Headliner zippers

[DavZeeMXT]

My mechanic just finished this years annual on my 1997 MXT-7. He was unable to zip closed the zippers in the headliner. It appears they’re nylon and there’s some teeth missing and they are fragile from age. Anyone have any experience with repair or replacement?

[PCH]

You’re going to want them to close somehow. Otherwise you’ll end up with a whole lot of cold air blowing on you.
It wasn’t elegant, but I ended up using duct tape.

[Andy Young]

As far as repair goes, it seems your options are:

1. Remove it and take it to someone to have it repaired. Good shops to look for might be ones that do upholstery work on furniture, canvas boat tops, or outdoor gear repair. That said, if you’re going to pull the headliner all the way out, it might make more sense to just replace it with a new one.

2. Repair in place. This will be tedious, but perhaps less so than removing the whole headliner. Carefully cut/pull out the stitching that holds the zipper in place, and sew in a new one. This will be made MUCH easier by the use of a Speedy Stitcher.

https://www.sailrite.com/Speedy-Stitche ... h1EALw_wcB

When I worked in Antarctica, these things were an indispensable tool for doing all manner of heavy gear repair. Tents, boots, clothing, etc. So much faster and easier than normal hand-sewing.