Interior vinyl lining.....Beneteau.....1987

[....LORD....]

Those Bénéteau boats are very interesting in many ways , i love mine ' FIRST 285....!! But they have this problem , after 20 or 25 years , the vinyl lining comes off the fiberglas , obviously it's the foam between the fiberglass and vinyl ( + - 3/16 inch ) that deteriorates , it turns into dust....!! Anyone has found an easy solution to fix that situation....??

Regards
Kent

[CaptNemoO2]

Coincedentally I'll be trying to figure that out today. I put in an electric winch and disturbed the headliner which is now almost completely off!

I'll let you know if anything i try works!

[belizesailor]

Its just automotive headliner material. The foam backing helps cover minor surface flaws. Builders slap it on because its quicker and cheaper than faring and finishing...and pass the savings on to themselves!

You can stick it back up with spray adhesive or contact cement (much more aggressive and harder to remove than spray adhesive), but it wont look as good.

Best bet is to buy new material and reinstall.

[mikedefieslife]

Vinyl headlining is the work of the devil should such a thing exist. Many a used boat owner has spent time trying to scrap off mouldy crumbling headlining. IIRC the dust is also toxic, so try not to breathe too much in on removal.

Custom fibreglass panels are all the rage these days. Super easy to keep clean, install, and remove.

[hensh]

I have just finished redoing my 1994 Montevideo 43 - all vinyl and foam backing replaced.

All headline vinyl was on plywood panels so it was straight forward to replace however the side panels were a bit tricky but it looks great and was well worth the effort.

If you search Youtube for Montevideo 43 you will see my channel where I cover some of the work

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by ....LORD....

Those Bénéteau boats are very interesting in many ways , i love mine ' FIRST 285....!! But they have this problem , after 20 or 25 years , the vinyl lining comes off the fiberglas , obviously it's the foam between the fiberglass and vinyl ( + - 3/16 inch ) that deteriorates , it turns into dust....!! Anyone has found an easy solution to fix that situation....??

Regards
Kent

Yeah, not just Bene but my catamaran did the same thing. My solution was to just peel the vinyl off, wire brush as best as possible, vacuum up and replace the vinyl with contact cement. The last bit of the foam that is still in the old adhesive doesnt have to come off. In larger quantity buy Landau Top Adhesive. Use the old vinyl as a pattern to cut the new covering.
If you dont want to redo it all you can remove the foam dust from the vinyl and just reglue it. But as mentioned lumps and waviness in the glass will show.
"Rat fur" is available cheap and has no foam, yet still hides the lumps. Many builders use that in lieu of vinyl/foam.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

Vinyl headlining is the work of the devil should such a thing exist. Many a used boat owner has spent time trying to scrap off mouldy crumbling headlining. IIRC the dust is also toxic, so try not to breathe too much in on removal.

Custom fibreglass panels are all the rage these days. Super easy to keep clean, install, and remove.

Yeah, getting it off is messy manual labor, wear at least a particulates mask.

If its mounted on a backing board, as it really should be, the repairing/replacing is much easier, but many builders just glue it to the hull knowing it wont be their problem by the time the foam decays...then its a messy PITA.

Good old Formica can work as a replacement depending on shape of surface.

[sailorcherry]

Don't have your boat and most of ours all just kept the f/g hull bare down the boat, two stringers showing.

However part of our refit, for beautification and wanting to brush up against something that felt nice vs bare fiberglass, was covering it all with Sailrite's batting and Naugasoft. We have had a lot of compliments and it feels plush. In the aft cabin it still looks nice three years later. Currently, in the midst of redoing the entire vberth with it after tearing out the crappy, older marine light grey carpet that has a propensity for staining and not aging well.

[Junglebike]

We have a 1987 First 405. Lucky for us, the previous owner went through the hell of removing the vinyl and degraded foam from the aft cabin, which is the biggest problem area. He wore a hazmat suit and a respirator for the job I believe. I suppose I could replace it with something, but I don't spend much time back there so we've just kept it bare.

On the rest of the boat, the vinyl is mostly separated from the fiberglass, however it's adequately held up by various strips of wood, fixtures, etc. so you only notice it if you look closely - it'll stay that way forever, or at least as long as I own the boat.

[dwedeking2]

On my 1979 Morgan OI 415 I elected to remove all the vinyl covering in the boat. I used a wire brush on a drill to remove the glue left overs on the fiberglass. I then faired with expoxy fairing. Painted with primer and then Brightsides. It's really easy to clean (smooth walls), makes the insides much brighter, and overall I like it a lot.



On my blog I have some before and after pics of the aft cabin. I'm in the process of doing the vberth and I'm doing a better job on the fairing and details. Aft Cabin Makeover | The Sailing Vessel Pomaika'i

[ggray]

Waste of time to try to re-glue the old material.

I found some closed cell (foam) vinyl. More like solid vinyl, about 1/10 inch thick. But this was almost 20n years ago.

3M made a water based contact cement that wasn't so noxious to work with. Cost double what the solvent contact cement cost, but went almost twice as far.