Using Permatex or 3M contact adhesive is a bit of a pain. The way I get a smooth thin coat on both surfaces is to use a small paint brush. It still dries quickly. I do a small bit at a time so I can get it smooth before it starts to tack up. When done I use reducer to clean up the brush.
Perfect use of the adhesive is to re-glue the trim to the backing that runs down the inside of the back door opening.
I also used it to glue down the t bar panel. There are tiny holes behind each tab where I used a pointed probe to push the tabs in place. Maybe there is a better way, but I tried others and this was the only one that worked well.
The inside of this panel’s cover had broken away from the attaching points in a couple of places. So rather than remove the panel and try to repair the old velcro type attaching points I decided to use a couple of trim screws to cure the problem. This is after all an amateur restoration.