Chris:

I spoke to a shop owner and builder in Ohio a couple of weeks ago and he suggested Duco Cement. You could also clamp a narrow board to the overlap 'til the cement is dry. Just use caution to not adhere the board to the wrap. I have not tried this myself, so you might want to test a small area near the edge of the shell. He actually had a brand new Gretsch kit in the shop with seams that had lifted since they left the factory.

I have just wrapped a five piece kit in Silver Glass Glitter and used the water-based 3M contact cement that Precision Drum recommended. This worked well for me, but to use contact cement you would probably need to lift the seam a bit.

I'm sure that others on the forum will have recommendations too.

Good luck.

Ken

Use a syringe and hypo needle if you need to get the adhesive into small, hard to get at places.

D

What is that a European thing to just have syringes lying around?

Quite the opposite. In Sweden I can't get 'em without a prescription - have to buy 'em in good ole' Denmark where they're more "liberal". Great meeting you the other day, by the way.

Cheers,

David

Thanks guys. Great suggestions.

Any other ideas on glues???

I had to do this a couple of times and I used "Crazy Glue". I know, I know....I thought the same thing...but apparently the chemical that Crazy Glue is made from is cyanocrilate(?) or something and it reacts with the plastic wrap and supposedly kind of "welds" the plastic back together. I used the gel and it comes in a tube with a small needle-nose -so you can squirt it down into the gap a bit. You might need several tubes of it...I think I used about three of them (they're small).

I applied some blue painter's tape to the exposed areas of wrap along the seam so I wouldn't get glue on that part when I clamped everything up.

To clamp, I used a couple of pieces of flexible plywood pieces to protect the inner shell from the clamp ends and then on top and along the full length of the seam, I ran a 3/4" X 3/4" maple strip of wood in conjunction with the clamps so that the pressure would be evenly-applied. Since pressure will still be greater at the ends (nearest the clamps), I "thickened" the central portion of the maple strip with a few pieces of painter's tape -so that when the clamps were applied, the pressure would be more equalized along the length of the entire seam. I hope that makes sense. The Band

Leave the clamps on at LEAST overnight so that the warped plastic has time to re-shape itself and straighten out. Then, remove the clamps and check to see if there might be some gaps left...repeat as needed.

So far, the Crazy Glue has held and all the seams are nice and flat now.

Good luck with your project! :)

I've never tried it myself 'cause I don't live in the U.S. but a lot of people swear by the 3M contact adhesive. In any case, I think you'll need that type of thing - something that goes on both surfaces (though tricky to achieve if it's such a small area you need to use the syringe trick described above). And remember once you apply contact adhesive and press the parts together, there's no going back.

D

3-m 30nf contact cement... Take two clamps and a 2x2 or whatever piece of wood you have lying around and apply the cement to both the shell and wrap and then let it dry a bit and piece the two together and brace with the wood and clamps.