bradleyheathhays

Been reading up on replacing my headliner and a good tip seems to be to coat your fiberglass head liner board with one coat of fiberglass epoxy 24 hr before applying spray adhesive as that will make the adhesion much better.

I'm unfamiliar with fiberglass epoxy so I'm wondering exactly what product they're talking about. Can anybody link me to an example so I'll know what to look for?

Also, for adhesive I've been told to avoid the 3M 77 and get the 3M high temp type spray adhesive but that's the best description I've found. Would this be it?...

3M Hi Strength 90 Heavy Duty Spray Adhesive, 17.6 oz...

Thanks

diskman

I pre-sprayed a headliner fiberglass board with several cans of WalMart spray paint. Its like .97 a can. I let that dry for for a few hours then used the 3M headliner adhesive. Just don't purchase the adhesive at the fabric store. Its 2x more than Home Depot or Lowes. lol.

Here is what I used..


The paint from wally-world to cover the board...

almido

Fiberglass is a cloth or a random strand mat. The liquid you saturate it with is either plastic resin or epoxy.

Epoxy sticks to things better than the generic "boat resin" but either will do.

Although Epoxy costs more I think I'll use it when I have to do my own H L.

To get Epoxy google distributors of WEST SYSTEM Epoxy. Most boat stores have it or can get it. It mixes differently than RFG resins. I believe it's like 3 parts epoxy to 1 part hardener. The cans will tell you.

RFG resins use a % formula, They harden with a special type of peroxide. You count so many drops into the container. Again, the can should tell you.

CAUTION....Have a gallon of acetone on hand for clean-up, especially on your skin. Nothing else will cut this stuff, not even gasoline.

Be sure to sand everything off the head liner board before you start.

Best of Luck to you.....


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almido 2001 XJ 241k miles unmolested so far

Fred/N0AZZ

Don't do that its not needed and would be a real PITA. All you need to make sure of is that you clean all the old foam off the headliner board with a stiff brush.


The only time something like that might have to be done was if the board had been broken when removing by someone who didn't know how or......You could take it to an upholstery shop and have it done like I did. Same factory material/color installed out the door just a little over a $100 money well spent IMHO. The owner said he had that roll of material on hand for over 5 years and had never used any more off of it cut me a deal.

SteveMongr

Epoxy is absorbed through the skin and into the bloodstream, wear gloves.
MEK Catalyst for fiberglass resin is even worse.

The glass mat headliner does not need a primer coat of anything other than headliner adhesive. If using adhesive not specified for headliners it must; have permanent hold for vertical and underside applications, be heat resistant.
I have used different types of fabric on headliners including heavy vinyl.

almido

Thanks Steve for pointing out that gloves are a MUST. I for got to put that in my post and it's probably the most important point..... ask me how I know.

When I was a young teen my best friend had a wooden boat which we enjoyed all summer. He also had an uncle who owned a large marine store. When he decided to fiberglass the bottom of the boat we had fiberglass and resin on hand and his Mom was at work.

We read the directions, mixed it up and applied it. It went on smooth and looked great. So, we went to clean-up because we had become frustrated with the brushes we had and used our hands to spread the resin, our bare hands !

That's when we discovered that gasoline will not dissolve resin.

In a panic he called his Mom. She had him call his uncle, the source of the resin, and his uncle said get out your Mom's fingernail cleaner and use that.

Thank God fingernail cleaner is just acetone with a dye in it and his Mom bought it in bulk. She had a quart of it on hand.

We never went without gloves again......Lesson Learned....

MXDNJSport

I would recommend taking your time and thoroughly clean the foam off the board with a stiff brush. I used 2 cans of Permatex spray adhesive in the orange can. Good luck!