On Wed, 5 Nov 2008 18:17:27 -0500, "Garland Gray"
wrote:

Geoff,
I assume you have what was on our old catamaran, open cell foam backed
vinyl. It was just glued to the fiberglass, and heat plus age caused it to
break down to dust, and fall off. This began when the boat was 7 or 8 years
old, starting first in the main cabin where it got the hottest. Re-gluing
wouldn't work.

About 12 years ago I replaced it with a solid vinyl headliner material that
I bought from Defender Industries. IIRC, it was 1/10 inch thick and hid
irregularities, but I don't see it in the 2008 catalog. I got a lot (still
have some on the roll), so it was drop shipped from a distributor in Seattle
I think, by the name of Haughton Marine or something like that. I thought it
looked quite good, and expected it to last much longer than the original, so
if you could find it, I would recommend it.

Whatever you end up with, if you use glue, try to get 3M water base contact
cement from an auto parts store. Solvent based contact cement dissolves
vinyl. Water based costs about 2 1/2 times as much, but goes twice as far,
and doesn't kill you with the fumes.

I'll check my records tomorrow to see if I have any more info on the
material. I also have some old samples of headliner material I got from
Sailrite. Might check with them.


Call Defender if this sounds like something that will work for you,
Geoff. They are very good at getting just about anything you can
describe to them. Since they used to carry it, they may still, or know
where to get it. They have a lot of stuff that is not on the website.