Yesterday I noticed the beginning of separation a skid pad from the royalex hull. Hopefully I saw it early enough that a bunch of dirt and grime didn’t get in there between the pad and the hull.
Is there some epoxy that is sold at Home Depot or Lowes that could be used to repair this? I guess I could make a trip to West Marine as well. Suggestions would be appreciated.
The low viscosity of West epoxy may
help it get into that space better than some alternatives. Don’t use any radical solvents to pre-clean that narrow gap, or you may see them attacking the ABS. You will need to gently warm the skid pad for quite a while to make sure all the water is out.
This is why I favor home-made multe-layer cloth and epoxy skid pads over Kevlar felt. A felt patch put on under ideal condition MAY never delaminate, but who has done the study? A layered cloth patch put on directly over the ABS (vinyl scraped off) is not going to crack off, and in the unlikely event that it is battered to bits by abuse, it is easier than Kevlar felt to scrape off and replace.
Note that Kevlar felt pads are often put on with a polyurethane resin rather than epoxy. As it must be thin enough to soak through the felt, it must be thin enough to seep into the crack under your skid pad. So, if you can get more of that polyurethane resin without spending an arm and a leg, it may be an acceptable answer. I would even suggest polyurethane Seam Grip, thinned by warming, but I don’t want to risk screwing up your repair.
thanks guys
I appreciate the help.
Epoxy Putty
I had the same thing happen to me. After cleaning it well and drying I repaired it with epoxy putty bought at my local hardware store. The stuff I used was a two part – one black; one white. They came in what looked like 35mm film canisters. Mix equal parts to get grey.
I crammed a lot of the epoxy into the opening then pressed flat until the excess oozed out. Smoothed/blended it out the best I could. Covered with sarran wrap. Then duct taped it down. I let it cure for a couple days. Remove the duct tape and sarran wrap.
That seemed to fix it for good.