Interior liner but not a headliner

[plolic]

Hi,

On my 1986 F36 I have that ugly "carpet type" lining inside lockers, on the ceiling of the V-berth and on the side of the quarter berth. Firstly I hate its looks. Secondly is is 25 year old fabric which has collected dust and and some mould in the lockers. I have seen anumber of posts about re-doing and replacing headliner on the ceiling of the main cabin and on the ceiling of quarter berth, but nothing about this carpert stuff. I know that behind it is raw fiberglass without gel coat, so if I ripp it off i will need something applied on this area. Lockers are OK. I can simply paint over it. What about v-berth and quarterberth? has anyone done this and if affirmative how have you done it?

Petar

[Michel]

The inside of the hull, also behind the lockers, is clad with 1/4" thick, 1-1/2" wide battens screwed to the inner laminate every 2' or 3'. For your lockers this would be a difficult job, but for the quarter berth it would be doable. Also , there are several patterns of foam backed vinyl. You often see that as upholstery for hull sides.

[plolic]

Hi, foam backed vinyl is ok for straighter surfaces similar to what you have done to your boat, however V berth ceiling with raised deck section and qurterberth with the inner side of the Starboard cockpit seat and coaming are not straight but curved surfaces which I guess were covered with this "carpety" stuff instead of gelcoat. At that time it might have been cheaper/easier and nicer touch ( mid eighties were heavy for covering everything with carpets in North America) but not after 25 years of exposure to dust and humidity.Ripping it off and simply painting over would leave rough surface which would look like the interior of a race boat, so unless i find some sort of substitute I'll have to live with it. Covering in wood would be too difficult due to its shape.

[phildowney]

i would use a mix of plywood panels covered in vinyl no foam backing and foam backed stuck straight on
usualy the ceiling is on ply the coamings/ cabin side is stuck on , and under the sidedeck theres another ply panel the ply panels thus cover the edges of and hold in place the stuff stuck to the coamings.
you can use teak faced ply as a spacer between the panels that make up the roof and the moulding with an inch or so showing between the panels as per halberg rassey and many other manufacturers
phil

[lfreeman]

On our old boat all the "glued on" foam-backed Naugahyde or ultra-suede like fabric had become de-laminated in the lockers, fore-peak and aft cabins and was falling off leaving a mess of powdery to chunky dried out foam.
We ended up doing this:
1. screwing/epoxying battens to the raw fiberglass of the deck and hull (much like Michel described)
2. adding foil-faced bubble-wrap insulation between the battens,
3. re-applying the Naugahyde/ultra-suede fabric (after scraping/vacuuming the decomposed foam off the back) supported by teak battens on the inside corners screwed into the backing battens installed in 1 above. You may have to use plywood backing as Phil described in the large expanses of cambered deck and coach roof in the v-berth to support the fabric.

This ended up looking pretty nice and helped keep the aft cabins/lockers cooler and helped with deck noise during overnight passages.

The foam backing on some laminated fabrics degrades and de-laminates after 10 years or less in exposure to heat of the underside of the decks (especially in tropics) and the chemicals in the adhesive used to apply it. I am sure that the carpet in the Freedoms was used to help with condensation issues in cold climates and with heat radiation in warm climates and noise dissipation everywhere.

[yarrow]

I'm looking at the same issure for my F25, my parents own a 1945 Huchins which uses a really cool perferated material for all the head liners it breaths and looks great white with tiny black holes. I'm tempted to use a simular product on my boat but at the same time I like just painted fiberglass for ease of cleaning. Granted my boat is more of a daysailor/ weekender so my lockers and storage will not be full of wet gear. I will keep you posted if I find out more info.
cheers,
yarrow