I skipped a lot of the steps when it comes to pictures but it is actually very easy.
The sun visors have two screws holding them in place and then you just have to pull the cable spade out of the back. This is there to turn the lights on when you open the mirror slide.
The sun visor catch each has two screws holding it in place. The newer cars have plastic screw cover caps you have to remove first. These also have wires going into the back of them that you have to pull out. These are there so that the light in the visor turns off even if the mirror is open when you close it.
You have to remove the three grap handles. They each have 2 screws holding them in place. They have small plastic covers over the screws. You have to carefully pull them out and down. There are small plastic guide pins that can easily break if you pull them out too quickly or if you rotate them out.
The lights above the visors are easily removed by getting ahold of one side, creating a little slack and then pulling down and removing the wiring harness.
You also should remove the a and c pillar covers. The b pillars are tough to remove and you could avoid removing these if you want.
You also have to pull off the door seals and rear window vent seals to allow the headliner to drop down.
The sunroof switch panel is easily removed by pushing to one side and then carefully pulling down.
You can remove the map light by prying it out.
You also have to remove the seal around the sunroof.

You can remove the headliner with the seats in but you need to recline them all the way back. It is much easier with the seats out. It is also easier to remove with two people to maneuver the headliner. It is very fragile and you have to be careful not to bend it. You have to slide it out the door at an angle.

This is what it looks like with the headliner out of the car:

good write up...will be swapping sunroof assembly this weekend.....sounds pretty simple

sunroof assembly is a pain. Should have two people. It is heavy and hard to position and hold in place while attaching it.

did you remove the headliner and put another in its place? the black cloth on my headliner is coming down and im thinking of buying new cloth, some 3M spray adhesive and doing it with a buddy of mine. Its way to expensive to get it done, i got quoted 200+ from three different places.

People have done it and you should be able to find the info in a search...I haven't done this though. I just replaced the headliner completely.

did you remove the headliner and put another in its place? the black cloth on my headliner is coming down and im thinking of buying new cloth, some 3M spray adhesive and doing it with a buddy of mine. Its way to expensive to get it done, i got quoted 200+ from three different places.

I did mine with grey suede from the fabric store. It's not hard at all, but you have to go slowly and work carefully around the compound curves in the front visor/maplight area.

I did mine with grey suede from the fabric store. It's not hard at all, but you have to go slowly and work carefully around the compound curves in the front visor/maplight area.
what spray adhesive do you recomend? I was told to use the 3M spray adhesive. and in materials, how much did you end up spending?

I was quoted $325 by an upholsterer to remove the headliner from the car and reattach new cloth. They told me that even though my cloth wasn't ripped, restretching and gluing it won't work: the foam on the back of the cloth is degraded, and any glue you might try to use to reattach the cloth will seep through and look awful.

My guess is that removing the headliner is a less painful procedure than attaching new fabric. Too bad it didn't go out on my car while it was still under warranty.

what spray adhesive do you recomend? I was told to use the 3M spray adhesive. and in materials, how much did you end up spending?

I used the 3m "super 77" spray adhesive. The stuff is great, it only tacks at first, so you can move stuff around for a few seconds, but once it dries, it's nigh impossible to remove.
I'd definitely recommend doing several test-pieces though, so you can get an idea how the spray comes out and how much you can put on there before it starts to soak through the fabric.
Also, make sure you have a lot of latex gloves on hand, because you don't want to touch the new cloth with your glue-covered fingers.
Remember, you have enough fabric to do the little trim parts (sunroof switch and A and C pillar covers) a lot of times, but only enough to do the headliner once. Start with the smallest part (sunroof switch) and work your way up.
I had to do my sunroof switch plate 3 times, but you'll be a pro once you get to the headliner.
It cost me about $45 in total, but I bought a bunch of extra fabric. 3 yards will probably do ya if you're conservative and plan your cuts. I got 4.5 yards, just so I didn't have to worry about messing up.
I also used this thread and the one linked in it as a reference.
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=190850

I was quoted $325 by an upholsterer to remove the headliner from the car and reattach new cloth. They told me that even though my cloth wasn't ripped, restretching and gluing it won't work: the foam on the back of the cloth is degraded, and any glue you might try to use to reattach the cloth will seep through and look awful.


They're just saying this because they don't want to do it.
The old foam is nasty stuff, but it just rubs off with a rag. Make sure you wear gloves while doing this though, because the headliner is fiberglass, and rubbing fiberglass splinters into your hand hurts like a mother.
You have to rub all this foam off, or else the glue won't stick like they said, and you'll have lumps under the new headliner.
Also, make sure your new headliner material is nowhere around when you do this. The foam gets into EVERYTHING, and if it gets into cloth, it won't come out.

Thanks for the info, Im gonna deff do it this weekend.

make sure when you spray the 3m adhesive that u spray both the back of the new headliner fabric and the headliner itself. then wait about 30 seconds before you lay the fabric on the headliner to allow the glue adhere better.

Has anyone just said 'screw it' to the fabric headliner and just sanded down the adhesive of the headliner (once the fabric is removed) and then painted it?

No need to worry about sagging if there is no fabric to 'sag'

Has anyone just said 'screw it' to the fabric headliner and just sanded down the adhesive of the headliner (once the fabric is removed) and then painted it?

No need to worry about sagging if there is no fabric to 'sag'
have you done it? sounds interesting

it is just made of cardboard or such...very flimsy...I don't think it would work.

it is just made of cardboard or such...very flimsy...I don't think it would work.

It's actually very thin fiberglass. But yeah, you'd have to make it thicker with bondo or more layers of fiberglass before you could prep and paint it.

i wouldn't paint it...

unless you want your car to echo every noise..

the material helps absorb it

Here is the link to the b-pillar removal:
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=328460

dunno if this is the right place to ask this, but the back of my headliner by the rear window where it is bent has come out, and I can't seem to squeeze it back into the slot. Anyone have any recommendations on how to fix this? Thanks

The 3M adhesive is worth the extra cost.

dunno if this is the right place to ask this, but the back of my headliner by the rear window where it is bent has come out, and I can't seem to squeeze it back into the slot. Anyone have any recommendations on how to fix this? Thanks

Stick it back into the slot, and tack it in there with glue so it stays.
I used gorilla glue, with some small finishing nails jammed into the slot to shim the headliner while the glue dries.
Once the glue is dry, pull out the nails.

The very back along the rear window is curved and needs to be attached. It won't shove up into the roof of the car necessarily. It clips onto these little metal parts bent down from the roof. This keeps it secure so that it doesn't rattle when you have the sunroof open.

Does the sunroof have to be removed in order to re-cover it? I would like to do this DIY, but have strong reservations/fears about taking out the sunroof.

Thanks

Technically you can leave the sunroof cassette mounted to the car and still remove the fabric covered shuttle. However, I think this is more difficult to some extent because it makes it harder to get to what you need to get to. However, removing the whole cassette can be difficult as well if you don't have anyone there to help you support it.

If you check my DIY you can skip the part where it tells you to remove the entire cassette and just follow the directions to remove the fabric shuttle part.