Good People... Needing some wisdom regarding interior trim. Am covering interior panels. Have used 3mm scrim foam glued to the hardboard then glued vinyl to the foam, all bought from an auto trim supplier. Looked great... but when the panels are pressed dimples are created on the surface which won't come out and looks rubbish. Suspected the glue passing through the foam so switched to a closed cell foam... not as bad but same problem... like the when the foam gives and the vinyl stretches the glue is holding them in that position. Tried not gluing vinyl to the foam... but as there is some curvature to the panels when fitted the vinyl sags. Probably making a simple mistake somewhere but can't spot it... Any help appreciated... Cheers Ta...
Ok your problem is glue on the board face, glue the scrim foam to the vinyl but not to the face of the board, stretch & glue the covers with an overlap of about 1" at the back with high temp brushable contact adhesive. I fear you may have already contaminated the boards with spray adhesive however!
Thank You Good Folk... for speedy responses... Am using a high temp trim adhesive in a can... If the foam isn't glued to the board then how do we stop it sagging away from the board as most of the panels are bent a little when fitted?... Have scraped the first couple of boards I started with... but had the foresight to cut some templates beforehand... and now only working with test pieces... So far the only one fitted and looking good and behaving is the one on the tailgate below the window... this is one where the vinyl is not glued to the foam, but as this panel sits flat the vinyl doesn't sag... A conundrum... Cheers again...
I've just covered all the panels in my van, and also the bare metal roof and rear hatch areas. I used high temp spray adhesive, but was using stretchy carpet that seems to help with the adhesion, but you have to spray it on both the panel and the carpet backing. Are you spraying both sides, one side horizontally and one vertically to achieve opposing grab lines?
The only ones I have a problem with are the larger boards e.i. sliding door & opposite. The rest shouldn't sag at all, but saying that I use 6mm scrim foam and all my covers are stitched which may help? For the larger boards I have used thick bonded cotton hidden in the stitch lines & tied through a small hole in the board to a match stick or something similar (I use a 1" length of banding wire).
Thank you all for the replies... Think I've found a satisfactory solution. After some experimentation ended up using an upholstery felt instead of foam between the vinyl and the board. This is the felt that I used over the fibre seat pads when re-covering the seats. Glued the felt to the board and the vinyl to the felt. It has the padded look and some give in it, is relatively smooth and leaves no dimples when handled... but can deform slightly if heavily pressed, and does not sag when curved. Am making this up as I go along... stitching is beyond my field of competence... So got past the dimples issue but decided I don't really like the colour... original but boring... Hope this may be useful to someone... DIMPLES 3MM SCRIM FOAM 3MM CLOSED CELL FOAM UPHOLSTERY/CARPET FELT NO DIMPLES
If you dont mind the lack of colour choice , yacht headlining has the foam bonded to the vinyl one side and to a thin mesh scrim thebother... Just glue to the panel. No dimples.
