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

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.

Attachment 18494

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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...


Attachment 18495Attachment 18496

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.

Attachment 18497

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

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.

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.

Ça a l'air super​

Merci mon ami américain

Looks way better than the original. No offense to the original.

I usually use the 3M 90 spray. I like the “web” spray pattern better than the 77’s “mist” spray and it holds MUCH better. It holds strong but still allows for some repositioning before becoming difficult. It’s also usually available at just about every hardware store.

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Originally Posted by Notloudenuf

Looks way better than the original. No offense to the original.

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None taken, I did not like how the originals looked at all. From day 1 my plan was to wrap the pillar and pod in the same material, temporarily I had them wrapped separately like that, but did not like the look in the slightest, so much happier now.

Well, I think I will be buying some more vinyl soon... the passenger side has a piece that refuses to stick, I am not sure exactly why. I have removed it and re-glued it, but it just starts to peel off after a while. That coupled with the wrinkles on the drivers side, might just end up re-doing them (not thrilled about it to be honest).

The alternative is to remove the vinyl and make them match the finish that is on the sails, it's SEM texture paint with a black finish. My hesitation there is that I think the vinyl looks better on the pillars, the sails never had vinyl / material of any kind. But the pillars were wrapped in headliner type material, having them texture painted might stick out more than I would want.

I may temporarily remove the passengers one and try to glue it a 3rd time, but I can't figure out why this one piece refuses to stick. Possibly that I stretched it too much in that area, but I am not entirely sure.

I feel your pain Ian. I can't wrap or rap to save my life. I've tried multiple times with no luck. Multiple glues and vinyl types, it doesn't matter. It's an art for sure. My go to is paint or Flock.

It's definitely tricky, for a 1st time at wrapping something I can't complain too much. But, tossing out $60 of vinyl to re-wrap them and possibly have the same issues is not exactly appealing! Flock might be a good alternative, I have never done that before either, would likely need to spend a little more time sanding and smoothing the pods out some more, but I can handle that.

I used the 3m90 on my headliner years ago and it has not sagged at all. The thing most people do not know about contact cement is that you do not just spray it on and slap them together when it is wet. You want to put a good coating on both pieces and let it start to dry out. You want it to be tachy enough that when you touch it to your finger that it sticks more to the vinyl than your finger and at that point you can put the two pieces together.

I had been letting the contact cement get tacky before putting them together, maybe I did not leave it quite long enough. Will just be really careful with it this time to hopefully, hopefully, get it done.

Pulled the pillar out this morning and used some 3M 90 that I bought over the weekend, let it dry to the point that touching the adhesive left nothing on my hand, using some clothes pins to hold it. There is a spot on the bottom corner where it is not covered with vinyl, but I think that may have been part of the issue was I stretched it too far and so it was never getting a good hold. I can definitely see me redoing them (again) at some point in the future, but it's too damn humid to mess with it much right now.

I'm torn on the idea of flocking or trying vinyl again, the vinyl does look good, but it is also bloody hard to apply correctly.

you may be able to reactivate the glue with steam

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Originally Posted by SublimeZ

you may be able to reactivate the glue with steam

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Interesting, so essentially use something like a steam cleaner to heat the glue back up and try to adhere back together again. Might be worth a shot.


3M 90 is not working on this one corner either, I had it sitting about 36 hours with clothes pins holding it together. Literally one day in the car and then yesterday while driving something looked off, checked just now and yep, that one corner is peeling off again. I'm not quite sure what I will do next, the way I see it I have 3 options:

1 - Say screw this, pull the vinyl and use SEM texture paint to make it match the sails.
2 - Say screw this, pull the vinyl and use flocking.
3 - Say screw this, pull the vinyl and see if I can find an upholstery shop to wrap them.

The frustrating piece with option 1 and 2, is that the vinyl looks good on the pillars where it is not peeling / wrinkled. I can't help but think either flock or texture paint will look out of place. The texture paint less so since at least it will match the sails, but may be a little too glossy and cause annoying reflections. Flock would alleviate that, but with nothing else in the car with flocking, might just stick out like a sore thumb.

At this point, unless the passenger one starts peeling badly (likely) I will just leave it until fall when temperatures have dropped and then try to figure something out.

heat in general will reactivate the glue.

Your comment confirms what I was wondering, if heat reactivates the glue and say in the summer, the car is getting to 100F+ in the heat, coupled with the vinyl being stretched in order to not be wrinkled, is the heat re-activating the glue enough that the vinyl is pulling away. The reason the drivers side is not doing it, is because it has the wrinkles and was likely not stretched as much as the passenger side.

Did you prime the piece before wrapping it? IIRC, trying to stick vinyl to un-primed sanded filler is like trying to tape a piece of paper to a pile of dust.

Interesting, I did not do anything specific, ran a piece of sandpaper over the whole thing and then wrapped it. But, that makes it all the more strange that it is just the one piece refusing to stick, maybe that got contaminated with something.

Can't do anything with it for a while anyway, not only is it insanely humid, but the car is broken down at my in-laws... blew the high pressure power steering line yesterday in town and apparently the part is on back order.

Edit: so the heat + glue + vinyl is not working, car has been parked outside at my in laws waiting on parts. Called in there today and the vinyl is peeling off both pillars. Had a demo in Jason's S4 today and was looking at the flock on his pillars so leaning that way. But I might also look at SEM texture and match then to the sails. Either way the vinyl is basically coming off whether I like it or not at this point.