Contact Anxiety

Contact cement....wow, just that name! Suppose I allowed the two parts to touch each other too soon, way out of position? Would they touch, and bond in place? Immovable for a million years though I would tug and tug?

Clearly, I needed a plan. After three days of contact cement anxiety, I developed one. I had a roll of non-stick paper that I'd bought earlier for dry mounting photographs, during which process tacking the tissue (before trimming) onto the back of the print would usually result in contact of the tissue with the hot plate of the mounting press. So I use a sheet of this paper in the press, folded in half to surround the work, and it works well. A quick trial indicated that it would also work for contact cement.

My plan was to cut several sheets of this paper and lay it over other parts of the ceiling (now upside down) to stop the parts of the headliner that I wasn't working on yet from sticking. I would pull out the sheets of paper and work on the next portion, until I reached the edge of the windshield opening.

And it worked! I got the headliner glued in, if not quite perfectly, close enough that it won't matter. And with only one or two insignificant wrinkles which, for the most part, smoothed out quite well. To stick completely and to really hug the surface, the headliner needed lots of direct pressure, all over, though it did tend to stick on contact. I was very pleased. The next day I applied my new contact cement talents (the cement wasn't quite as touch-sensitive as I'd feared, though you sure could end up with a disaster if you aren't real careful) and applied the two upper side pieces, which also went on well.

I felt infinitely relieved.