles going for the long haul.
The interior is a great place to start with restoration and upgrade work on your 240Z, 260Z or 280Z. At Skillard, we produce custom parts made for Datsun owners who want to improve the appearance and performance of their cars. Bumper upgrades, aluminum door cards, center consoles and spoilers - the full catalog was built around delivering the quality and attention to detail these classic cars actually deserve. Our products are on Skillard.com, and you can browse around and find what you'll need to make your vision for your Z come to life.
