Car repair question for Mike Sulivan.

[Jim Burnes]

Look, I'll forgive you for living in Texas if you will help me out on a question regards the ceiling fabric in my 91 Pontiac Transport van: It is starting to sag directly over my drivers position and a little sag over the center too.

How can the fabric be tightened up?

Jim Burnes

(note how polite I am )

[207]

1. You could remove the headliner entirely, peel back the fabric to you get to the sagging part and then use a spray contact adhesive (the body shop stuff) to resecure it and then reinstall the headliner.

Or you can cheat and:

2. Use the spray contact adhesive with a nozzle extension tube, poke a small hole or two in the headliner, spray the adhesive in and work the headliner material around so you don't get any wrinkles. Those "Bondo" applicators or similar straight edge is good for working the material.

I've used method #2 with good results. It just takes patience to get rid of any wrinkles.

A Pontiac Transport, huh??? I figured you'd have a Jeep CHEROKEE.

[Mike Tx]

Jim, I know of no way to do that. You will most likely need to have the "Headliner" replaced. Typically it's around 100 or so dollars. Maybe more.

[Jim Burnes]

Mike & 207,

Thanks for the info. We now return to our regular insults!

Pontiac if you recall real history, kicked a bit of tail .

Out here, you sometimes see a Jeep Grand Cherokee with the hand-painted lettering just below the Cherokee mark: By God!

Jim Burnes

[Mike Tx]

Pontiac:

Poor Old Navaho Thinks It's A Cherokee!

[Jim Burnes]

[jarhead6073]

I don't know if '91 is old enough, but sometimes in older cars the padding will actually deterioate and new adhesive won't last long. If the padding is still soft to the touch it should be fine. But if it's brittle you'll probably need a whole new headliner.

[InSane1]

Jim honey, buy a new Van. Once the headliner is shot the rest just goes right to hell.

[ 07-20-2002: Message edited by: InSane1 ]

[Jim Burnes]

Getting another van is the reason I need to repair that headliner! I've got to do that, tighten up the inner door panels, replace the front w/shield ( ) and detail the inside.

Then I can have a 2001 Chrysler Van with the TV-DVD player and all power everything Built-in telephone.

Red with black tinted windows. It will be my Pow Wow car

Jim Burnes

[Don]

JIM BURNES! I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I am in you! What the devil is a good Native American like you doing driving a damned old mini van anyway?????

YOU SIR, HAVE DISGRACED YOUR PEOPLE. AND WORSE STILL, MYPEOPLE. Where the devil is your pickum-up truck???????

Speaking of Pow Wow, have you ever been to the one at Flagstaff????

[wonderwoman]

Yeah!! and while you are bantering can someone tell me what I can use to STOP the rust from spreading on my old car. Its mainly around the bottom of the doors. I am afraid I am going to loose the bottom.

[jellybean40]

OK...help me too!

My "Check Engine" light came on...in the manual it says to take to the dealership right away for diagnosis...hahahaha... with what money??

<laughs hysterically>

[ 07-21-2002: Message edited by: jellybean40 ]

[Mike Tx]

First thing you should do is check the motor oil. If that's ok then look to see if any wires are disconnected under the hood. If you can't see anything wrong, you should have someone scan the vehicles computer. Most repair shops can do it for much less than the dealer can.

Depending on the year and make, the check engine light being on can mean anything from a minor sensor malfunction that won't cause a problem, up to serious emmision control failures, engine performance problems, and or transmission failure/performance problems of some type.

[10-13]

if you have an Autozone (autoparts store) in your area they will scan your CE light and tell you what is wrong for free. fixing the problem will be what costs you the big bucks

if you want your dealer to ONLY scan your CE light and not perform any repairs youll be paying anywhere from 25-75 bucks.

[Piper]

I'm so glad my car is STILL under warranty!

It will be a year old in October