Advice about glue needed

Most dashboards are cleaned before sale with a dressing that might(usually) contains silicon, which makes it difficult to adhere to. I suggest that you clean thoroughly the area where the strip is to go, using a mild solvent, such as methylated spirit. HTH.

I've done the same thing without problem (actually to hold my mobile phone as it makes a good low profile phone mount). I'd therefore suspect contamination on the surface rather than an issue with the glue.

I've never found any glue strong enough to stick velcro to anything. If wood, I'd normally glue and staple. For your app, I'd probably clean it well, glue and pop rivet.

Wipe the area with meths to remove any polish, and use "No More Nails" pads.

Good luck getting it all off when you come to sell....

When all else fails I resort to araldite or any generic 2-part epoxy. IMO nothing comes close.

You might try that super velcro stuff [from 3m?] which claims to be much stronger and presumably has glue to match.

I used sticky-back heavy-duty Velcro to mount midgeproof screens on my window frames. It held up very well for years, on south-facing windows on the north coast of Scotland.

But I did prepare the surface _very_ carefully.

On Friday 09 August 2013 18:41 Mike Lane wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Have you tried Evostik old type contact adhesive?

That would be my favoured option as well...

Oh I have

dome of the double sided tackys are very good as is evostik.

Its the heat always with cars I find, Greenhouses have a similar issue and in the end Wrapped the Velcro around a strip of metal with the metal in the middle and the ends of the Velcro underneath, then used two self tapping screws to clamp the Velcro down so to speak. Lasted for years like that. Not pretty but functional!

Brian

Snag with the interior of a car is it gets extremes of heat and cold and moisture content. A very hostile environment for general purpose glues. And the sort of soft(ish) plastics used on modern cars make things even more difficult. I'd be interested to know if the OP does find one that does what he needs.

I've found the stick pads that 3M use on their Command range of cable clips, etc, work well, but I always clean the area with IPA (not the beer) before fixing.

Mike Lane wrote on Aug 9, 2013:

Thanks for all the suggestions. Several people have suggested that it might be some surface contamination that's preventing adhesion. I think that may well be part of the problem - I do remember now the car salesman blathering about some miracle treatment they applied to the interior of their cars when I bought it.

I'll try cleaning more thoroughly with isopropanol and try again