Imperial Car Club Forum

In browsing around for fuselage cars, I've noticed several with headliner stains, ranging from mild to oh-my-god.

In fooling around with other old cars, I've encountered plenty of falling-down headliners (looking at you, GM!), but really not any issues with stains. I don't know how they get up there, unless there's some kind of leak that lets rainwater in. (BTW, none of these cars have had sunroofs.) Attached is a couple of screengrabs from a blurry video, but I think you can see what I mean.

Is there a known issue with these models that causes this?

It has to be water related. Maybe there is seam or something in the body where it was welded together during manufacture and it's not water-tight. Or no longer water-tight after all these years of flexing and twisting.

Or mice got up in there at some point but that’s usually accompanied by a foul smell.

Cadillac had a similar problem in the 1967-1970 models. It was because of a chemical reaction between the headlining and the inner roof insulation (and the glue used to retain it). When a Cadillac so affected (or should I say, afflicted) presented this problem during warranty, the fix was to replace the headlining, and to trim away any discolored roof insulation and/or prevent it from contacting the back side of the headlining material. Based upon this , I surmise that the roof insulation has fallen free of the roof panel, and is contacting the back side of the headlining, causing the discoloration. I haven't seen one as bad as the one in the photos, though.

Interesting, Crown64. I have not had a Caddy that old, so I had never heard of this. The headliner in my '78 looked great as it was falling down.

If I decide to pursue the car in the pix, I'll have an indepth discussion with the owner about this.

Interesting indeed - will have to keep that in mind. To be sure, you might try the sniff test - if it smells like mildew or something in that spot but not in others, then I would assume it's moisture related. Don't sniff in any black mold though

I'm happy to say that mold huffing has not been one of my real temptations--so far, anyway.