Ringshanked thumbtacks ?

Get a syringe with reasonably large-bore needle. 16 gauge by 1 or 1-1/2 inch ought to do you fine - Know any horse folks who do their own vaccinations that you can ask for a going-to-be-discarded-anyway needle/syringe? Insulin needles are out - Too fine to get any glue through in controllable fashion. If all else fails, go down to your local farm-supply place (I'm assuming you have one near you) and buy yourself a pre-loaded dose of EEWT (Equine Eastern/Western encephalitis

  • tetanus), Rhinopneumonitis, or "four-way" vaccine for about 8-16 bucks a pop (It's going to vary by locale and specific product you end up with), complete with needle - If they ask, tell 'em you're vaccinating your horse, or they might refuse to sell it to you in some places.

Once you've aquired your syringe and needle, bring it home, empty the contents (if any) down the sink, rinse well with water, dryit, and reload it with glue - preferably, something that sets up quick with air-contact, but superglue is probably a bad idea. Poke the needle through the headliner cloth, and eject a tiny amount of glue onto the substrate material. Place finger over spot where needle went through cloth, then remove needle and *GENTLY* (You probably dont want to have a stiff, lumpy blob of glue oozing through the headliner cloth when you're done) press your finger against the cloth to hold it in place until the glue sets. Repeat in however many places are needed.

Works like a charm.

Reply to
Don Bruder
Loading thread data ...

I need something like ringshank thumbtacks, something very short that will not pull out easily. The application is holding the headliner in my Saturn up - the glue holding it failed and it has fallen down on my head. Of course I tried regular thumbtacks, they pulled out almost immediately.

A very short screw might work, but OAL would have to be 3/8" or less, preferably less. Any ideas?

Reply to
Nick Hull

I recall seeing something like a thumbtsck with a corkscrew pin on it. The head had some cutesy flower-like pattern molded into it, which would also provide a gripping surface, and the corkscrew was about 3 turns that would dig in about 1/4". These might've been for some crafts application of attaching fabric to a substrate. I've mentioned thse things to different people over the years for headliner and other uses, and none of 'em knew what I was describing (that happens a lot).

WB ..............

Reply to
Wild Bill

I've seen 'em. Their *INTENDED* use is to "nail down" blankets, afghans, doilies, and similar things that you'd hang/drape/otherwise cover a couch or upholstered chair with, and keep it from "taking a walk" on you every time the furniture gets used. Look for 'em in a sewing supply store, perhaps an upholstery shop, or *MAYBE* a crafts-oriented place.

They do a good job on furniture, so I can't see a reason (unless perhaps whatever is behind the headliner is too hard to penetrate with them) why they wouldn't work to secure a sagging headliner.

Reply to
Don Bruder

Yeah, those spirally pins are used to hold furniture slip covers and arm covers in place, but I doubt the heads would look very cool in his car.

The headliner in my trusty-rusty '90 Caddy flopped down on me about two years ago.

I fastened it up with regular sewing pins. I pushed the pins in at a very shallow angle so they went into the insulation/sound deadener stuff above the headliner. They went in almost "sideways".

I used about twenty pins, but they're all still in place. Doesn't look as good as factory new,as it sags a bit between the pins but WTF, it's a

14 year old car y'know and it was an easy (and very cheep) fix....

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Wisnia

Already did that, I buy empty needles & syringes at the co-op. Unfortunately the glue didn't hold any better that the factory applied stuff. That's why I'm looking for a mechanical (metal) solution.

Reply to
Nick Hull

Try this.... can of spray adhesive (3M brand) used for glueing sandpaper discs on the belt/disc sanders. A little nozzle extension, a small hole punched through the headliner, spray around an area, wait a few seconds, press headliner up into the glue.... works. Ken.

Reply to
Ken Sterling

Why piss away the best part of twenty bucks? If they have the vaccines, they have the empty syringes. It'll cost all of about 2 bucks, anywhere I have seen, to get a 50 or 60cc syringe and a couple big bore needles for them. Don't have to lie, either. Tell them outright that you want them for glue. You might even get a freebie out of them. Or not. But at least you won't be buying something you don't need, to get what you do.

A lot of vet supply places are doing brisk sales in the large needles for the body piercers (eewww!). It's not like they are a popular thing for the druggies.

Cheers Trevor Jones

Reply to
Trevor Jones

Reply to
jerry Wass

Why not get a can of 3M spray adhesive and simply glue it back up again?

