The Upholstery Forum

Hi alll,
Newbie here, so sorry for the basic question.
I will be using weldwood landau contact cement to reinstall a leather dash cover. Can I let the glue dry, place the cover in position, and then reactivate the glue using a steamer?
The reason is part of the leather cover has to slip over part of the dash, so if it bonded on contact, I would not be able to install the remainder of the cover.
Thanks for your help
Regards
Jeff

Yep. Get it into place then steam and apply pressure.

Mike,
Thank you for the response.
So I was going to spray two coats of adhesive on the dash, and leather, how long should I wait before starting to attach the cover?
Regards
Jeff

Your wait time sorta depends on what you are doing and the temperature/humidity. You can let it completely dry to the touch if you need to be able to easily move it around. Then heat with the steam and apply pressure. Two coats is a good idea to insure you get good coverage. I normally let stuff dry to the point that its still slightly tacky, but won't stick down until I apply pressure. Do you have a picture of the dash you are working on?

Mike,
Thank you so much for the information, I really appreciate it. Attached are pictures of the dash I am working on. The original issue was that the leather had separated from the foam which has been glued to the dash, with the leather than glued to the foam. It had large bubbles where it had lifted. The leather is in fine shape so I wanted to try and re-do it. I have the dash/leather cleaned of all the old foam, and am ready to glue down the new foam, trim, and sand the edges. The trickey part seems to be getting the leather glued down as it has a "pocket" which goes over the instrument panel hump, and also gets tied down. Let me know if I get you any more info.
Again many thanks.
Regards
Jeff

I have had good luck putting some masking tape over the seams on the leather when i apply the glue, and where the seam will land on the dash. This allows the seam to "float" and makes it easier to not get little wiggles in it. Every time i apply glue to the whole thing on something large like that I have struggled to get it all looking straight. Just make sure you prep the dash really well and apply plenty of glue to the foam to avoid any of the separation issues with the suns heat.