"Garland Gray" wrote in
:

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.


"Geoff Schultz" wrote in message
.. .
Sorry, but I'm posting another on-topic question regarding boats
instead of
politics, global warming or general name calling...

My vinyl headliner is sagging in some locations due to the foam
backing deteriorating. Obviously this has been one of the down sides
of storing the boat in the Caribbean during hurricane season.

The headliner was glued on to 1/8" plywood which is held in place by
tension or mouldings. The problem started when the boat was only
about 8 years old, so as a result I'm very leery of replacing the
existing headliner with another foam backed vinyl product, but I do
want to utilize a product that has the same look as the current
product. There were some locations where the headliner was installed
and then cabinets were built in-place under them. Due to the small
spans in these locations, the headliner is in good shape and it would
take a huge effort to remove the cabinets and gain access.

So, my basic question is: What is the purpose of the foam on the
vinyl material? Based upon research that we've done so far (which
isn't extensive), the vinyl comes uncoated and the distributor can
apply foam to it before shipping. Can I apply it directly to the
plywood and if so, what
are the downsides of doing that?

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org

Thanks for the suggestions. I've been doing more research and right now
I'm leaning towards using NaugaSoft, which has a fabric based backing
material which shouldn't deteriorate.

http://www.naugahyde.com/productline.asp?id=17

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org