Interior Adhesives

Good day.

I recently spent many many hours covering all my interior parts in black and blue vinyl marine fabric. Used 3M 77, 80, 90 and even DAP contact cement. The DAP worked best for about 3 days until the heat wave hit the Mid-Atlantic. Now it is bubbling badly and starting to come apart.

Do any of you know of a n adhesive I can use that will stand up to the heat? The 3M products did not. I would really like to complete this project and make it last. The gaps between he panels are so tight and the feel of everything is just amazing. It also cut down on the squeaks and rattles of a 16 year old car along with outside noise. Putting the L back in my LS has been a catastrophe so far the S not so much. :)

I don;t know about vinyl.. but I used Loctite spray adhesive on the headliner of my BMW.. going on 5 years now without a single bubble

We used Sika at Faurecia for BMW interiors switched over from some company I can't remember (good support there eh?)

Water based, spray application, heat dehydrated then heat deactivated. Good stuff.

Passed 30 years durability test where the other did not.

i just used 3m super 77 on my headliner and cept for one small spot it has held perfect in our 110 degree heat.

3M 90 is amazing if you follow the directions exactly, if not nothing works well. This means you have to spray both sides twice, allow them to start drying 2-5 minutes depending on ambient temp and get really tacky, then you get 1-2 shots to line it up and get it stuck. It will not come undone once its set, heat or no heat as it has excellent heat resistance. I fixed the bows and convertible top on my Fiat with this stuff and in the Georgia sun + 95F days it's no problem...

Here's the spec/directions.

After some thinking I believe my issue may be that the vinyl is acting as a seal and not allowing proper outgassing so it builds up under the vinyl and creating pockets.

I'll be looking into some chemical catalyst adhesives ( 2 part epoxies). I have something buy a company called Plexus at work but it would cost thousands of dollars to do.

Luckily I can peel up the vinyl and reuse it after a quick bath in our adhesive remover.

Thanks for the input guys.

Friend of mine that makes car interiors taught me to use Weldwood Contact Cement. There used to be better stuff readily available but was taken of the market. He's used this for a couple years now and haven't had any issues. I used it on my Opel GT and haven't had any issues. Available at your local hdlowes in the glue aisle.
The secret is to get a good base of contact cement down on both pieces, let it dry and apply more, wait till tacky then stick them together.

wlkelley3 wrote: Friend of mine that makes car interiors taught me to use Weldwood Contact Cement. There used to be better stuff readily available but was taken of the market. He's used this for a couple years now and haven't had any issues. I used it on my Opel GT and haven't had any issues. Available at your local hdlowes in the glue aisle. The secret is to get a good base of contact cement down on both pieces, let it dry and apply more, wait till tacky then stick them together.

Don't you have to spray the Weldwood to get good coverage before it tacks?

sobe_death wrote:

wlkelley3 wrote: Friend of mine that makes car interiors taught me to use Weldwood Contact Cement. There used to be better stuff readily available but was taken of the market. He's used this for a couple years now and haven't had any issues. I used it on my Opel GT and haven't had any issues. Available at your local hdlowes in the glue aisle. The secret is to get a good base of contact cement down on both pieces, let it dry and apply more, wait till tacky then stick them together.

Don't you have to spray the Weldwood to get good coverage before it tacks?

To thick out of the can for that plus we don't have that capability. Besides we don't do it often enough to justify having that setup. We use a disposable brushes and take our time when we do it. Haven't had any issues so far. we buy it in small cans because the glue will start to dry out in the can after we open it.

I have always used the Weldwood contact cement, it cannot be the green label though, must be the dangerous flammable type! I always use cheap chip brushes, brush a coat onto both the panel and fabric (it can be tricky to coat the backside of vinyl but you do get the hang of it) let it sit 5-10 mins until you think its dry them Bam! Lay it out and I use a hard roller, same type I use for fiberglassing and I haven't had panels come off yet.

Certain types of vinyl are unglueable.

I was asking my upholstery guy about which adhesive to use because the vinyl on my dash was always peeling off after a few months. He asked what I was using and I told him weldwood which he said was overkill but fine and took one look at the vinyl and said "Well you can't glue that, It'll never work" I was using a stretchable vinyl called allsport but he warned me that many vinyls, particularly marine grade have a backing that is just incompatible with glues.

I guess what I am saying is don't be so quick to blame the glue.

Polyester resin with about 5x the recommended amount of hardener will stick to anything it doesn't dissolve. Don't mix up any quantity bigger than a Dixie cup and when you're done, carefully place the cup in a snowbank as it will catch fire.