Boler B1700 Restoration - headliner seams

[LeftToaster]

My restoration of a Boler B1700 is turning into more of a rebuild. I have stripped it down to a bare shell and begun putting it back together again - reconfigured as a side gaucho. I will post a gallery soon.

My model - a Neonex built 1978 rear gaucho model that had this horrible foam backed, lumpy whitish vinyl insulation that was smelly and covered in black mold. So I stripped it all out, sanded and cleaned the fiberglass and glued in Reflectix insulation using 3M Super 77 spray adhesive. The glue is holding up in some areas but failed in the recent heatwave in others.

Is the 3M 90 adhesive any better? It seems to be hard to source - no one locally (Vancouver BC) carries it and it seems to take 5 - 8 weeks for delivery if anyone will order it in and outrageous shipping costs.

Would it help to paint or otherwise treat the interior fiberglass before gluing?

I have also purchased from JTS Outdoor Fabrics some Sunbrite foam backed headliner fabric. Assuming I can get a decent adhesive - what do people use for treating / finishing the seams?

[John in Michigan]

If you search other threads on this forum you'll find that others have used 3M 90 after finding 3M 77 did not hold.

Looking forward to seeing your trailer pics!

[Borden]

Originally Posted by John in Michigan

If you search other threads on this forum you'll find that others have used 3M 90 after finding 3M 77 did not hold.

Looking forward to seeing your trailer pics!

Have some ensolite areas needing re-gluing will try 3M 90

[LeftToaster]

Well, I found a solution to one of the interior finish issues - gluing the Reflectix insulation to the fiberglass shell.

None of the spray adhesives performed very well - 3M Super 77, Lepages Heavy Duty or LocTite. I have 6 cans of 3M Hi Strength 90 on order, but they are going to take weeks to get here and I can't delay the rest of the project that long. So I found an alternative.

TiteBond Fast Grab FRP Adhesive - it's used for gluing up FRP panels. It goes on with a notched trowel like Thinset or Mastic, rather than spraying and you only have to glue one of the surfaces, not both. It doesn't seem to matter which surface. Since gluing the back of the ReFlectix is a lot easier than working overhead with a trowel, that's what I did.

The initial grab is fast, but you have several minutes of working time to reposition - depending on how long you take to apply it. But once it's set, it is way stronger than contact adhesive. On a test piece that I tore apart, the Reflectix failed before the glue joint. It has been warm here in Vancouver - 25C - 30C (75F - 85F) and it seems to stand up to heat pretty well, but it has not been as not (40C / 105F) as late June when the 3M Super 77 failed. However I don't expect it to fail in heat because unlike contact adhesive, it actually hardens and doesn't remain plastic.

It dries to an opaque "greige" colour. For this reason and because I don't know if it will bleed through fabric, I will probably use the 3M 90 on the headliner fabric.

[Rolf Arnold]

Check out my thread to see how I did it on my Surfside.
Has been holding up perfectly during the recent heat wave.

https://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/...rst-94352.html

[CampyHappers]

Howdy! I'm out in Aldergrove, BC, and also have a stripped down '78 Boler. I'm about to go the same route as you did: Reflectix followed by hull liner. In my case, I had painted the inside fibreglass directly with interior latex paint, semi gloss. I'm now realizing that this may have been a mistake. Were any of the areas of your Boler painted? Or all sanded down? In your experience with that TiteBond, would you think it would go alright over paint, to hold up the Reflectix?