Back in Raising the Roof (again), I had tried holding the vinyl headliner up with rubber cement. It lasts less than a season before the edges are hanging down again. Since I had recently moved on to trying super glue for these types of nasty repeat interior offenders, I decided to give it a whirl up top as well.
As seen in that previous post, I was using magnetic parts dishes to try and hold the vinyl up while the glue set. This time, I picked up a pack of tiny super strong magnets (Amazon link), hoping they would be easier to handle and do a better job.
Time will tell if this holds any better than previous attempts. I’m not an optimistic person…
That title is probably over-selling it. Whatever the end result is, it will probably be a lateral promotion.
The steel wheels are pretty rusty, so needed quite a bit of cleanup. They had also apparently been roughly painted with brushed on gray house paint at some point. They looked good from ten feet away, which is the best I can hope for, I suppose.
I wire brushed the first wheel, chipping off any loose paint and rust, then cleaned it with acetone. I don’t play cards, so did the next best thing and cut up a beer case into playing card sized pieces. I jammed them in the crack, separating the tire from the rim, before spraying rust treatment and primer.
Then white paint around the outside.
I didn’t bother masking the middle, since that’s going to be a whole separate step whenever I get back to it.
With a truck load of tires and wheels, I drove down to my local tire shop and waited three hours while they got everything mounted up. Back home, the Empi wheels went straight on.
They spent far too long stacked up in the basement. I love them. The offset is super-tough lookin’. Oh yeah, and don’t forget the steelie spare…
After refurbishing the seat frames a couple of years ago, I was amazed at the price of these replacement chintzy vinyl seat covers. So, I slapped the old covers back on, hosed them down with some vinyl lube, and called it a day.
Here we are, with past problems announcing their presence louder than ever. The edges of the cracked and torn spots are now starting to curl up, looking worse than ever. Continuing down my path of using the wrong tool for the job, but having the best intentions, I whipped out a tube of super glue, some washers, and a roll of painter’s tape.
My experience with every other type of glue I have used – rubber cement, upholstery spray adhesive, E6000, Clear Gel Gorilla Glue, among others I’m forgetting – is nothing sticks for more than a season. So, now we try the absolute wrong thing. But hey, the thought was to get the top vinyl to stick to the mesh/fabric backing, which is still intact.
I figured those little washers could help entice the curling edges to lay flat and the painter’s tape would hold it all in place long enough for the glue to set.
And, of course, this doozy, which I added a backing vinyl patch, glued in with one or more of the aforementioned non-sticking glue.
I glue it real super-good and tried again.
Back when I put the covers back on the front passenger seat, I apparently missed one of the bend-over-stabby-keep-it-in-place tabs… First time I rocked the seat back forward, it tore a big hole in the seat cover and new padding below. So here we are, couple years later, cleaning up an old mess…
You know what? While we’re here, let’s see if we can’t make that vinyl wrap stick once and for all below the rear passenger window…
So, I never listed the beetlebug for sale. I still have mixed feelings about it.
But, here we are… The car came with two sets of “new” tires when I bought it. The ones on the Empi wheels, I’m pretty sure had about 100 miles on them, but were eight or ten years old and had dry rot cracks on the tread face. The tires on the steel wheels were the “good” ones that I have been driving on for three years.
Or NOT driving is more the issue…
This was the pic I snapped on my phone to get the tire size to order new rubber. Which were quickly delivered.
That’s Sunny Orla/Nancy/Drue enjoying the dankness. She’s a good girl.
I’m going to have the new rubber put on the Empi wheels and roll with those skates on for a while. I had purchased a tire to use as a spare, which is now on an Empi wheel in the frunk. That will need to be swapped over onto one of the steelies, too.
All of that is for another day.
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