You may have seen my other post about my broken seat. Some have mentioned the option of “glassing in” another seat.
What would I use to do this? I have heard the term used before, but what is the material used to “glass something in”?
thanks
Matt
Fibreglass
Typically to “glass in” something, you use a fibreglass cloth and compatible resin. For example, to glass in a rail, put the epoxy on the canoe and rail, then cover the rail with a sheet of glass and saturate it with more epoxy (just enough, though). If you haven’t tried this, it isn’t to hard, but do a practice run so you get the feel of it. The resin makers often give good instructions.
Epoxy (West System, MAS, etc.) is compatible with most boats, and is very strong. Polyester is cheaper, and sometimes can work.
seat reinstallation
If you can find a low pedestal seat that approximates the height of your stock seat it could be bonded to the boat bottom, with the hangy down parts of the old seat trimmed off flush and sanded smooth.
I’d recommend an adhesive rather than glassing the thing in, because glassing something in requires respirator, mekp, brush, latek gloves, glass tapw, peel ply and lots of sandpaper to smooth edges.
We use Plexus to bond in our seats, but their are opther options. Plexus can be had from Jametown Dist for aboutg $15 post paid.
I’ve no idea whose seat will be the correct height and have appropriate bottom curvature to fit. Worst case, several layers of foam could be bonded in with a shaped foam seat from Surf to Summit bonded on top. [Do not use plexus for this.] An IRS backband would still work with that built up pedestal.
glass work
If you glass a seat in with epoxy all you really need is a 3m dust mask, lates gloves, a brush and a small mixing container. You should use sandpaper to rough up the area you are glassing a bit, but if you go about it you won’t need to sand the dried work much.
Pics and explanations:
– Last Updated: Apr-01-07 10:00 PM EST –
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/185236435CtCzwx
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/107841735XmwxIb
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/557063234nZhibl
If you're not very familiar with this process, you may want to consider having a pro that is very familiar with seakayaks do the work. It the Gpro your talking about is new, I wouldn't even mess with it...let the warranty take care of the issue. It sounds to me like you're going to need to pull the seat to do a quality repair and if you're asking the above questions, I'm not sure it's worth the risk to try and do it yourself. It's not one of the simpser repairs to do on a kayak--much more difficult that the repairs shown in these pics, from what I can decipher of your situation. Just my opinion from what I can gather so far. Good luck.