While I still have a few days of decent weather left I need to take down the headliner in my Custom Cruiser in order to fix some leaks in the roof rack mounts. There are a LOT of mounting pieces and screws that I need to undo but do not want to break anything as these parts are impossible to find. My shop manual diagrams where everything is and vaguely the order in which it should come down, but not HOW to remove it in terms of safely undoing clips and/or how hard isn't TOO hard to pull them out. I don't need to make things worse trim-wise, so if you have experience with headliner removal I'd appreciate tips (especially step-by-step how-to guides with pictures and...)

 

It is nearly impossible to remove the garnish molding around the edges of the headliner without breaking at least some of the plastic clips that hold the moldings in place. The plastic clips get brittle with age and have a barb design that is not easily released once the trim is in place. I've been to that movie on two different B-body wagons. The clips are not available new. I would strongly recommend that you fix the leaks from the outside by removing the roof rack and re-sealing the fasteners that way. Frankly, that's the better approach since trying to seal from the bottom, you'll only be troweling sealer over the bottom of the leak path. Sealing from the top plugs the leak path completely. I suggest using non-hardening seam sealer on each of the screws, not RTV. The acetic acid in the RTV can cause rust in the metal.

 

(Possibly dumb) question: You can unscrew the roof rack without dropping the headliner? I thought there would be nuts inside the roof that you'd have to hold/retain. They're just screws into the metal of the roof? No wonder it leaks...

 

You can remove the side moldings by pushing up from the outside and pulling in. It's very tricky but I was able to get them out without breaking any clips, on my '83 and a Caprice, though I never tackled a wagon. What you need to be careful of is deforming the metal piece itself in the process. The a-pillar plastic trim comes off with it as there's no other way to get it out so that needs to be unscrewed. Don't forget the Torx bit for the seat belt bolt so you can pull the b-pillar covering away as well, along with the sunvisors, dome light with the tricky press-on circle-clips and coat hooks. Even with the board down, you might still need to get it out of the car to really do anything to the underside of the roof, so be prepared for a big project.

I'm guessing the nuts for the bracketry have sealer glued onto them and they dried out. One benefit to looking underneath is there should be some evidence of just which holes were leaking.