Mouse fur removal with photos

[RangerJay]

Well - it's done!! - a whole lot longer than expected - but none-the-less - it's done ..... and the trailer is put back together ..... well mostly ..... still have a some edge moulding to pick out and put on ..... but pretty minor .....

This turned out really well - we're both very pleased - even think it looks a whole lot better than the original ceiling.

What seemed to be important along the way that you might be interested in if you are planning on replacing your own mouse fur:

• cleaning off old headliner glue is a miserable job - I used laquer thinner and did one square foot at a time - can't help but think there must be a better way .....
• the headliner we chose we got through Airstream - a textured vinyl backed with 1/4 inch foam - looks great.
• one issue is that the new headliner comes in 54" width only - meaning you will have extra mouldings to put in place. We chose to run our headliner down the length of the ceiling (versus across the ceiling) meaning we used 3 lengths and purchased ourselves a heck of a lot of waste.
• the spray adhesive we used was 3M76 - recommended by Airstream - it's pricey and we needed 4 cans for our little Bambi.
• when gluing up 2 people are really mandatory - 3 are better
• don't spare the glue - especially on the edges - spray both surfaces - wait one minute - be careful about kinking/folding - you get one try ...... and one try only .....
• wear chemical masks - this is nasty stuff
• disconnect the propane detector when spraying the adhesive - it's gonna go off and is a heck of an irritant
• still to do on ours is installing an edge moulding - just haven't found one yet .....

Here's a couple pictures of the process since the last pictures posted earlier in this thread.


Jay

[meganmac]

We just bought a 2005 Airstream Safari and it has the Mouse Fur covering on the walls. Unfortunately - ours is not in great shape.

We ripped a bit of the mouse fur off the wall and it does in fact remove pretty easily. Even with the adhesive - the underlying aluminum doesn't look all that bad.

I read a bunch of blogs about folks having to use super abrasive strippers to get the adhesive off and I did not want to do that if possible.

I found this site: http://www.greenrvlife.com/mouse-fur-part-1/.

The owner recommended the following product: http://www.ecosafetyproducts.com/Soy.../ste-4027s.htm.

Its supposedly eco-friendly - so I was VERY skeptical. But I liked the idea of using something that wasn't going to kill me if I failed to ventilate properly or melt off my skin if it got through my glove.

I bought the small sample bottle and took it out to our trailer. I sprayed a little spot on the adhesive and let it sit while I cleaned out the fridge.

The post said they let it sit for hours. I checked on my test spot after about an hour and the adhesive came right off!! I mean NO EFFORT. I've attached a picture. It makes the idea of the removal project a lot less intimidating.

And bonus - there were no harsh fumes.

[Mortland]

Megan,

Do you have any photos of the completed project? My wife and I are strongly considering removing/covering the mouse fur!

[Mortland]

Originally Posted by Shacksman

I also had dirty mouse fur walls so I covered the fur with Aluminum, right over top. It has been a year and lots of use and still looks real good. The bedroom walls were stil clean so I left them. It's a challenge to get the corners right but lots of templates and It got done.

Shacksman,

I love it! I kind of like the insulation factor that the mouse fur provides but hate looking at the dirty walls all the time! Do you have further details on how you went about with your aluminum covering project?

[meganmac]

Originally Posted by Mortland

Megan,

Do you have any photos of the completed project? My wife and I are strongly considering removing/covering the mouse fur!

Hi there - so we did end up removing all the mouse fur. But I haven't stripped the adhesive or removed all the seam tape yet.

Here are some pictures of it as-is with the mouse fur removed but not stripped or polished.

It is on our list of things to do but not at the top - the outdated bathroom wallpaper bothers me a lot more. So that will be first.

[Hcolhour]

For those of you that removed the mouse fur a few years ago, what have you used since to keep the interior aluminum (I assume raw) clean and shiney? The mouse fur was removed in ours by a prior owner and the interior aluminum seems a bit dingy and attracts fingerprints.