Weldwood Contact Cement or 3M Type 77 for attaching vinyl to pillars?

[naiku]

Subject pretty much sums it up, I am looking at how best to attach vinyl to my A-pillars. Which would be better to use? Weldwood or 3M Type 77? Or something else entirely, preferably available locally...I want to have something that at least may allow for some re-positioning since there is likely zero chance I am going to get the vinyl around the tweeter pods without problems first time around.

I'm hoping that I can get the vinyl smoothly around the tweeter opening and the pod, since then the rest of the A-pillar should go relatively smoothly.



Getting that piece in the front is likely to be the hardest piece, I'm also wondering whether to adhere that piece first, then add contact cement to the other areas once that is dry, or whether to cover the whole thing in adhesive and try to get it all done in one go.

Open to any tips. Thanks.

[Notloudenuf]

Landau top and trim. Not sure if you can get it locally

https://www.yourautotrim.com/welatop...EaAtdhEALw_wcB

Do not cheap out here. I don’t think 77 is right for this application

[naiku]

You're not the first person to suggest that landau top and trim, definitely not going to use the type 77, nor the Weldwood that I have. Looks like maybe a slight delay in things while I get the right adhesive, but as you wrote, not a good place to try something that may not work properly.

[Notloudenuf]

Yeah. The place NOT to learn your adhesive is junk is on the headliner (from experience)

[chithead]

Definitely research proper application too. I didn't even know until a few months ago that you are supposed to apply contact cement to each part, and let it dry. THEN press them together. I always just waited about a minute for it to get tacky, and STICK! No wonder the stuff never held for very long.

[naiku]

Well, in the end I used Headliner Magic, spray it on, let it sit for about 5 minutes or so and then put the pieces together. Here are the results...




Annoyingly, the passenger side has 2 minor bumps and you can see some of the sanding lines where it was not as smooth as it should have been for vinyl. The drivers side though, about drove me crazy, to the point that it has 3 wrinkles, if you look closely you can see one on the bottom, the others are only visible looking in from the outside.

I ended up ripping the drivers one off twice, but by the time the 3rd attempt got the same wrinkles I realized I did not have enough vinyl to try it again (there might be enough, for someone that can get it first try). So, I said screw it and installed them in the car. This is what they did look like though, I had initially wrapped them in headliner material, but it was a different shade to the pillar and I did not like the look of them being added, rather than part of the pillar, so even though the new one has some issues, it is still a huge upgrade.



Next time, hopefully with some experience, I can get a better wrap with the vinyl.

[chithead]

Hey props to you for tackling this!

I'm attempting pillars for the first time and am definitely watching to see how these turn out.

[naiku]

Getting the vinyl stretched where I wanted it was by far the hardest piece, on the drivers side one, no matter what I did there was always a wrinkle behind where the tweeter was mounted. What makes it doubly tricky is that you are not just fighting the vinyl, but also the adhesive as it starts to set making repositioning / stretching material harder. I'll likely redo the drivers side at some point later in the year, but for now am happy enough with them.

I should add, I did not make the tweeter pods, a guy on a Volvo forum was selling them pretty cheap so I figured why not. All I did was to blend those pods into the pillar as you can see in the first picture. Having used the spot putty, I would be pretty confident to actually make a set from scratch though with making the fiberglass enclosure first, then using body filler to smooth it all out.

Good luck, been keeping an eye on the Corvette thread.

[BigAl205]

Ça a l'air super​

[naiku]

Merci mon ami américain