I stuck my door rubbers in/on with standard Contact Adhesive. I've noticed lately that some of them are letting go in patches. While I'm inclined to use Loctite 480 that I used to glue in my front & especially rear screen chrome stripping with. Worked a treat on that damn rear screen chrome trim.

Does anybody have any advice on the product to use to glue in door rubbers so they stay attached? ~ Cyanoacrylate? ~ sticks rubber to rubber very well.

 

Well, you want to be able to restore it again someday, or at least so that somebody can, long after we are gone so I'd hate to use anything that would have to tear it up to remove it again. I generally use either 3M Black Weatherstrip Adhesive 08011 or Dynatex Yellow Super Weatherstrip and Gasket Adhesive 49430 depending on if the glued edge is likely to show. The yellow stuff seems to be better but in some cases I'm afraid the yellow will show. But the instructions say to wet both sides to be joined and let them dry, then wet one side again to re-activate the glue and stick them together and they will bond pretty much instantly. That seems to work pretty well for me. Almost forgot to add that if you are working with new reproduction weatherstrip, you do have to make sure you get all the mold-release off first.

 

Thank You kind sir. All mould release agent was thoroughly removed and they were 3 years old. Hope I can get the products here or Amazon will send.

One can't see it. It is in a channel. Should I damage a piece it's no issue. We make the full set of rubbers for the Mk2 & S Type right here in Cape Town & more suitable for our climate. I have UK rubbers fitted at present because they are softer & settle more quickly than our local products ~ less door slamming required initially. They also perish more quickly than our locally made products by some margin.

Other experience is welcome. While we have access to many items especially 3M ~ We are at the Southern tip of Africa & many US products are not available here. SA tends to be Eurocentric.

 

I've spent much of the last week re-attaching the headlining fabric in my XK - or at least trying to. The fabric had detached from the degraded foam that, itself was still attached to the fibre board. I decided to repair rather than replace with a complete new covered board from Myrtle as I, mistakenly, thought it would be quicker and easy. I scraped the foam from the fibre board and glued on a layer of Calico in its place. That went well. Then I attached the original velvety fabric on top. Unlike the Calico, this stuff was much more difficult, separating in arbitrary places. I've gone over it with a warm electric iron and added a few stitches (which is also pretty difficult). Hopefully, it will survive for a while. It's not a job to repeat soon as removing the headlining board involves taking most of the interior out of the car. Certainly next time it shows signs, I'll be sending an order to Myrtle.

Yes, the adhesive: there's a 3M product designed for this type of application. However, most reports are that it doesn't work very well. As a consequence I used Evo-Stik contact, a standard DIY adhesive with good reports for use with fabric. Years ago, Dunlop made an adhesive they marketed under the name Dunlop Thixotropic. It looked rather yucky but worked a treat on just about everything.

 

I saw a program recently where a guy was repairing a sagging head lining by injecting glue with a syringe through the sagging fabric so he could stick it back to the fibre board. Worth a try if you can find the right glue and a syringe with a needle big enough for the glue to flow through.
The other thing to do would be to get adhesive in a spray can and fit a nozzle tube like you get on a WD40 can. A small nick in the fabric and spray the adhesive in and once pushed into place I doubt you would see the nick in the fabric. If you are doing this you need to use high temp adhesive as the tin roof gets pretty hot in the summer.

 

This is the product I used Peter. It is our go to contact adhesive with a fine reputation. Pattex is part of the Henkel Group. More & more I'm leaning toward Loctite 480. It's hellish expensive here and black in colour but I know what it can do, as anybody knows the hell one goes through to attach the rear screen chrome to the rear screen rubber on an S Type properly, would understand. A chap on Jag Lovers calls it an "Evil" job. Jaguar had a proprietary product for the job but it's gone the way of the Dodo.





