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Date: 24 Aug 2004 14:15:02
From: Rich McCormack
Subject: polyethylene hole repair
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Due to an unfortunate rack accident, my wife's new Ocean Kayak Frenzy
now has a hole in the left front footwell...kinda tongue shaped, about
1.75 x 2.5 inches. The flap is still hinged in place and I think it
can be pulled back to fill the hole, leaving what might be described
as an evil grin smirking up at me to remind me to be more careful when
unloading the kayaks from the rack. We took it in for repair and were
told the plastic welding would run about 100 US bucks. The guy said
if it were his kayak, he'd forego the more expensive heat welding and
use fiberglass cloth and resin. He asked me if I'd ever worked with
fiberglass, and indeed, I used to do some of my own minor boat and
surfboard repairs. He suggested I do the repair myself using cloth
and resin to patch the hole. I'd thought about it, but figured
regular fiberglass resin wouldn't adhere to the softer polyethylene.
He said if I roughed up the surface, it would adhere well enough for
this type of non-critical area repair. Anyone done this type of
repair to polyethylene with cloth and resin? Did it work well enough
to forego the more expensive plastic welding?
Rich
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Date: 25 Aug 2004 10:56:13
From: Brian Nystrom
Subject: Re: polyethylene hole repair
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Rich McCormack wrote:
> Due to an unfortunate rack accident, my wife's new Ocean Kayak Frenzy
> now has a hole in the left front footwell...kinda tongue shaped, about
> 1.75 x 2.5 inches. The flap is still hinged in place and I think it can
> be pulled back to fill the hole, leaving what might be described as an
> evil grin smirking up at me to remind me to be more careful when
> unloading the kayaks from the rack. We took it in for repair and were
> told the plastic welding would run about 100 US bucks.
Harbor Freight sells a plastic welding kit for $29.99. All you need is a
compressor and electricity, and you can do the job yourself.
> The guy said if
> it were his kayak, he'd forego the more expensive heat welding and
> use fiberglass cloth and resin. He asked me if I'd ever worked with
> fiberglass, and indeed, I used to do some of my own minor boat and
> surfboard repairs. He suggested I do the repair myself using cloth and
> resin to patch the hole. I'd thought about it, but figured regular
> fiberglass resin wouldn't adhere to the softer polyethylene. He said if
> I roughed up the surface, it would adhere well enough for this type of
> non-critical area repair. Anyone done this type of repair to
> polyethylene with cloth and resin? Did it work well enough to forego
> the more expensive plastic welding?
Supposedly, you can repair poly' boats with epoxy and glass if you clean
the surface, sand it and "activate" it with a propane torch. I've never
done it, but I've seen the procedure described. If you search the web,
you should be able to find instructions.
One thing I don't understand is why a few minutes of plastic welding
would be more expensive than the time and materials required to do the
repair with epoxy. It doesn't make sense to me.
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Date: 28 Aug 2004 00:39:22
From: Rich McCormack
Subject: Re: polyethylene hole repair
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Brian Nystrom wrote:
> Rich McCormack wrote:
>
>> Due to an unfortunate rack accident, my wife's new Ocean Kayak Frenzy
>> now has a hole in the left front footwell...kinda tongue shaped, about
>> 1.75 x 2.5 inches. The flap is still hinged in place and I think it
>> can be pulled back to fill the hole, leaving what might be described
>> as an evil grin smirking up at me to remind me to be more careful when
>> unloading the kayaks from the rack. We took it in for repair and were
>> told the plastic welding would run about 100 US bucks.
>
>
> Harbor Freight sells a plastic welding kit for $29.99. All you need is a
> compressor and electricity, and you can do the job yourself.
OK, I've picked up the plastic welding kit from HF and ordered some
plastic rods that match the material and color of my wife's Frenzy
from an internet source. Enough plastic welding rods came with the
kit to experiment with repairing a couple plastic camping gear boxes
that need repair. By the time the matching plastic gets here, I hope
to be sufficiently experienced to repair my wife's kayak, we'll see.
> One thing I don't understand is why a few minutes of plastic welding
> would be more expensive than the time and materials required to do the
> repair with epoxy. It doesn't make sense to me.
From the conversation and look on the guy's face, I don't think he
wanted to do the repair, thus the high cost quote. Kinda strange,
since he doesn't own the store, he just works there. Oh well, with
any luck, I should be able to do it myself and also be prepared for
such situations in the future.
