82 C&C 32' vinyl glue failing in cabin and V berth

Crit · #1 (**permalink**) 07-12-2011

The glue that holds the white vinyl on the starboard side aft of the nav station as well as in the V-berth is failing, and the vinyl is starting to fall down. Anyone else experience this? Did you replace the vinyl or just spray glue underneath or remove completely and put some wood there to replace it?

Thanks

Kiltmadoc · #2 (**permalink**) 07-12-2011

We had exactly this same problem on our C&C 32. We tore out the vinyl and painted the raw fiberglass with exterior house paint. To prep the underlying crumbly orange crap, we spent quite some time with a wire brush, sandpaper, scotchbrite pad, and a vacuum cleaner. You cant get all of it off, so dont try. When you get down to more solid glue type material, just start painting.

Here's a link to the discussion I started about this, along with some pictures showing how it turned out:

http://www.sailnet.com/forums/gear-m...uestion-2.html

Good luck, and really this is more of a winter project, unless you are in colder weather than we are in New England.

PS: what's your hull number? Our C&C 32 is a 1982 as well!

hellosailor · #3 (**permalink**) 07-12-2011

Crit, you mean a vinyl headliner? Overhead?

Odds are the glue is perfectly good but there was originally a thin foam layer behind the vinyl. Foam rubber is usually made by "foaming" a chemical batter with caustic chemicals, and it breaks down as it gets old. So no matter how good the glue is--you wind up with crumbling dust being firmly glued to two separate surfaces, and they fall apart.

The answer is to peel it off, replace it. Messy job. Any permanent contact adhesive (3M #77 or 3M #90 spray for example) will put the new material back up, but if there's a foam rubber layer, it may only last ten years. There are better foams that are blown with inert gas instead of chemical batters, but good luck trying to find one that is guaranteed to be "nitrogen blown" instead of chemical.

Crit · #4 (**permalink**) 07-13-2011

Kiltmadoc, do you have any pics after you finished? I'll have to check the hull number, don't have my documentation handy.

Hellosailor: The vinyl is not a headliner, more bulkhead trim just covering the raw fiberglass behind the nav station and in the V-berth area. Kiltmadoc had the same exact problem. Sure wish C&C would have trimmed the area in teak veneer instead of cheap-0-vinyl with substandard adhesive.

Kiltmadoc · #5 (**permalink**) 07-13-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crit

Kiltmadoc, do you have any pics after you finished? I'll have to check the hull number, don't have my documentation handy.

this is the closest I have right now:

This is a before picture:

Crit · #6 (**permalink**) 07-13-2011

I also like what these people did to mitigate the problem, they used wood paneling. Here is a link, it wouldn't let me copy pics from the listing. Click Here

hellosailor · #7 (**permalink**) 07-13-2011

Oh, plain vinyl sheeting? That also doesn't always age well, if the vinyl isn't cured or compounded properly, it kinda rots and oozes plasticizer as it ages, that can still be a mess. Or yes, it could be the glue itself.

Gives you a chance to get some teak ply or veneer and do it up right, huh? :-)

I used to think batten strips against the hull were kinda cheesy, but I've grown to understand and appreciate that's a nice concept, too. Of course that would have been seen as "too heavy" for the C&C racing heritage.