Opinions on lining cabin, please

[Deaks]

Having carpeted our cabin (Black Hawk) from the waistline down, I've turned my attention to the upper area, where the screen and side windows are.
At the moment it's bare fibreglass since I stripped off the manky paint last year.
I'm lining the area with embossed vinyl, the headlining stuff.
The question is this - should I just I just stick the vinyl straight to the grp surface?
Or should I go to the trouble of making a thin trim panel in the appropriate shape (say 2/3mm ply), lining the panel and then come up with some method of attaching that panel to the boat side?
I have no access to other boats to see how it's done - what's in like in yours?

Deaks

[tatsuko]

Stripping down my manky Black Hawk too at present. What I have decided to do is to replace the head liners and replace the carpet on the sides. Around the window frames have repainted and not carpeting as I want to be able to access the fittings that come through the hull. Will screw the headliner back in place on the the thin plywood panels, again makes it easier to access where the bolts come through, by sticking liner straight on the head I feel it will be harder in the future to track down any water ingress. By having it on the plywood panels its just a few screws to undo to expose the whole ceiling and get access to wiring etc.
Just my feeling about it.
Regards
Steve

[rbmatthews]

It's a different boat and different material to yours, but when I relined our F4 I glued the carpet material directly on to the GRP for the sides (i.e. no plywood), but for the roof there was a plywood panel which the carpet was glued on to, and which was then screwed into the ceiling GRP. As Tatsuko says, this allowed all the wiring to be hidden out of the way.

I have described how we did it with pictures at http://shetlandf4.wordpress.com/relining/ if you are interested.

Hope this helps
Robin.

[bobtooke]

His Steve/Robin, I have also been wondering how to cover the unsightly GRP stranding in my 535 so watching this and Rob's blog with interest.
I like that carpet job, looks very plush!
Rob, how is the headlining attached to the roof? Are there wooden stretchers under the ply?

[rbmatthews]

Bob

There are thicker parts on the underside of the cabin roof, which I assume are some sort of battens (wood?) that have been GRPed over. I think they probably act as stiffeners for the roof, as well as something that the headliner ply can be screwed into. I wouldn't screw into the thinner bits in between as you would run the risk of piecing the GRP right through.

Robin.

[Pmompppp]

Having carpeted our cabin (Black Hawk) from the waistline down, I've turned my attention to the upper area, where the screen and side windows are.
At the moment it's bare fibreglass since I stripped off the manky paint last year.
I'm lining the area with embossed vinyl, the headlining stuff.
The question is this - should I just I just stick the vinyl straight to the grp surface?
Or should I go to the trouble of making a thin trim panel in the appropriate shape (say 2/3mm ply), lining the panel and then come up with some method of attaching that panel to the boat side?
I have no access to other boats to see how it's done - what's in like in yours?

Deaks

I've bought a roll of faux leather in white and im going to glue it on ive also got rolls of foam underlay can't decide whether to pad it underneath

[Deaks]

Thanks for your opinions, everyone.
If I were going to do a Rolls Royce job on the sides I'd make proper lining panels (I was thinking about using a lightweight foamed pvc material in about 3mm thickness), wrap them in the embossed pvc, devise a method of attaching it to the cabin side and then think up some kind of wooden edging framework to cover the dozens of plastic fastenings and the raw fibreglass edge of the window aperture.
However, that'd take forever to do - so I think I'll just bond the embossed vinyl straight onto the cabin sides.
I can fold the edge of the pvc over the raw grp edge to make it look a bit neater - my windows come out easily because I refurbed them last year using a neoprene seal - no adhesive.
I'll take some photos and post them.
I think I'll try the foamex panel procedure for the headliner, though. I'll photograph that too.

Ian

[davyjones1960]

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P1180041.JPG

I am just about to fit out my 535 cabin too. At the moment its just grp covered in mildew and i plan to fix a 3mm plywood lining straight to the hull with adhesive and then fix battens onto this with adhesive ready to screw in the various upholstery and fixings. The roof I am planning to do with the same 3mm plywood using a 2inch loft insulation. Pics to follow but this is as it stands now