I dislike drilling holes in my truck. As you can imagine, that makes it somewhat difficult to mount a radio in the cab. My solution to the problem is this industrial strength Velcro that I picked up at Home Depot a couple of years ago. It’s plenty strong enough to support a two pound radio. At least, the hook and loop part is. The adhesive on the back is another matter entirely.
The radio hangs from a bracket that’s designed to be bolted to a surface. The top of the bracket is flat, making it an excellent place to stick on a piece of Velcro. I used sandpaper to rough up the painted surface, cleaned the surfaces with the recommended alcohol-based cleaner, and attached the Velcro pads. Like magic, the radio was stuck under the dashboard. Until I parked the truck outside in the sun. I came back to find the radio on the floorboard, the Velcro pieces still stuck to the dashboard. The adhesive backing had peeled away from the mounting bracket.
Never one to give up easily, I pulled out my trusty tube of handyman’s all-purpose adhesive and glued the Velcro strip to the bracket. I let it sit overnight and the next morning installed it in the truck. And that’s the way it’s worked for about a year. Recently I noticed that the adhesive was starting to peel away again and over the weekend I found the radio hanging by a very thin strip. This was an interesting failure mode. My glue didn’t come off. The adhesive backing peeled away from the Velcro strip.
That all-purpose adhesive is some sticky stuff and hard to remove from whatever surface you’ve placed it on. I soaked the bracket and the Velcro strip in a little Orange TKO overnight. This morning the adhesive came right off. The laundry room smells like orange oil, but that’s a small price to pay.
My problem now is figuring out how to mount the darned radio. I still don’t like drilling holes. I’m tempted, now that the adhesive backing is all gone, to try again with the all-purpose adhesive. But I’m open to suggestion. Anybody have ideas?