My wife took her kayak out for the first time in a few years and found the foam knee pads had come unglued.
Any suggestions on how to clean the pad and kayak without eating the plastic and foam, and then what glue to use to reattach.
The boat is a Dagger Edisto, poly boat.
Your ideas would be apprediated
Dap Contact Cement
I’ve used it on a lot of foam, both new stuff I did, and re-attaching stuff in boats bought used.
I follow the directions, about letting first coat dry and then applying second coat, and use it outdoors to reduce the flammability and inhalation risks.
Last can I bought a week ago, they had to verify I was 18 years old before Lowes ‘self-checkout’ would function.
yup Dap Weldwood Red label
the gel version works well for me, esp. on vertical applications.
Able to buy from Lowe’s sans security check - so far '-)
Marine Goop is stronger
Marine Goop is also works like contact cement, meaning that if you let it dry to the touch before joining the two pieces they will stick instantly and no further holding is required.
In my plastic WW boat I’ve found that Marine Goop works better than a top-brand contact cement for gluing minicell (this is the “marine” version of the “Amazing Goop” brand, as far as I know).
My knee pads and my foot pads fell off shortly after gluing them with contact cement. Many uses later, they are still there after I glued them with Marine Goop.
This stuff is not “permanent” - you can still remove it if you want later. Never hardens and works just like contact cement only a bit stronger adhesion I’ve found.
Yes, but where in the hell can you find
it any more.
We have been looking for the past two months.
No one seems to carry it any more
Jack L
I’ve never had a contact cement failure.
I’m willing to try Marine Goop, but I am sceptical of your claim that it will behave like contact cement. It is a urethane adhesive, is it not?
It does
I don't know the chemical composition, but when you let it dry a bit you can use it as contact cement. May be in my case the shape of the foam was such that it conformed and did not cause it much stress while curing...
As for where to find it - my local hardware store carries a full spectrum of the Goop. But they also carry some other fancy stuff like 100% tung oil or carbide scrapers and other specialty items that most stores do not carry.
I mostly use the goop to glue temporary skegs on my termoformed kayak - they get damaged periodically (and it needs a bit of a skeg for optimum performance for me) but have not fallen off yet - the goop keeps them in place even when the bed flat to the hull (the stuff is flexible). Once that happens, I just pull the skeg off, peel the remaining goop and glue it back.
Salt water
For some reason salt water routinely messes with my contact cement. No failures in freshwater.
Jack -
Try West Marine. K-Mart and Ace Hardware have it too. I’m another who prefers it over regular contact cement.
Home Depot too
Now that I think of it, I remember that I bought it from Home Depot the last time - cheaper by a couple of bucks there compared to my local store…
Just follow the instructions…
…which are similar to those for contact cement. It will also work if you just “apply and stick”, but it takes longer to dry.
You don’t need to use “Marine” Goop, as the only difference between it and the cheaper versions (Plumber’s, Crafter’s, etc.) is that it contains UV inhibitors. Unless you’re using it in an application where the adhesive will be exposed to sunlight, you don’t need the UV protection.