Sticking Velcro on sheetmetal

[Bryan Cotton]

Hey all,
Recently when I finished my seat back cushions, I took some old sticky back velcro I had and put it on the seat sling. It pulled right off when I took the cushions off. Wondering what has worked for people before. Here are some things I found on our forum plus some other ideas.

1) buy new velcro - does the sticky back deteriorate with age?
2) 5 minute epoxy the velcro down
3) use spray adhesive like Permatex 27828. Saw that on the forum but seems rather messy.
4) supplement the adhesive with pop rivets.
5) skip the velcro and use the good duct tape

Any ideas or feedback is welcome.

[sonex892.]

Hi Bryan
For the stick boot. I Scuffed then cleaned the aluminium, then contact adhesive on plain velcro. Still there after almost 10 years.
Steve
Sonex 892

[sonex1374]

The heavy-duty or industrial Velcro has a much stronger adhesive, and is the way to go. I got that Velcro from the auto upholstery shop that sewed my cushions. Clean the metal well to remove any residual oils, then stick in place. For added insurance I used a large-head rivet on each end of the big strips to ensure it doesn't start to peal away. Seems to be working great.

Jeff

[fastj22]

The heavy duty velcro from McMaster Carr is very tenacious. I used the fuzzy side on my side rails/longerons to seal the canopy, trying to remove it to take the plane apart was surprisingly difficult.

[Bryan Cotton]

Thanks all. I've ordered the industrial stuff and it arrives tomorrow.

[Rynoth]

I had ordered my cushions from Sonex, which had half the velcro already sewn into them. Since I didn't want to tinker with using a different material or trying to match what was sewn in, I just riveted the provided strips to the seat pan without any adhesive. Isn't pretty but does the trick and gets covered up anyway.

For the baggage compartment I had the opposite problem... I used heavy duty 3m hook/loop tape which sticks great to the aluminum top of the longerons, but not to the fabric and I don't know how to sew or stitch (or what the difference is). So I riveted the velcro to the fabric using a washer as a backer to the squeezed end.

[Bryan Cotton]

I was wondering if I could use velcro instead of snaps for the baggage compartment. Cool.

[Bryan Cotton]

Update- my industrial velcro seems pretty awesome. I have lots of velcro holding power as I am using 2" wide velcro on the cushions. It has not budged off the sheetmetal with a handful of cycles.