C-Forum

So I have tried everything short of buying that pricy 3m stuff to bond a skid plate/stern stiffener to the poor ol Zephyr. In the end in was WELDWOOD that has worked the best.

What did you use for a skid plate, Kevlar?

have you tried the g-flex from west... just got some and appears to be holding a wayward sole to a climbing shoe... jury still out

dennisstream wrote:What did you use for a skid plate, Kevlar?

Yep, with a few layers of s-glass for added stiffness.
I'm pretty handy with a plastic welder if I could just figure out what kind of PE the Zephyr is made from.

Twintex is, as far as I know, not PE but glass reinforced polypropylene (PP): http://www.ocvreinforcements.com/solutions/Twintex.asp .
Don't know anything about it's weldability though.

martin a.k.a. the great gonzo!

philcanoe wrote:have you tried the g-flex from west... just got some and appears to be holding a wayward sole to a climbing shoe... jury still out

Do you think G Flex would survive the sort of extreme flexing that a paddling shoe experiences in Mohawk outfitting? (Ball of foot against foot peg, so toes flexed).

My Toketee soles have fallen off, and I'm trying to decide which ADHESIVE to try when repairing them. Shoe Goo already failed earlier on, before the soles came all the way off.

Other ADHESIVES I'm considering: Aquaseal, Weldwood, Barge cement

I was going to throw my Columbia sport sandals away. The sole and midsole had separated. I had a little left over West epoxy one day. Slapped it between the layers of sandal, put a tag end of s-glass in there and put some heavy stuff on top of the sandal. Repair has held up nicely. Right sandal is a little stiffer than the left, but still has plenty of flex.

I would try it..

one of marketing antidotes that sold me, was someone had reported good luck - with repairing a cracked bottom on a boot... the g-flex appears to be working well so far for me... it was just a rand, but it's holding nicely... got the pre-thickened type for convenience

really wanting to know if someone has used on HDPE or TWIN-TEX yet??? this was real reason for purchasing the stuff... West claims in their literature that it will hold to plastic canoes and kayaks, and even mention skid pads... here's one site that claims to have had initial success at least : http://www.bluemountainoutfitters.net/repair.htm

anybody tried yet? how about one of you Zephyr owners?

I asked the RecRepair folks at Outdoor Retailer if their new skid plate would work on Twin-Tex. They thought it might, but weren't sure. Has anyone tried it?
J

I wouldn't know if it would work on Twin Tex, but I recently tried using the RecRepair material on a Royalex canoe. I'm still in test mode with it, but I put it on a soft spot in the chine of a canoe to add some extra protection to the spot. I wasn't looking so much for adding rigidity as keeping rocks from tearing up the softening chine.

The RecRepair material doesn't really add any structural strength. It seems to work best for hull protection. It's a thick material and is soft but durable. In my first time out with it, I scraped against a rock on purpose to see what the patch would do. It held on and showed a slight groove from the rock, but no real damage to the patch at all. I think the softness and pliability of the material is an advantage. It has fabric in it that gives it extra durability despite the softness.

I was really pleased with how it went on. I simply cleaned the area of the boat where it was supposed to go, heated the patch with a hair dryer, and then peeled the paper off the patch to expose the adhesive and applied it to the boat. I then continued heating the patch with the hair dryer to further enhance the bond.

I'm not sure if it's better than putting thick kayak vinyl on, which is another solution I do in these situations. The thick kayak vinyl is less thick than RecRepair and thus has less of an edge to catch on a rock. As a skid plate though, the RecRepair might be excellent.