Sagging headliner

Dutch320

I have a few spots like this to deal with. Kinda hoping someone has a success story on how they fixed it. I was going to pull the affected panels and repair over the winter. No apparent water leaks causing this, southern boat, so possibly the heat causing premature adhesive failure?

YYZRC

Same issue on my boat. I fear trying to fix it will end up making it worse!

Dutch320

Trying to overcome that fear myself. 

aero3113

You guys don’t think when you get the panel down you’ll be able to peel the vinyl back and re-glue? I would think that the remaining glue is about to fail also.

YYZRC

I’m not worried about getting it down and glued. It’s getting it back into place that scares me!

Mine is fine even tho it’s sagging. Not getting any worse. Just doesn’t look great. 

Dutch320

I’m hoping it will be that straight forward. I’m also concerned that there will be so many staples around the perimeter of the panels that it will compromise the edges. It’s also the last big project left to do…..until another one presents itself. 

aero3113

Hopefully the edges are glued not stapled. Maybe @Alswagg knows?

rasbury

I would have to bet at some point a panel got wet.  The wood behind there is substantial enough to hold up- until gets wet.   

Cableguy Greg

Mine was sagging a few years ago. I was able to pull down the trim ring around the hatch and spray some 3M spray adhesive between the backer and the padded vinyl and it stuck back up. 

Pat310

Maybe you can try @Cableguy Greg method by removing the screws and spray adhesive through the screw holes in the vinyl?

GMSLITHO

Im right in the middle of replacing the one the that the hatch is on .It was way  rotted .The PO had it in racked so it was dry when I bought the boat but this season it just fell apart when I removed it You take out the screws and there are 2 velcro strips going port to starboard then its stapled with a million staples there is also places where Rinker cut out the boat model in the wood you could probably drop it down dlill a few holes in the back shoot some glue in then put it back up Also when I removed the hatch I was surprised to see there was no caulk around it just a foam gasket 

Dutch320

Thanks for the picture, looks like I’m gonna be pulling a lot of staples. 

aero3113

@GMSLITHO , was the Velcro the only thing holding yours up on the 242? I used to have a 242 but can’t remember. Did you have any screws? All the staples could just be for the Velcro. I see @Dutch320 has screws.

aero3113

Never mind, found a pic from when I first bought my 242 and see screws.

Dutch320

So I did end up fixing my sagging headliner and wanted to update this post. Removing the interior hatch covers, dome lights and screwed in snap studs  is pretty straightforward, getting the panels out of the cabin was a challenge. On my 320 the panel that intersects the head is the longest. That panel is notched on the corner that goes over the head ceiling, that notch (or missing corner) must be facing down and towards the V-berth to be able to get the correct angle to fit through the cabin door. 

Once I  got the panel home I realized that I should have marked the sagging areas while on the boat, but I found if you use a vacuum with the hose attachment that it will lift the unglued areas up so you know where to start peeling back the vinyl. Now it’s time to pull a lot of staples (1/4” crown staples). After removing staples I began peeling back the vinyl. If you look at the pictures you can see by the foam backing where the glue was holding (and for the most part,not holding). Here’s a better view of why the sagging was occurring. Where the panel is labeled “G” is where the glue was holding and the “NG” indicates where it was not. As you can see by the labeling on the panel and by the foam backing, very little was adhering. This is a view of the glue stretching as I gently lift up on the vinyl. If you use a razor blade and just slice the stretched glue almost no damage happens to the foam. And what little does happen does not show up once the vinyl is reattached. As far as ease of re-assembly or the fear of making it worse by doing this repair, I had the same thoughts but after doing it they were unnecessary. The vinyl has little to no stretch, so it goes right back to the original position. I found that if you leave one edge stapled and work the panel in two sections, by that I mean re-glue and staple one side then peel up the next side. Also, where the snap studs are there are holes drilled through the panel and the indentation in the vinyl makes it very easy to get the vinyl exactly where it goes. Each panel took a few hours to repair, most of the time was slicing the glue. Not sure why this problem occurred, for the most part there was glue on both the panel and the foam backing but it never adhered to itself. After I glued everything down I used a small handheld carpet roller to make sure the two sides were in contact. 

I know, long post but not a lot of action on the forum right now lol. 

YYZRC

What kind of glue did you use to fix it?

Dutch320

I found that Autozone had the best price at the time. It took just under two cans to do a full panel. 

LaRea

Great writeup.  Did you let the glue set up first, or just spray and lay the vinyl down?

Dutch320

I let the glue set up for 10 minutes, if I remember correctly the directions say 5 minutes minimum and 30 minutes maximum.