Hey guys, long time no talk. About 7ish years ago I glued marine leather to the interior panels of my car. All the places factory carpet was, plus headliner and lower section of center console. Looked REALLY damn good. I bought commercial grade contact cement from my local upholstery shop, cleaned, degreased, and lightly sanded panels, and applied cement with paint gun. As far as I know, installation was perfect. Except it wasn't. Every piece I applied started separating after a few years. And it seems around the edges is what went first. I know one of my mistakes was i did nothing to the edge of the leather. No hem, nothing. Im left with a bunch of interior pieces covered in contact cement and light scratches everywhere.

I want to do it again, but in a way that will last this time. I have 2 questions.

1) how do I get all this cement off? Vegetable oil and baking soda works, but is VERY time and labor intensive. Is there a solvent that won't melt the plastic? I don't know what brand or what ingredients the adhesive was.

2) what can I do second time around that will be more permanent, and what should I do with my edges of the leather? From my description, can an experienced installer tell what i did wrong?

 

So I'll admit I'm not a fan of cloth/leather, or whatever material on the interior plastics. But I do have some experience. I was removing factory applied "deluxe" carpet off my interior plastics. Found the carpet to come off pretty easy, but of course it left lots of whatever adhesive GM used. Now keep in mind I can't know what will work for YOU on your panels, but on that GM adhesive, I had two techniques. First, where there were large globs of glue, I found a heat gun would get them a little soft, and then I sorta rolled them off with my fingers kinda like how you can "roll" dry contact cement off a substrate. This stuff was just a little more stubborn. Too cold and it wouldn't work. Too hot and it just stretched and broke. Didn't take long to be able to recognize the sweet spot. For areas where it was just a thin layer, kinda glazed over, I used goo gone and a plastic razor blade, and for real tough spots, I GENTLY used some acetone. I did about one panel a night, except the big driver side. That took two nights. Overall it came out great. There are a few areas that scratched, and a few areas I got a little aggressive with the acetone and it ever so slightly changed the sheen of the plastic. Still, looks better than many thirdgens I see at shows. All that being said though, if you're going to RE cover it.....who cares, right!?

 

Agreed. My plastic is still gonna be sub par because of the light sanding i did before my first glue job. Thank you for the tips, think i need to get a heat gun, never had an excuse to get one before.

I'm probably correct in assuming I have to get all the old glue off before I try a reapply, correct? I know contact cement never fully cures, but I'm guessing you don't wanna put new on old, like other adhesives?

 

Paint thinner dissolves most glues. Pretty mild on plastic too.
Lacquer thinner works better and is more aggressive. Safe enough to use on plastic you are recovering, but could change sheen of your exposed plastic.

 

Year ago, I had some rust starting from under the windows on my conversion van. I had a painter lined up to do the body work, but to save ( a lot of ) money, I removed the interior panels so the painter had access to the fasteners holding the conversion windows in place. My interior panels (wood) were covered in a soft burgundy cloth, not unlike a headliner cloth. That cloth covered all the wood screws that held the panels to the van so that the screws were all hidden.

With no idea of a safe way to release this product from the wood, and hopefully salvage the cloth for re-application, I contacted the conversion company and explained my dilemma. They told me that when they had to do similar work, they used brake clean to release the cloth, starting from a panel edge, and working their way in. Just enough sprayed on to dissolve the glue, but not soak the cloth. Worked like a charm, and I re-applied all of that factory cloth, no problems.

Full disclosure...I did not have to fully remove the cloth...just a foot or so of it all the way around the edges. But I see no reason why I could not have done the whole panels, if there had been a need.

Try a little in an inconspicuous spot and see how it goes.

 

I'd hit it with a stiff brush mounted to a drill and then spot clean with a plastic razor blade and a little heat. The drill takes most the work out of scrubbing but still rotates slow enough that you don't damage the plastic. This is how I removed headliner foam and glue residue from my plastic headliner.