adhesive for glass to vinal anchor

[bigger than a bathtub]

Okay, so I bought a used OC1 last year, a Viper from the clipper company in BC.....it was used but came with a pedestal and knee cups....the company said it is a composite of vinyl ester resin, s glass and kevlar.

After swimming a few times I tried to fit in thigh straps, using epoxy but one burst on me. What type of adhesive would be preferable to glue vinal anchor pads and new foam (minicell) to the interior?

I have heard people use vynabond or HH66 for gluing foam to royalex/plastic boats.....would that work in the case of a glass canoe?

[mshelton]

Have you thought about making your own anchors out of fiberglass?
I did it on my Viper C1 and they came out pretty sweet, also adhered to the glass boat ALOT better than the old vinyl ones.

[bigger than a bathtub]

I had not thought of using glass to make th connection points, that is a good idea, but still I am interested in finding something to glue foam into the sides with, as well as to affix toe blocks.

[ncdavid]

I have very little experience with composite boats, but I added some foam wedges to the outside of the kneepads in my Defiant. Good old Weldwood cement seemed to work fine. It has only been a few weeks, but the foam is firmly adhered to the boat. I just lightly sanded the boat with fine sandpaper, wiped with some acetone, and applied the Weldwood to both surfaces.

[Sir Adam]

If you're putting in non or low stress items (knee cups, foam padding, seat, etc...) Weldwood (red can-the flammable stuff) will work fine. Clean both surfaces, apply at least 3 coats to the foam, letting it dry between each (and at least 1 to the boat...), and you'll be in good shape.

For stress points (anchors, etc...) as mshelton mentioned make your own out of glass ( usually glass in a piece of webbing (glass in both "frayed" ends with the center raised up about an inch to make the anchor itself). Be sure to sand down to glass fibre first on the boat (e.g. no shiny stuff, and you should see that you're hitting fibres). To get a smooth finish I use plastic wrap (saran-wrap) on top of everything when I'm done (before it sets...). The resin (or West Systems epoxy, which I prefer by far...you can get it from John Sweet (link on the home page)) will not stick to the plastic wrap.

[Mike W.]

I'm experimenting with new thigh-strap anchors for my Viper. I'm using rope. I've frayed the ends & glassed them to a board for practice. As I work away from the ends of the rope it doesn't want to lay down like I think it should. Should I put mylar over the peel-ply & weight on the mylar to hold presure till the epoxy sets?

Walbridge's book recomends 4-6 layers of glass over the frayed ends. Is that necesary? I know there's a lot of presure on the anchors, particularly while stern-squirting. I'm new to glassing but 4-6 layers seems a bit much. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I don't want to blow another anchor on the Gauley

[Sir Adam]

I'd do an absolute minimum of 3 layers over each end. I usually do 4 or 5, with the first two being smaller "strips" that I weave in and out of the cut ends of webbing (I usually try to cut the end of the webbing I'm using so it has 3 or 4 slits (creating 4 or 5 "strips") in it-the first piece of glass goes over the top of the first "strip", then under the second, and the second piece of glass goes under the first, over the second (obviously the first two pieces of glass are small and do not over lap). The remaining 3 layers goes over everything on each end. Remember-you DO NOT want one of these pulling out at the wrong time...sand and clean the surfaces well (see "repair" on the left hand side for additional pointers / quacking on my part).