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Installed a new headliner with marine fabric to match the reef aqua color on 1970 ford 100 two years ago. I used Permatex heavy duty head liner adhesive. Got in the truck last week the headliner adhesive has failed and it was drooping. Pulled the headliner off the truck and the adhesive had failed everywhere and the fabric had shrunk longitudinally 1". Used tacks and hot melt glue, hopefully that holds. Do not know if this is an isolated incident, but I would never use Permatex again, cost me alot of man hours and head aches.
That is so frustrating. I wish I had a tried and tested solution. My go-to for all important adhesives is 3M. But they have so many products it's hard to know who is best for the application.
I hate when I have to redo something due to a product failing. Adhesives are very sensitive to bonding cleanness. I know some the head liner adhesives are for holding the foam felt up which is very light. Not the heavy fabric you used. If I recall the VHB (very high bond) adhesives will hold a lot of weight. The 3M 90 would have worked fine sine you did not have the foam backing. Also heat can make some release. I don't recall if you insulated the top?
I had a research project that required us to adhere cells to the side of a 48" dia pipe, no clamps. I ended up talking with 3M technical department since my requirement were pretty odd. Total submersion in water for months, exposure to acid and bases, which was a bye product of the test. They had something that worked but required 72 hrs for it to get to full adhesion strength. Ended up special ordering a roll of the 2 sided tape for the project, cost around $800. It worked provided you did not rush the setup time, like a engineer tried to do. Cost a loss of about 3 weeks. That stuff was rated at 90 lb/sq in shear, good for holding things on.
Hard to say, too, whether the glue caused the fabric to shrink, or the fabric shrinking caused the glue to fail.
My money would be on the shrinking fabric, however. As it slowly moves over time, any glue would give up the ghost I would think.
Of course, you would think a marine grade fabric of any type would be relatively immune to shrinkage over such a short period of time.
Not an expert on either subject by any means, but that would be my suspicion.
