retrimming roof and pillars - w220

[jplpt]

i was thinking of retrimming roof and pillars on my 1999 w220.
if i change them from fabric to alcantara, will it have any bad effect on the airbags perfomance?

thank you

 

[Craiglxviii]

Not sure on the pillar or curtain airbag, these will be tuned to the tear-off force of the existing headliner.

One thing though is that it will make your car around 4dB louder. Headliners are fabric as that both absorbs NVH (sound energy & vibrations) going through it, but also reduces sound reflections inside the cabin.

 

[jplpt]

my major fear is the airbags not working properly in case of accident...

 

[Flyinspanner]

They could well not deploy/deploy late/incorrectly if the covering isn't correctly engineered to rip in the right place, when the correct force is applied.
I would think alcantara would be much harder to rip than fabric?

 

[Flyinspanner]

I wonder if 'flocking' the existing fabric would work?

Best talk to a trimmer, or look up flocking, see if it would suit.

 

[Xtractorfan]

From memory the fabric doesn't have any bearing on the deployment of the airbags... Air bag installed cars will have a one piece roof lining that has no side fixings and will flex to allow the air bags to deploy downwards. The roof lining does not tear.

 

[Flyinspanner]

Is that also the case for the roof pillars?
And wonder if 'curtain' type bags deploy downward from roof? Not sure what bags OP car has fitted.

 

[Craiglxviii]

From memory the fabric doesn't have any bearing on the deployment of the airbags... Air bag installed cars will have a one piece roof lining that has no side fixings and will flex to allow the air bags to deploy downwards. The roof lining does not tear.

Right, just had a look.

The curtain airbag on the W220 is a single unit per side that reaches from the upper edge of the front windscreen to the upper edge of the rear on both sides. Headliner is clipped in place along with various trim parts and it is the clips that have the pulloff force requirement, not tearing of fabric.

So OP, as long as you can make a new headliner to fit in exactly the same way as your existing one, using the original clips (they're not sold separately) then your airbag performance will be fine.

However, the car will be significantly louder than before, as you'll be effectively installing a sound mirror right above your head.