W126 B pillar leather trim regluing
 

The leather is coming away from the pillar panel around the seatbelt opening.

I have already had it at a trim shop and after about a year it started to come away again. I bought some 3M spray on adhesive and attempted to repair it myself but it lasted about 5 months.

Does anyone have a correct repair procedure including recommend materials?

Cheers
Matt.

Matt,

It's been about a year and 15K miles now and the B Pillar leather is still in place. I used the 3M trim adhesive, but not the spray on.

Once the leather is carefull removed from the aluminum plate both parts need to be cleaned of the old adhesive. Once clean and dry I used a scrap piece of cardboard to spread a thin coat of adhesive. I made sure there was good coverage around the seatbelt adjuster opening and along the edges. Work in sections, doing the center face first, then the sides. Once it was glued up I left it sit unmolested for a couple days to fully cure.

If you only want to try to secure around the opening you could try to gently lift and clean the aluminum, then apply the adhesive without removing the leather completely. work on side of the opening at a time, let the glue tack up and work the leather tight then clamp and let sit. After an hour or so work the opposing side, then repeat for the other two sides.

Thanks Mike.

Previously I didn't clean the aluminium, I just sprayed and prayed :-)

I think I will try just the opening area, I don't want to have to remove all the leather unless I have to.

I will get the 3M manual application glue and try again.

Cheers
Matt.

hello matt and mike

my 88 420 has the same problem which is one of my to do items.

where did you find the leather replacement material?

i've been studying on this for a while now and i'm thinking spray adhesive would give the best finish but not sure how critical that is. mike when you spread the glue with card board how was the spread looking ? pretty level.

my pillar gets it where my fat butt gets in the car down low so i was thinking about only doing a partial just enough to cover the wear point.

i once did my bronco and i used contact cement what about something like that. you'd have to have plenty of material so you could cut it back. but you can really stretch as you are applying. of course you can't make any mistakes cause once that stuff touches itself that is all she wrote.

we just started her back up today after the engine work i did. hasn't run since january 2002 but started right up and the motor sounds super. we've got about 10 coats of leatherique on the interior and she is really looking good. should get my wood back any day now. new 18 inch wheels should be here any day this coming week. i'm like that kid in a candy shop.

thanks for the input
craig

I haven't had to replace the leather, it was only coming away from the backing around the seatbelt hole.

I used 3m spray adhesive on my earlier attempt and it didn't hold for very long.

Matt.

I simply reused my leather too. If your leather has worn through, you might be better served by finding a good pice of trim from a suitable donor car. This will allow for a much closer match in color due to sun fade.

As far as the adhesive goes, spreading it thin with a piece of cardboard left the adhesive fairly smooth. This stuff is contact cement, so you are limited in the number of passes you can make before the cardboard starts to stick. I pretty much stuck to using two passes while the glue was still very liquid.

I don't recall mine being leather, but what I do recall, is that the material was loosearound that rectangle, and that it looked like it had shrunk, so even gluing it back on there, would have left unsightly exposed areas of metal.
Fortunately for me, the dealer I bought it from said that they would pay to have both sides replaced. I ended up taking the car to the repair place myself. He ended up removing the entire post, and putting on new material. It wasn't leather, but then again, nor was the old material. Unfortunately, I do not remember what he used for an adhesive, but I am thinking it was a 3M product. The only difference in material that I noted, was that the original had a smidgeon of foam backing.
It probably took him about 10 minutes to remove each side, and about the same to replace the material, and about the same to put each side back into place.

vinyl look alike
 

mine was a vinyl look leather did the same thing I scrapped the old foam of and used a large tube of 3M contact cement. I used clamps like Mike and it has worked very well.
m

you guys are probably right. the material is very thin to be leather and there is this hard funny brownish looking foam on the back.

after talking on this yesterday i looked at it again and see where mine has gotten several small nicks that have pulled up and look like little flaps and the material is pulled away from the rectangle also really quite bad. this fabric must be the same stuff they used on the door's upper edge where you lay your forearm on. i've been using leatherique there too.

so it probably is a vinyl so it shouldn't be too hard to get. i remember getting some of this in one of those big fabric shops for the old bronco.

if anybody knows how to get the inside pillar cover off that would be a big help because that will probably be the toughest part of the job.

thanks
craig

There are two screws in the plastic cover at the base. Undo these and then pull out and down and the whole thing comes away. A bit of a hassle to put back together, make sure you have the plastic cover over the seatbelt sliding mechanism aligned correctly, test it's operation before completing the job.

Matt.

thanks matt

as soon as i get to work in the morning i'm going to pull the pillar cover and get over to a fabric shop.

thanks
craig

matt

way too easy 2 screws and 1 bolt and it was out. so what's the catch??? only kidding.

looks simple enough. they only glued the inside of the aluminum cover so a little bit of sanding and it should be just fine. i do think however contact cement may be the best for this so you can stretch the material.

i noticed they made a special cut on the belt hole cutout kind of a round finger shape and they glued around the inside of the cutout as well.

i should be able to get this cover material tonite after work so i'll let you know how it comes out.

tks
craig

Getting it off is the easy part, getting it back on is the fiddly part.

That's usually the way, easy to pull apart a pain to put back together.

Cheers
Matt.

hey guys

i got the vinyle the other nite joanne fabrics. for 1 yard it was 6.99 + tx. they had several textures and 1 that was exactly what i needed. it doesn't have foam on it but uses a fabric. i'm thinking the foam dries up and fails and that's why it starts to come off.

i'll let you know how it comes out.
craig