Nautolex / Carpet adhesive, "non-hardening"

[fishrdan]

I'm gutting the interior of my 2001 Crestliner and noticed the factory used a thick, clear, non-hardening adhesive to stick the carpet to the sides of the boat... 7 years later and the carpet is still stuck well, but I can stick my finger to the adhesive on the side of the boat, it's still tacky! The carpet peels right off with a little effort, no ripping, tearing, sweating, cussing and fighting it the whole way off.

What is this stuff ?!?

I'm getting rid of the carpet and going back with painted decks and vinyl interior. I'm thinking of Nautolex'ing the horizontal surfaces and non-skid painting the deck.

Thanks!
Dan

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Nautolex / Carpet adhesive, "non-hardening"

I tried using weldwood contact cement with nautolex, and it sorta/kinda glued it down. It's still a bit tacky, and frankly doesn't hold well. I'd guess the stuff the factory used is some kind of contact cement.

If I did it again I'd probably get the manufacturer's recommended brand name cement, which I think is a waterproof sheet goods adhesive.

But I probably won't do it again. The nautolex doesn't suit my boating style well... it's gotten pretty dirty, faded in places from chemicals I spilled, tore in one spot when the corner of the doghouse caught it, and just generally looks mediocre.

I'm thinking I'll probably replace it with roll on bedliner eventually.. the only disadvantage to that is that if I need to cut a hole in the deck it'll be hard to repair and have it look neat.

Erik

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Nautolex / Carpet adhesive, "non-hardening"

Yes, some sort of contact cement, but what kind I don't know. I can see they applied it with some type of gun from the pattern in the glue, thinking it might be a hot type of glue and when it cools it's still sticky. When the sun was baking the boat the carpet was pulling off like butter, but when the sun was going down it was harder to pull off the carpet,,, heat has something to do with this glue...

The fun part is going to be removing the glue so I can apply something to the vertical surfaces of the interior, don't know if solvent is going to cut it. Might have to find a material that will hide the glue residue...