The Bitch ~ rear screen chrome strip. ~ goes into a channel in the rubber glass side ~ easy. Glued body side to the rubber. I could use a nasty word for the bottom corners alone but won't. Miles of tape & patience while curing properly for at least a day or more to be safe. Why you see so many S Types without their rear screen chrome






Typical

 

Ugh, door rubbers. I tried everything for my S Type, contact cement, weatherstrip adhesive, even hot glue and nothing worked. Eventually I used a generic rubber that came with a double sided peel and stick adhesive and that has mostly held. I did a lot of surface preparation like you did, cleaned the rubbers with lacquer thinner to remove the mould release agent and scuffed the paint, nothing held permanently.

However, for the E Type I restored recently I used the Loctite cyanoacrylate ( I forget the number) and that has held. I think the CA type adhesives are the way to go. I don't think you need Loctite specifically ( although they are good products) but I would get one that is more of a gel than the usual watery liquid. Then it stays in place. The 480 sounds good, as does 416. You won't need much, I think a 20g tube was enough to do both doors on the E Type. It will start to set up in the tube once you've opened it, so I would make sure that everything is ready to go and do all the rubbers you're going to in one session. Don't start on a vertical piece of rubber in the evening and then decide the next day that the doors need to come off and a couple of days later come back to putting rubber on again.

I'd only glue a small section, maybe a foot, at a time and work your way around. Wear nitrile gloves, as the glue is tough on the skin if you get it on you. I did it with a helper; one person applies the glue and the other follows behind laying and positioning the rubber. It wasn't too bad once you get the rhythm down. It's pretty much essential to have the doors off to do behind the hinges though. I'd agree, an evil job.

 

Cass, thank you for the suggestions. At this point, I think it's finished and stuck well enough. I've got it standing on props in my workshop. If the fabric hasn't sagged visibly by tomorrow morning, I'll put it all back in the car. A painful distraction from drilling spot welds out of the Mk2's spring hangers.

My father removed and reinstalled the door seals of our Mk2 in the 1970s - he didn't trust the lock body shop to do it (he shouldn't have trusted them to do anything). He'd have certainly used Dunlop Thixotropic as it was our go to in those days. The adhesive survived better than the rubber and was holding it all nicely in place when I removed the seals last year.

Some people claim a D section seal is easier to fit and seals better.

 

Yeah JB, you know. ~ The 480 is brilliant (comes in a flat squeeze bottle with nozzle & screw cap so it has some decent useable life) but Loctite have recently released a plain cyanoacrylate gel called 60 Seconds that gives you a short bit of working time at about 10% of the price of 480. I can buy it in the hardware section of my local grocery store and it is excellent. On my drivers door I have about a foot that has come loose on the windscreen curve from door line to windscreen pillar. I'm going to give 60 seconds a shot on that short piece & monitor. The other short piece is the horizontal strip below the LHS rear door.

BTW ~ On the E Type did you have any trouble with the cyanoacrylate turning the rubber white? Some do & some don't and I have not found a Chemical Engineer who can tell me why? The Alcolin version in SA doesn't. Some do.

 

Hello
I have to clean up, and reglue the fabric on the trim around the doors of my '92 XJS. Any suggestions of what glue might be suitable to attach the fabric to the interior piece (which I think is plastic?). I dont think i want something that would require destroying the fabric in the future as right now it is in not bad shape. Also I am actually not sure what the exact name of the piece is - it is the strip of material around the door frame that the headliner goes under. If anyone has cleaned up pieces like the before and has words of wisdom, I would welcome any.
Regards
Bill

 

I'd use contact cement for that, I think that's what the factory used.

 

No, but I was careful to only apply the glue on the bottom of the channel. If it did go white ( and that seems to be a property of all CA type glues) it wouldn't be seen.

An explanation for the bloom: https://www.resinlab.com/resources/c...g-or-blooming/

 

I agree with Jagboi: try contact adhesive. Perhaps try one patch first to see if it works on the plastic. Some plastics can be difficult.

 

Thank you for that. Understood re application bloom although it begs the Alcolin secret ~ every 45 deg joint (90 deg total) on my car is done with their product & not a hint of bloom. More & more although I'm going to try the 60 Seconds I think I'm going to go the Loctite 480 route because I know it. After-all it's only money. Sometimes better the devil you know & have experience with/of.

