The cloth on my car's A-pillars is coming away. How can I return my car to its former glory on a budget?

Q. The cloth on the A-pillars of my otherwise immaculate W-reg Volvo S80 SE is lifting off the plastic trim beneath. Volvo replacements cost £200-plus for each trim. How can I return my car to its former glory on a budget? GI, Duffield, Derbyshire

A. It is worth phoning around breakers’ yards to see if one can supply good second-hand trims at a reasonable price. It might take a while, though, as the S80 was never a common sight on British roads.

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However, Woolies (woolies-trim.co.uk), an interior trim expert, believes it is possible to reattach the original material, as long as you first remove it with care. The trick is to use an aerosol-spray glue, which will give a more even and delicate coverage than anything that comes out of a tube.

Woolies sells a heat-resistant adhesive (part 376) that is typically used for headlinings of similar composition to your A-pillar material. It costs £8.17 plus £9 for carriage (the delivery cost is high because of the safety rules that govern the posting of aerosols).

Spray the trims sparingly with the glue, leave for about a minute and then carefully reapply the cloth.

INSPECTOR GADGET
Dave Pollard has written several Haynes manuals and has tested just about every car-related accessory – read more from Dave here.

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