Rich
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Date: 29 Aug 2004 13:41:53
From: Brian Nystrom
Subject: Re: polyethylene hole repair
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Rich McCormack wrote:
>
> Brian Nystrom wrote:
>
>> Rich McCormack wrote:
>>
>>> Due to an unfortunate rack accident, my wife's new Ocean Kayak Frenzy
>>> now has a hole in the left front footwell...kinda tongue shaped, about
>>> 1.75 x 2.5 inches. The flap is still hinged in place and I think it
>>> can be pulled back to fill the hole, leaving what might be described
>>> as an evil grin smirking up at me to remind me to be more careful
>>> when unloading the kayaks from the rack. We took it in for repair
>>> and were told the plastic welding would run about 100 US bucks.
>>
>>
>>
>> Harbor Freight sells a plastic welding kit for $29.99. All you need is
>> a compressor and electricity, and you can do the job yourself.
>
>
> OK, I've picked up the plastic welding kit from HF and ordered some
> plastic rods that match the material and color of my wife's Frenzy
> from an internet source. Enough plastic welding rods came with the
> kit to experiment with repairing a couple plastic camping gear boxes
> that need repair. By the time the matching plastic gets here, I hope
> to be sufficiently experienced to repair my wife's kayak, we'll see.
>
>> One thing I don't understand is why a few minutes of plastic welding
>> would be more expensive than the time and materials required to do the
>> repair with epoxy. It doesn't make sense to me.
>
>
> From the conversation and look on the guy's face, I don't think he
> wanted to do the repair, thus the high cost quote. Kinda strange,
> since he doesn't own the store, he just works there. Oh well, with
> any luck, I should be able to do it myself and also be prepared for
> such situations in the future.
Please keep us posted on your experience.
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Date: 24 Aug 2004 17:30:16
From: Dave Van
Subject: Re: polyethylene hole repair
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"Rich McCormack" <macknet@pacbell.net > wrote in message
news:G3IWc.10958$I05.257@newssvr27.news.prodigy.com...
> Due to an unfortunate rack accident, my wife's new Ocean Kayak Frenzy
> now has a hole in the left front footwell...kinda tongue shaped, about
> 1.75 x 2.5 inches. The flap is still hinged in place and I think it
> can be pulled back to fill the hole, leaving what might be described
> as an evil grin smirking up at me to remind me to be more careful when
> unloading the kayaks from the rack. We took it in for repair and were
> told the plastic welding would run about 100 US bucks. The guy said
> if it were his kayak, he'd forego the more expensive heat welding and
> use fiberglass cloth and resin. He asked me if I'd ever worked with
> fiberglass, and indeed, I used to do some of my own minor boat and
> surfboard repairs. He suggested I do the repair myself using cloth
> and resin to patch the hole. I'd thought about it, but figured
> regular fiberglass resin wouldn't adhere to the softer polyethylene.
> He said if I roughed up the surface, it would adhere well enough for
> this type of non-critical area repair. Anyone done this type of
> repair to polyethylene with cloth and resin? Did it work well enough
> to forego the more expensive plastic welding?
>
> Rich
>
Rich,
Go to Home depot (or equivalent) and get an 80 watt soldering iron with a
beveled tip for about $20. Then, order polyethylene material from the web
site below for about $10. The website provides basic instructions on how to
do the repair also. If you like, you can grind the beveled soldering iron
tip so that it has a softer "pad" shape to it but either way, the repair is
going to have a few lumps and bumps. As a last step, a light pass with a
propane torch with smooth things out a bit. I had to do a repair on a
perception kayak right at the back of the keel line below the water line. I
used a combination of hot glue gun, soldering iron and some natural PE rod
that I had on hand leftover from another project. I was able to build up
the material to regain the original shape of the keel and it is water tight.
Once the material was in place I was able to file it to shape and flame
finish it to make it smooth. The color does not match but since the boat is
yellow it does not show so much.
Here's the page to order material from:
http://www.urethanesupply.com/kcwelder.html
They offer Red, Blue, Yellow and Green on the web site. Maybe they have
more colors to choose from if you call them. Supposedly Prijon makes similar
repair sticks in a wider variety of color but I have not actually seen them
for sale anywhere.
Have fun.
DV
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