 

Very true! Is there an industrial supplier that carries Loctite that you can get a trade discount? There are plenty of suppliers here that I can give the name of my previous employer and get their discount and pay cash at the counter and they are perfectly happy with that.

I wonder if the lack of bloom you are seeing is simply due to the viscosity and vapour pressure of the product?

 

I only buy 480 from an Industrial supplier.

re lack of bloom ~ possibly. I must phone Alcolin & ask them.

 

Better to buy Loctite from a reliable supplier to avoid the ersatz that are around.

 

Far and away the best adhesives I've found for door gaskets and rear window trim are the aerosol gasket makers. I use one made by Permatex, which has an applicator tip that allows you to lay down a controlled narrow bead in the channel. Just set the rubber or chrome and tape overnight. Unlike the contact cements this material is impervious to everything once cured, and I've yet to find anything it won't stick to - very aggressive bond.
For contact cement here in the states I use one manufactured by DAP - sprays well and again a very strong bond. I just finished reupholstering my wife's headliner panel on her XJR, which has recesses for the sun visors and above the rear seat. It's impossible to cover these areas without stretching the material so it's always under tension. I did my Mark 2 headliner about 6 years ago and everything remains intact. Also insulated the bonnet with foam and vinyl which remain intact - no easy feat with the heat generated there.

 

Permatex products have a poor reputation in SA. Must be our sun. But even their gasket maker is utter crap compared with Yamabond. (by Yamaha for precision, gasketless casing joints where slight movement is possible.) Horses for courses I guess. There are two things you won't find a racing team without including F1 ~ Duct tape & Yamabond 4) The great thing about Yamabond is that it just peels off. No scraping required after you split the joint.

I'm going to try Loctite 60 seconds on my door rubbers but my mind is made up in favour of Loctite 480 for that application going forward.

On S Types up to '67 where the headlining is glued to the dome (no backing board ~ foam backed lambswool Union Cloth stuck to anti-drumming pads that are in turn stuck to the dome, John Skinner (Jon for Jonathan. John was his dad.) warns against aerosol adhesives & suggests working from the centre out with good old contact adhesive gently rolled with a Dynamat type roller of different widths to prevent bleed through. He suggests that with aerosols it's only a matter of time before they let go & you have a sagging roof lining. With the fitting rather than manufacturing side of the business I'm inclined to listen to him. They fit their upholstery kits to a hell of a lot of cars.

This is what a decent roof lining job should look like (centre stuck to dome by my man in Krugersdorp). He is also experimenting with a new product that you apply & then hot iron when satisfied & it cures immediately (I think it's from the Pratley organisation of Space Shuttle fame & other NASA projects. Who would have thought from a little company in SA that started life all those years back with Pratley Putty.)

 

I can't speak to the Permatex as a gasket maker (never used it for that purpose), but as an adhesive for just about anything it's unbeatable in my experience. Six years of daily driving and my door gaskets remain firmly attached. You should try it along with the Loctite adhesives and see which is stronger. The fact that Yamabond peels off suggests it wouldn't make a good adhesive, which is fine since that's not its purpose.
If the warning about aerosol adhesives is referencing rattle cans I couldn't agree more. As for spraying vs rolling an industrial contact cement I've found spraying much easier to achieve consistent coverage, especially on foam-backed cloth where you risk bleed through with a roller. I cringe when I see upholsterers on these car shows shooting a narrow stream of glue, in a circular motion no less to get the gun to feed. With a large tip and proper air pressure you should achieve a 6" wide fan at approximately 8" from the surface. The key is getting 80+ percent coverage of both surfaces and then knowing when to mate them. Once they touch it's done - the only way to separate them is to shred the fabric or the substrate, and I can't say that about any other contact cement I've used. The DAP adhesive is reported to further cure/harden with repeated heat cycles, and my bonnet insulation would appear to support that. FWIW