The Upholstery Forum

I have an engine cover to for a ski boat to recover. The bottom 6 inches or so is carpet that is glued on. What is the best way to clean the old glue from the fiberglass so i get a good glueup? also, What glue should i use?

3m makes a good adhesive remover, even then this may take some elbow grease. Especially if it’s the rough side of the glass and not the gel coated side. Otherwise, if the glue is hard and not gooey, and it’s the rough side. Take some sand paper and sand it off if you feel comfortable as it’s best to put some bite into the fiberglass anyways. For glue I would use dap landau top glue. Put a coat on both the fiber glass and material. Let it tack up good then apply another coat. Let it tack per instructions and stick on. Other May chime in with better glues but I’ve had good luck with the landau top glue.

There’s allways a bottle of isopropal alcohol close to my work bench, it’s great for getting rid of almost any marks on material and dissolves most glue and tape residue and alcohol based marker marks, another bonus is it evaporates fast. Might be worth a try.

I recommend scrubbing the fiberglass with with a wire brush to remove all the dry flakey glue and old carpet backing. Any of the glue that doesnt come off with a quick wire brushing is just fine to glue on top of. Its usually the carpet backing that fails not the glue. If you try to remove all the old glue with remover your going be there a while.

I always recommend using this glue: weld wood landau contact cement : http://amzn.to/2nwDBO5

A & L Cosmoline Remover is my favorite glue remover. http://www.malcoautomotive.com/A___L_Co ... tails.aspx

@Revv Up Never tried that before. Ill have to give it a shot.

Acetone. Some will say NO NO NO, it will eat up the fiberglass, I say bull sheeet. I've been building boats for 30 tears, acetone is a must. I do boat interiors as well, and if I have some nasty carpet to remove I have acetone in a spray bottle to loosen it up.

@Scott D Good to know. Thanks!