plstic kayak repair

Advice
#1

Buddy has a crack in his rotomolded kayak. Any repair suggestions? Anyone have any experience with Permatex 82093 Permapoxy 5 Min. Underwater Repair Epoxy ?

#2

In general, epoxies do not stick to poly
and there is no reason why an epoxy designed to be applied underwater should be an exception.



There are some recent non-epoxy substances that claim to stick to poly, but I haven’t used any of them.



One possible solution is to find a competent plastic welder through local whitewater circles.



A friend of mine has an old Dancer, and it cracked near the seat. I suggested the duct tape approach, where you clean the area around the crack and apply several layers of quality duct tape. You then iron the layers with a medium heat iron. He has been paddling on that tape patch about a year now with no problems.



One addition on the tape repair. Some people like to drill small holes at the very ends of the crack, to reduce the risk of it spreading. Then the tape fix is applied.



For heavily used boats older than five years, it may be time to start shopping for a new one.

#3

Plastic Welding
Plastic welding might work, never had it done

on kayak only on motorcycle fairing.

#4

Here is a link…
to an article similar to the method mentioned in the first response. Never tried it but it looks like it might work. Look up the article called whaley welding.



http://oregonkayaking.net/talesframe.html

#5

here is some info…
http://www.riverjunkies.net/Howto/WhaleyWeldingBoatRepair.pdf



http://home.earthlink.net/~mark.cumnock/id22.html this guys does boat welding for lots of guys on Boatertalk…


#6

New epoxy formulas
I glued a F.F. transducer onto the inside of my poly fishing kayak with an epoxy designed for rubber and plastic. I bought it from Do It Best hardware. The puck would break first if I tried to remove it.

#7

Thanks guys
you’ve all been a big help!

#8

Rotomold Repair
I drilled a hole in the bottom of one of my kayaks (not by design I assure you). I got a piece of matching rotomold plastic and used one of those $9.00 Harbor Freight propane torches to melt material to flow into the hole. While it was still hot I worked quickly with a metal putty knife to smooth it out.



Hasn’t leaked in the last year.



Any day on the water is a great day,



Cal

#9

Plastic welding
Is not a hard skill to master. he most difficult thing may be finding comparable plastic…