Vinyl Apolstery

[Monkey]

alright so the weekend was going to be about finding all the leds in the car and finishing painting my door handles, but instead... my a.d.d kicks in and I think to myself that I should re-apolster the doors, cause that plush sh*t is pissing me off...

Went to fabric store and found some silver, not grey but silver vinyl that matches my painted silver trim pieces... thought to myself, "it must be a sign!! bought two yards (just right) $7... can of adhesive spray $5 and figured this should do it!

Got home, took the doors off and now it started getting tricky! The plush piece is actually held together onto the rest of the door panel with plastic stubs that were melted onto the door panel... Hmm... should I continue? Hell, yeah... too late to turn back now... I cut the nubs off and popped the piece off... not easy, but do-able... I will put this back on with epoxy, that I bought from pep boys for 4$

Ripped the plush off carefully knowing I will use this as a template for me to outline on the new vinyl... (the plush material is stapled and glued on to a plastic mold) traced and then cut. Problem, the vinyl has wrinkles... I tried ironing but with no luck. Thought when I put this on, I can stretch the wrinkles out... Sprayed adhesive and attached middle portion only, for testing and later will allow me to form from this point. Problem, it won't stick!

Any suggestions, ideas? This is going to happen.

[Jeff]

i re-upholstered my doors and rear deck with vinyl, so I think i can help. i didn't cut the plastic nubs off...just went about doing it the extremely hard way. What kind of spray adhesive did you buy???? If it isn't 3M professional grade spray adhesive, then that's your problem. I used cheap stuff when I redid my rear deck and I get to look forward to respraying it and re-steaming it to get any wrinkles out. As an added securing method, since you have the plastic piece already out of the door panel, you could use staples on the back side just like how the original fabric was attached, but only after you have ALL the possible creases worked out. that should do it. good luck. oh yeah....if you can't get a few creases out of the vinyl when you have everything back together...don't fret. Use an iron, but don't actually iron the fabric. Set it to steam, keep the iron a few inches away and hit the steam button. the blast of steam will smooth the wrinkles out.

[Monkey]

good info Jeff, thanks... I did not get the 3M stuff, but I've looking online for a specific and it looks like it will be the 3M super 77 adhesive spray... I'll return the other stuff today and get on that... I did plan on stapling and now will try to steam the creases... hmm.... maybe I can boil some water and put the vinyl above it... get constant steam!

"if ya don't know, now you know!" -Biggie


Thanks again jeff... I'll post pics when I'm done... do you have any pics? I don't see any on your www

[Jeff]

I haven't updated my pics in a while....hell, I've dropped the car, did work under the hood, alot of interior work, chrome altezzas, etc. since my last pics. I just can't seem to find a digi cam.

[Monkey]

I bought the 3M Super 80 Adhesive spray and it worked like a charm... Took out the old staple gun and "D'OH!%#" Stapled right through to the other side... WTF, I thought and looked at the old staples... and they are half the size of regular staples... I mean in depth, the with is the same, so I'm wondering what kind of staple gun they used... no worries though, this will happen.

Jeff, you were absolutely right regarding the cheap stuff... If anyone decides to do this... don't buy cheap adhesive.

[Jeff]

no problem...glad it worked out. Just hope you find a good way to staple the fabric down without it going through.