Has Anyone Replaced Hull Liner / Vinyl?

[Catsoon]

Hi there- we recently bought a 1995 FP Athena and love a lot about the boat. The only thing that drives us crazy is the funky grey felt fabric hull liner that is showing its age and looking fairly ghetto.
Has anyone ever replaced these types of hull liners? any advice or experience on how to do it? where to find the fabric/liner? how to do it cost effectively but have a nice end product?
I'm not sure even what type of marine service company would tackle this kind of project. The boat yards i've talked to won't do it.

Thanks for any insight! we're excited to be in a multihull!

[Ocean Girl]

Yep, and it is a pain! What I did, and this was a 30 ft Gemini cat so lots of surface area. Anyways, what I did was rip out the gawd awful offensive liner, clean area with a wire brush (that was the best way to get the old glue/foam off), then I epoxied strakes to the ceiling for attachment points of the new liner. lastly, I painted the surface with an epoxy based paint. I then hired a canvas guy to come in with his expertise and air gun and staple the new liner up. It only took him a couple of hours so the cost was low. My prep time was over a week, I can't even imagine what that would of cost me if he did the whole thing.

must haves are
shop vac
snowman suit
good goggles with screened vents (or the small particles of liner debris will get in your eyes)
respirator and paper masks
3M Adhesive remover in the red and white can (why you need a real respirator)
Wire brushes of all types

You may not need to glue new strakes, can't remember why I couldn't use the original strakes??

Have fun,
Erika

[Ocean Girl]

Also, I forgot to mention to tape a good drop cloth down. The foam backing will look dry and a bit crubly but it is sticky and will really gum up a nice teak sole, tape it down so the workers don't kick it up and expose your sole.
Cheers,
Erika

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by Catsoon

Hi there- we recently bought a 1995 FP Athena and love a lot about the boat. The only thing that drives us crazy is the funky grey felt fabric hull liner that is showing its age and looking fairly ghetto.
Has anyone ever replaced these types of hull liners? any advice or experience on how to do it? where to find the fabric/liner? how to do it cost effectively but have a nice end product?
I'm not sure even what type of marine service company would tackle this kind of project. The boat yards i've talked to won't do it.

Thanks for any insight! we're excited to be in a multihull!

I have removed hull liner from another make of boat and it's a nasty job, as Ocean Girl explained. Some of the adhesive removers can overwhelm you with vapors and potentially create an explosive atmosphere. They might also affect your skin and internal organs for the worse, so use appropriate safety measures.

Step 1 was mechanical removal of the material. If the adhesive is too strong to take it off in large pieces you may need to "help" it by shoving a scraper blade as you peel.

Another approach to help release the adhesive is to convert it to something else -- I had great success removing vinyl stripes and lettering with "3M Woodgrain and Stripe Adhesive Remover, 08908". It's expensive but it will save labor because it converts the underlying adhesive to a non-sticky slime that cleans up relatively easily. It should work on the "mouse fur" felt you described. It might not penetrate through to the adhesive of foam-backed vinyl but it would be useful on stage-2 removal of the gum after you physically remove the foam-backed material. You can get it online or through local auto-finish suppliers. It's expensive so try it first then buy cheaper by the case if it's the right approach for your situation.

The 3M General Purpose Adhesive Remover was a great stage-2 after using the Woodgrain and Stripe Adhesive Remover. Very volatile stuff.

Another great adhesive remover is WD-40, and it's nowhere near as volatile or expensive as the 3M stuff, and is good for initial removal when you have gobs of adhesive but it will leave a coating which will need to be further removed by purer solvents. You can buy it by the gallon -- I paid $13 at Home Depot.

Good luck.

[fastcat435]

We use a vinyl liner made in Germany , it is 3 mm thick good sound absorbing temeprature insulating easy to glue down and easy to clean, the first boat where we installed it is now 6 years old and it is still in good shape. we pay around 13 Euro per square meter
Gideon

[maxingout]

Originally Posted by fastcat435

We use a vinyl liner made in Germany , it is 3 mm thick good sound absorbing temeprature insulating easy to glue down and easy to clean, the first boat where we installed it is now 6 years old and it is still in good shape. we pay around 13 Euro per square meter
Gideon

Do you have a link to the vinyl liner that you mentioned in your post?

[fastcat435]

This company has no web address that I am aware of and only sell full rolls of this vinyl or 140 square meters per roll , if however you need this material I can send you samples and am willing to help you with it.
we order 5 rolls per order minimum.
the do a 3 mm and a 5 mm thick vinyl so if the area where you intend to put it is a very noisy one use the 5 otherwise use the 3 mm
greetings

[forsailbyowner]

Nautalux makes vinyl hull liner. Look at defender or manart hirsch to supply. Trowel on cvt (commercial vinyl tile) cement for bonding. Its fairly elastic for conforming to hull.

[Renasci]

I would pull it down, sand the dried glue down, paint it with Pettit's Durawhite, then glue down new. Durawhite is made for inside hulls and I've had it raining on the inside because it was so cold outside, and then moved to florida and there's no mold nor mildue after 5 years, just like the advertisements said. It cleans up with water, dries really tough where you can scrub it hard without wearing it off, it comes in only flat white. After all that, then go to Marine Surplus in Bradenton Fl and get the material from them.
s/v Renasci