Gunner

"A vote for Kerry is a de facto vote for bin Laden." Strider

Reply to
Gunner

Sounds like you haven't tried buying needles in california...

To keep it short, the first time I tried to buy a couple doses of four-way for my mare out here was definitely "an experience". And it was a far less than pleasant one. Unpleasant enough that I don't even want to contemplate trying to buy a syringe to use as a glue applicator! The "hairy eyeball" and third degree I got when I was trying to buy the darn things for the exact purpose they were created for was bad enough. If I'd asked for a pound of plutonium, they probably would have given me less headache over it.

Reply to
Don Bruder

Everyone is telling you to use glue, but it probably won't work. Neither will tacks. The real problem here is that the insulating material behind the headliner has gotten rotten, so it just won't hold onto anything you try. Been there.

The fix that's going to work is to remove the headliner, remove the rotten insulation, replace the insulation with good stuff, and glue the headliner to it before you put it back in with the correct cement (available from the GM parts counter).

Gary

Reply to
Gary Coffman

I buy the 7 or 8 way parvo/corona/etc/etc vaccine kits all the time in California. No biggie deal. Course I do live in ag country and buy from feed and grain/livestock stores.

Plus I can go into various industrial supply houses and buy needles over the counter easily, and in glue sizes.

Must be regional.

Gunner

"A vote for Kerry is a de facto vote for bin Laden." Strider

Reply to
Gunner

You're correct about the deteriorated thin foam layer, and that the glue won't correct the problem for the long term. Doing small spots won't help as the rest of the foam deteriorates. The problem with removing a headliner backer panel is that there aren't any openings that it'll fit thru (without folding it) unless the windshield is removed. There aren't many (any?) 4-door hardtops anymore, big sedans that don't have roof pillars between the doors. For some vehicles, appearance and resale value aren't as important, and the headliner could be pulled out, thrown away and replaced with a sheet of painted styrofoam. That would at least reduce the effect of the thermal radiation of the roof skin on sunny days.

Another non-glue-the-spot solution would be to bend some bows to match the curvature of the headliner, out of light gauge anodized aluminum flat strips to go across the headliner, and long enough to catch the ends inside the edge of the interior hard plastic trim to hold them in place. This was a nice feature of some 50's cars as a standard deluxe interior trim package of the Coupe DeVilles and Nomad wagons.

WB ...............

Reply to
Wild Bill

--Getcher self som super magnets; the little crescent-shaped ones are best. Clean what you can and try using one of the more viscous cyanoacrylates; they cure fairly slowly and will give you a chance to position things. Use the magnets where bonding doesn't work.

Reply to
steamer

Well, you can go to:

formatting link
and get a real replacement. But for the quick fix you asked about, auto parts stores sell buttons with screw shanks just for this purpose, available in different colors. They are called "headliner saver pins", here is a link to some:

formatting link
Dennis

Reply to
DT

||I need something like ringshank thumbtacks, something very short that ||will not pull out easily. The application is holding the headliner in ||my Saturn up - the glue holding it failed and it has fallen down on my ||head. Of course I tried regular thumbtacks, they pulled out almost ||immediately. || ||A very short screw might work, but OAL would have to be 3/8" or less, ||preferably less. Any ideas?

There is a company that makes a short plastic item like this. Comes in a pack of twenty or so for about a buck. Some auto parts stores carry them.

The reason the injected glue deal doesn't work out: These headliners are thin cloth with a thin layer of foam bonded to them. Heat dries out the foam, leaving a fine powder to drift around between the now-sagging cloth and the foam board it was originally glued to. When you inject glue, that powder clings to the glue preventing a good bond to the backing foamboard. Think of a flour-battered chicken, if it helps ;) Personally, I haven't found anything that works well in situ. If you want to save money, but the fabric yourself, then removbe the backing board and clean all the old stuff on it. Attach the new stuff with 3M 8090 spray adhesive, reinstall. But if you shop around, you can find some pretty cheap prices to get it done by a pro. $80-$100 seems pretty common, even less if you just drop off the backer board. Rex in Fort Worth

Reply to
Rex B

Yeah, you usually have to pop the windshield. That's a 10 minute job, so it isn't that unreasonable. But if you don't mind the mess, you can scrape the rotten old foam off the backer board while it is still in the car. Then glue in fresh foam, then glue in the headliner.

Gary

Reply to
Gary Coffman

It helps a lot if you mount the vehicle in an inverter, or manually rotate it on a bed of styrofoam beads :-)} Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Reply to
Gerald Miller

Reply to
Jim Sehr

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.