Headliner Adhesive

[Alan Welch]

The headliner, appears to be vinyl, in the forward cabin is peeling off and needs to be re-glued. This attaches directly to the fiberglass with no insulation. Does anyone have a recommendation for a glue type/brand to use?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Stillraining]

Hey Allen...Not 4 days ago I just asked my carpet guy doing our motorhome were getting ready to sell about this...He was contouring carpet around the wheel wells and fire wall with contact cement so I asked about headliners in boats myself....he said the stuff from 3M was very good.

When I told him I already tried that myself with horrible results, he asked me point blank if I cleaned and prepped the fiberglass down to a finish clean enough for auto body paint.

Well I had to answer NO!...I had left old glue and all kinds of sin under there to hide..

He said there in lies your problem...it has to be that clean or it will fall off like what happened to me.

The only other thing I thought about doing was glueing in some 1/2 closed cell foam with a more structual adheasive like outdoor carpet adheasive...That would give you a nice clean surface to start over with....and some insulation/condensation relief as well..

I was/am already way upside down in that boat rebuild so I have just sold it as is....but I think it would work....Trying to clean off all that old glue overhead like that would be a killer.

[svHyLyte]

We replaced the headliners in our fore and aft heads with a vinyl material with a soft "fuzzy" backing material in '06. The adheasive that worked for us was:



This is the material that is used to attach vinyl tops to automobiles and it seems to work very well, even here in the southwest Florida heat of summer.

The most difficult task was removing the old adheasive and debris from the old liner from the underside of the decking. 3M adheasive cleaner did the job but be sure to wear a mask rated for VOC's and be sure to use fresh filters in the mask.

FWIW...

[Alan Welch]

Thank you both, I'll be sure to clean the old gunk off first.

Cheers.

[Stillraining]

Originally Posted by Alan Welch

Thank you both, I'll be sure to clean the old gunk off first.

Cheers.

Post some before and after picks...Id love to see how it all turns out for you.... and Good luck!

For sure get at least one set of extra hands for the glue up as well.... two would be even better..

[speciald@ocens.]

Remember that both products above are "contact cements". That means that once contact occurs, it is stuck there. Spray the ceiling and fabric is small sections so that it can be applied smoothly.

[Alan Welch]

You guys are great, thanks very much.

[svHyLyte]

A trick I used to ensure the alignment of the material was to apply small patches of double stick tape to the underside of the deck that allowed me to place the liner material "dry". The liner could then be rolled back and adheasive sprayed on the underside of the deck and the exposed edge of the material. Once that "tacked up" the liner material could be rolled back into place and hard rolled flat with a small wooden wall paper roller. It was a tedious process, particularly with a mask on (a necessity!) but it worked and the small patches of double stick tape, left in place, made no difference to the finished product.

FWIW...

[Alan Welch]

Excellent tip. Fortunately, the liner is still partially attached so this may not be needed as it is already "aligned. But anyone else reading this post can use that information.

[ggray]

I've used 3M water based contact cement. No dangerous fumes, and there is no tendency to soften the vinyl. More expensive, but you don't use as much.