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A warning to those who do your own upholstery...

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kennypinkerton

kennypinkerton

Yoda
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I have attemped (first time so don't cut me down too bad) to put vinyl on the headliner of my wife's car. It was relatively cheap vinyl (maybe that had something to do with it) from walmart. about $4-5 a yard. I couldn't pass it up. So I bought some "very good" adhesive, hoping it wouldn't fail in the heat we have here.

After I removed and cleaned the dry-rotted foam from the (heavy foam) molded headliner, I sprayed it down with 3M - Super Trim Adhesive. Then I layed out my vinyl, and sprayed it too. I spent about 1/2 hour getting all the wrinkles out, and then set it in the middle of the living room to set-up.

About 1 hour after I set it there, I went over to look at it. Ahhhhhhhh!!! The adhesive had attacked the vinyl and left little blisters in the same pattern I had sprayed on the backing. Looked horrible IMHO.

Thing is, this was intended to be the biggest gift my wife would recieve from me for christmas. As almost all of her cars (since we've been together anyway) have had sagging cloth headliners. Well she came home and saw it (she knew I was doing this for her), and she thought it looked great, but I disagree.

Just a warning to everyone else though (and it says so on the can in very small letters - hindsight 20/20)...

Read the whole can!!!! Also 3M Super Trim Adhesive will blister Vinyl!!!
 
Re: A warning to those who do your own upholstery.

Wow - sorry to hear that, but thank you for the warning. Seems like we learn slightly over 50% of what we know about our LBCs that way. (At least I know I do! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif )
Aside from that, welcome to the forum. I see that Tony led you here. You'll be glad he did. It's a really nice and extremely knowledgable group of people. Since I'm working on my first restoration, I've asked a myriad of questions here. I figure if I think I might be making a mistake, someone here has laready made it, and can steer me around it.
Again, welcome, and glad to have you here. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
Re: A warning to those who do your own upholstery.

As a side note - I passed up the regular 3M-Trim spray (about $5-6 cheaper) for the "Super Trim Spray" (about $16 a can).

Maybe the regular stuff (if I had read the WHOLE can before I bought it) is more suitable for cheap/thin cloth-backed vinyl. I'm not downing 3M in any way - If I had read the whole can I would've kept looking - they make the best stuff anyway!

Also, I believe if I had not sprayed the back of the vinyl, and added a few more layers of spray to the hard foam part, that the vinyl (and my sanity about this) would have been spared. Especially since the blisters follow the heaviest (not that thick - just the most sprayed areas) spray pattern that was on the backing.
 
Re: A warning to those who do your own upholstery.

Kenny-
I redid my GT with headliner material from Jo-Ann Fabric. It's more like felty-stuff, or flannel. Nice and pretty, and inexpensive. I used the 3-M stuff, but it doesn't get hot here often.

It's the thought that counts...
 
Re: A warning to those who do your own upholstery.

I'm just saying "Beware the 3M SUPER stuff and cheap Vinyl". The results are hideous!

But to 3M's credit, it is written on the can not to spray it on thin cloth backed vinyl. Just pointing out my mistake so someone else doesn't make the same mistake (possibly even with more expensive viny, or a larger piece of it - as I only ruined about 1 yard of the stuff - maybe $5 worth).
 
Re: A warning to those who do your own upholstery.

very timely...my headliner and board from the Cherokee is sitting on top of the B right now with the old foam scraped off and a can of the 3M Super ready to adhere it. I read the can and bought it over the cheaper stuff as I used it to do the carpet in the B a couple of years ago and loved it. Oh well, if I ruin the old headliner, I will go to Joanne's and buy some grey flannel.

Wecome...and thanks!

Bruce
 
This is very useful to know. I often buy such materials by mail-order and the small print is then very hard to read first.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Re: A warning to those who do your own upholstery.

You also have to watch the 3M materials you've gotten used to. A ton of people got used to using 3M's 77-Spray Adhesive for laminating balsa sheeting to foam model airplane wings, only to find out they changed something that started attacking the foam. I never used it for that but I know a lot of people weren't happy about it, not sure if they changed back or not.
 
Re: A warning to those who do your own upholstery.

Ran into a problem with synthetic carpeting a couple of years ago. EXTREMELY hard to work with (ends unravel) Will only use Wilton Wool in the future even though it is ridiculously expensive. Advice...Get a swatch and practice on it first before ordering what you need.
 
Re: A warning to those who do your own upholstery.

You may still be able to work with the spray trim adhesive and cheap vinyl. The trick is to spray from further away and put down only a very thin spider web of the adhesive. You don't want to put down a wet coat like when using spray paint. You spray the mating part the same way and apply in the usual "contact cement" manner. The hard part is keeping the vinyl tight and positioned correctly when you apply the glue this way as you only get one chance to position it right.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. The only good thing is... you still have a few days before Christmas to get your wife something else!
 
Re: A warning to those who do your own upholstery.

See, Kenny, I told you we needed you over here!
 
Re: A warning to those who do your own upholstery.

I got into the same situation last summer with an 82 Camaro....The cloth headliner was sagging really badly...bought some 3M spray adhesive(the regular one) it said on the can "not for car headliners" but I took a chance....didn't even remove the headliner just covered the seats, stuck the can behind the sagging cloth and sprayed...the worked from the middle out all around...it turned out very good I was thinking that the glue might leak through the cloth but it was ok....I sold the car to a friend who to this day hasn't noticed the repair.
 
Re: A warning to those who do your own upholstery.

I think it is probably ok for cloth. Where the trouble came in is where the vinyl is attached to the backing cloth. I've made the same mistake with motorcycle seats. Learned it the hard way myself. At least my mess was a small one. Sorry to hear about the misfortune.
JC
 
Re: A warning to those who do your own upholstery.

They did the ol' formula change to our shops supply of aresol brake parts cleaner. Now it attacks paint, softens power coat, and more. I used to use it for a good GP degreaser, but now I gotta be careful.
Been there with the 3M and cheap vinyl. Better Vinyl does make a difference. It dosent shrivel up like the cheap stuff.
 
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