repair coleman scanoe

My Coleman Scanoe purchased in the early '80’s got a hole in it while in storage. How can it be repaired?

It depends
For most people…no.



But:



If you know a weldor who has the equipment to weld plastic then yes. You read that right. I said weld. Plastic welding rods and a specialized hot air gun exist for welding ABS. They are used on a very occasional basis in the piping industry.



In my 20 years in the piping business I have only seen it done three times. Not many people have the equipment and even fewer have the skill necessary.


ABS?
I thought that ABS was a different material than the polyethylene in Coleman boats. Typo, or am I wrong?

Meanwhile, a month or two ago, someone posted a thread on a similar subject (do a search if you like) and someone responded with the name of an epoxy or glue or some such that would actually WORK on polyethylene. I was skeptical, but the linked literature sounded reasonable, and one or two posters said they had tried it with positive results, although the stuff was expensive.

In any event, Good Luck with the Scanoe.

Jeff

sorry

– Last Updated: Jan-21-05 5:26 PM EST –

yep, its poly

Can you tell that I have been working some very long hours lately?

The hot air welding process still applies.

When this topic came up before, …
… a few people (myself included) suggested that bolting a sheet-metal patch on both sides of the hole would be perfectly satisfactory. Fill the hole in the hull and coat the patching material with some sort of sealer or gasket cement, and bolt the patches on both sides. A pretty foolproof method, and good enough for a Coleman (if a Coleman is more than a couple years old, the hull shape is all distorted anyway, so who cares if the repair looks a little crappy?).

How big is the hole? N-P

Well, if the standard is this low, then
Just clean and sand the interior, build up a patch made with several layers of duct tape, and then use a hot iron to melt the layers into a patch. It will work for quite a while, and you will avoid the sheet metal crap. A friend of mine with an old Perception Dancer had a crack develop under the seat. I advised him to get a new boat, but also told him about the layered duct tape and hot iron method. He used the duct tape, and is still paddling the Dancer on every warm weekend.



The welding method is preferred, but patching a Coleman is like doing plastic surgery on a sow’s ear.

Of course, it doesn’t have to look bad

– Last Updated: Jan-22-05 11:16 PM EST –

Yikes! A melted wad of duct tape would meet the same standard? Red Green to the rescue! Anyway, if one really IS concerned with appearances, it's pretty easy to countersink the outer layer of metal flush with the surface of the hull (heat application during bolt-torquing), and if you can weld, there's no need for visible bolt heads on the ouside, either. The inner bolts and nuts can be no more obtrusive than rivets. AND... whether you choose to make it look pretty or not, it will last forever!

Just reacting to that "sheet metal crap" comment, lol. I take it metal working isn't your thing :)

The hot duct tape method is fairly
well tested, and works best on cracks. As for metal, I have experience with aluminum and galvanized, with brake bending, soldering, pop-rivets, etc. I still think it is an ugly material to use to patch a hull. The patch will be heavy, stiff, and inclined to catch at the edges, even if carefully gooped.



A similar approach to yours, which I might use if I were patching an open gap, would be to cut pieces of polyethelene from discarded trash cans, using some heat if necessary to get the inside patch to follow the contour. You can then use vinyl mastik goop to apply the patches inside and out, perhaps including use of pop rivets to pull everything together.



But all this is irrelevant. If all the guy has is a short crack or a small hole, the inside duct tape hot patch is a clean, quick, simple, cheap, and fairly long-lasting solution. Inside-outside sandwich patches are overkill for any Coleman.

You cannot plastic weld a Coleman canoe!
Coleman canoes are made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), the same stuff that is used for making ice chests and 55-gallon chemical drums.



The least expensive way to repair that boat is to buy a new one, and hopefully one made of something other than HDPE.

Check this link
http://www.heatgunkit.com/



Check out the canoe and kayak plastic repair kit that they sell.



Its definately not cost effective, but it is very possible.

fixing a scanoe
resisto seal strip in a vlux skylight flashing kit.

That is what I used to fix my scanoe. I had a hole about 3/4 of an inch wide and 3 inches long and I put a piece on the inside and a piece on the outside. Not a drop of water has seeped through it. Its been on there for 2 years.

colman canoe repair
I went on google 3 years ago I found how to repair them on the bottom of the 5 gal bucket in the triangle is the No 2 take a band saw cut welding rods then using a heat gun weld your canoe but first get a drill drill tiny holes on both sides of the crack then use picture wire lace the crack together make sure the holes you drill are tiny use wire not fishing line heat the crack until it get shinny add welding rod take your time weld a little cool it down with water then move up and weld some more it will work good luck