97 SL500 hard top headliner replacement
 

anybody replaced their hardtop headliner?need sugestions thanks

No, but it should be much easier than a closed car since the roof comes off.

I did the headliner on my 97 C280 in conjunction with a windshield replacement so extraction was easy. The liner board is a pressed strand affair that isn't very strong so be careful. I'm not sure if the SL is same or not.

I cleaned the sticky foam off with a plastic scrub brush mostly by working in one direction then determined that the dry crumbly stuff was glue. Be careful not to gouge the liner.

It's a PITA!
 

I replaced one in my previous 1993 300SL, I enjoyed the cleaning, cleaning, cleaning... cutting, putting back together so much that for my current 1991 300SL, the decided to pay an auto upholstery shop $200 for a first rate job. What I also got with the $200 is their expertise in re-stapling and re-gluing (with special commercial upholstery glue) all the loose MB-Tex that covers the various fascia around the rear glass in my car. Including that, to me, was worth the $200!

When I needed the headliner done on the C280 and Dodge Spirit, I had Mom and Dad clean off the foam and took it to the trim shop. These are Mom's cars, she likes helping out where she can and the trim guy was happy he didn't have to scrape the junk off.