C-Forum

So New Years Day on the Chattooga, I seriously caved in the bow of my Phantom . I penciled it into a rock at the base of Puppy Chute hard enough to shatter the kevlar skid plate. It caved in the hull enough to tear through the outer layer of ABS down to the foam core.

It sounds worse than it is (I hope), but I haven't done a thing about fixing it. I'll get serious about it soon, but I'm hopefully paddling some easy II/III stuff this weekend, and I'd like to keep water from getting into the foam.

I'm considering splooging some Shoe Goo over the tear, strictly as a temporary measure. Good idea, or bad? Will it keep water out? Will I be able to get the Goo off easily enough later? Any Shoe Goo afficianados out there?

Any other proven quick fixes (other than duct tape- which I'm not knocking...)?

Thanks,
K

The only way to get the caved in section out is with heat - but you need to be really careful. You can use a heat gun - but you need to be really patient and keep the heat gun moving.

An easier way to heat it is to put a black garbage bag
over the ding and put the boat out in the sun (it may be too cold now for this to work)

Once you have it heated up, use a rubber mallet and gently bump it back into place. Once it cools, it will stay that way until the next time you hit something.


There are a couple of ways you can go about repairing the tear.

The best one I have found is to fill the tear with Marine Epoxy putty to restore the shape and then put a Kevlar Felt /Epoxy skid plate over the putty. You can even pigment the epoxy if you want to match the color of the hull.

John Sweet carries the Kevlar felt and West system Epoxy if you can't find a skid plate kit.

Another way is to find some ABS plastic - grind it to a powder and mix with MEK (Really nasty solvent) then brush thin coats of this mixture into the hole. Allow each coat to dry before putting the next one on.

This will bond well, but will get brittle as it gets older.

Good Luck
F

ctl_cpt has some great suggestions. I have another option. When we caved in the bow of the Penobscot, I heated it & pushed it back out with a broom stick. I was not able to completely remove the dent & wrinkles though. Then I mixed silica filler (available from John Sweet) with epoxy. I made it real thick so it wouldn't run off the bow. Once it set up I used a grinder to shape it. This stuff is REAL hard, don't even think about shaping it with sand-paper. The silica is white (pretty ugly on that nice red boat). I don't know if adding pigment to the mix would be a good idea or not.

I've been using a two-part epoxy called "J-B Weld" to repair dings in my boats. You can get it at most hardware stores.

It's durable and it has a long set-time, so it's easy to work with.

I plan to open up a high-tech can of whup butt on the damaged hull in the next couple of weeks. Prior to that, there will be an extended comment period that will be open to the boating public. For now, I'm just looking to not worsen the damage by moistening the foam core when I paddle THREE DAYS FROM NOW.

so I'm lookin' for quick and dirty temporary waterproofing...

Think Spring!
K

for a quick and dirty repair, just use the epoxy putty to seal the tear.

Cheap, easy and quick - then you can sand it a bit and put skid plates over it when you get around to it.

F

DUCT TAPE ?

if you put it on dry, hades yes, I'm with you!

Like I said, I'm not knocking duct tape. The day after I tore up the bow at the waterline I ran Section IV again, with only my trusty duct tape to protect me. Despite a few slightly-less-than-perfect lines through the Five Falls, the tape didn't even begin to come unstuck. I guess this is something everybody has known for years, but I was blown away.

If nobody pipes up and says that Shoe Goo works well and isn't too dificult to remove, or suggests something else really easy , I will use duct tape again this weekend.

I haven't had a lot of luck in the past with PC-7 or J.B.Weld- they seem to pulverize

Hey, maybe I should get a glass Howler... :-0

Busted a bow at Sock-em-Dog in an open boat on New Year's Day? I did the same thing about 5 years ago! Never did get around to fixing it because the tear fit back together pretty tightly and my amateur attempt at welding the deck plate held through the class II-III I paddled later in that boat. By then I was paddling C-1 primarily. Now that repair to that boat is being attempted by Bill Reap, right?

I'd say go with duct tape - I think there has been mention here of the "duct tape welding" technique that calls for multiple overlapping layers applied with heat. With the right color of duct tape or the new clear stuff your handiwork could blend right in...

I've used a relative of Shoe Goop - the Goop line available at hardware stores. I prefer the Marine Goop becuase it has some UV inhibitors (not a big deal for a temporary fix). The stuff is great for abrasion resistance, on an old C-1 I made a "nose cone" by adding it in small layers. It's also good for gluing things together - large flat surfaces, I've even used it for D-rings - but probably not the edges of a tear. If you have some material other than ABS to lap over the tear, it might work. It can be tough to get off, but not impossible - I've used a rasp to take it off, not sure about solvents.

If you have access to some ABS and ABS cement (essentially ABS dissolved in MEK) you could patch your damage pretty quickly - even make ABS grunch pads. It'll set up overnight and become one with the hull. However, if you don't have a plastics supply house handy, that wouldn't be quick. A 4x8 sheet of ABS will run you around $20 and a gallon of cement (way more than you need, but the only size they had) for $30-40. Making your own cement might be worth experimenting with.

Happy paddling !

Scott

Scott,

I toyed with the idea of trying ABS skid plates when I got the Phantom. Other than the relative difficulty of heating each plate in an oven and shaping it to the hull, I had some knowlegable folks tell me that large pieces of ABS are difficult to work with because the most common type of ABS adhesive- the kind that puts a chemical melt on the ABS- need some contact with air in order to evaporate and stop melting plastic. Large, skid plate sized pieces don't allow enough evaporation of the adhesive, and melt too much plastic. Other types of ABS cement are prohibitively expensive...

Interestingly, I know another guy who claims that Shoe Goo makes an excellent adhesive for ABS skid plates (no melting) and has the added advantage of adding a shock absorbing layer under the ABS plate.

It was pretty disturbing when what I thought was a good kevlar felt/resin skid plate shattered like fine china. For a permanent fix, I am leaning towards some woven kevlar and s-glass layers under the felt, or just woven kevlar/kevlar felt. I fear that even if I can push the dent back out completely, or fill it in with JB Weld or kevlar bits and epoxy, there will be too much 'memory' of the dent, and the new skid plate will be just as susceptable to shattering.

Armerlite anyone?

I'll do a search for 'duct tape welding.'

Thanks.
K