Originally Posted by
Jon Wehrenberg
Any time there is a serious amount of delamination my first reaction is the coach was not protected from excessive heat.
I have not heard of or had the opportunity to measure how hot a coach can get, especially with the hot temperatures we have been having around the country, but I would surmise it is more than enough to soften the contact adhesive. In the industry if a piece of laminate has to be removed the easiest and cleanest way is to heat up the laminate, softening the contact adhesive and allowing the laminate to be lifted off.
I don't think the issue is a vitricor issue as much as one in which a coach with a laminated interior was allowed to be exposed to high interior temperatures.
Except for those conversions that have used wood interiors such as Royale and early CC, I think all converters make use of laminates for their interiors.
They will if they can... What's important to me in an interior, besides aesthetics, is durability and repairability. Every cabinet facing material has it's pros and cons, but it's still difficult to beat wood and wood veneers for durability and repairability. If my little ones pull the acrylic layer off my Vitricor, only a thin paper print is left, and the only recourse is to remove the panel and relaminate. Then the challenge becomes finding a matching or constrasting pattern and shade. Wood and it's ability to be sanded, stained, and otherwise filled and repaired is hard to beat. I see that Liberty has moved to the use of more wood and natural veneers in their coaches. Of course, extreme heat, cold, and humidity changes can be damaging to wood too. There's no escaping the fact that we need to maintain temperatures and humidity levels to some degree. Some materials may be more forgiving. Anyone one have a special material they like?
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