C-Forum

Hey guys,
ran the lower yough on monday, ended up running the frogs back at railroad, where upon landing, snapped one of the D rings that holds my thigh straps in place clean off.

Its an older boat(Esquif Detonator), so the D rings are on with plastic pieces that are held on with some sort of gray epoxy. Anyway, i've decided to replace all of the D rings on the boat, just because i know if one broke while boating, the rest are just ticking time bombs.

My main question is, what is the best method of removing these old D rings, and whats the best replacement option i've got?

I'm assuming Weldwood(in the red can) for putting the new D's on?

thanks everybody
Aaron

Sometimes I have had success removing those older D rings with the plastic base plate using a paint scraper to get under the edge. It may depend on what type of adhesive was uses to bond them in. You have to be careful not to get under the inner vinyl layer of the Royalex. Those plastic base plates can also be painstakingly ground off using a Dremel tool, but it takes patience and a steady hand.

Contact adhesives don't have enough holding power for D rings used for strap anchors in my experience. If you are going to use D rings mounted on vinyl patches and the inner vinyl layer of the Royalex is still more or less intact, I have used vinyl adhesive (Vynabond) with good results. If a lot of the inner vinyl layer comes off with the old D ring, I would either use Stabond or G Flex epoxy (from West System).

Yo can try with a heat gun, very carefully, with the just the right heat, they should, if not glued with epoxy... come off clean!

Good luck!

wonder if softening up the epoxy with MEK applied witha Qtip would have any effect?

When rebuilding wooden paddles I use a heat gun to remove the original carbon fiber or fiberglass. It'd work on a boat but you'll have to be super careful to not over-heat the plastic. Great opportunity for a bad screw-up. I'm contemplating using the heat gun method on the ME I rebuilding. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Zap

Well that was easy. Took maybe 20 seconds to remove a D-ring from the ME; came off very clean. Don't know exactly what the vinyl material to which the D-ring was attached was adhered to the boat with but I'm thinking Vyna-bond or a similar product. I also tried the heat gun to remove some contact
cement-like substance w/o success.

As an aside, given enough time water will eventually loosen many products listed as waterproof. If your fortunate enough for someone to have used non-waterproof contact cement to fasten something to a hull try keeping it wet for as long as your patience allows and then start working on removal of the item. The ME is soaking as we speak to loosen the above mentioned contact cement-like substance.
Zap

Yes. If water remains in contact for a prolonged time with contact adhesives, most will soften up, especially if you keep gently "attacking" the glue residue with a paint scraper or mild adhesive pad. The key is to be patient.

If water doesn't work, I have found that paint thinner or mineral spirits usually will, and won't hurt your hull.

Vinyl patches glued in with vinyl adhesive will usually come off clean if you carefully warm the patch usually leaving the inner vinyl layer of the Royalex intact. But the Vynabond usually leaves a residue that won't come off with paint thinner or water. I have often gotten this gunk off with acetone or MEK, but you have to be very careful not to melt your hull.

Anchors are all "ticking time bombs" it doesn't matter how new they are.... I would leave them until they absolutely need to be replaced

The best stuff for removing contact cement, by far, is toluene. It works much faster than MEK or acetone and doesn't melt your boat anywhere near as fast.

H2O soaking or toluene... but toluene is to fine.. at least around here.

not sure really whaat these anchors are attached with. i know for sure its not contact cement, as its a crazy looking gray adhesive. the anchors themselves look like they have 4 holes in them, almost looks like the adhesive equivilent to stud welding...going to work on it tomorrow, have a lot of MEK, a heat gun, and a paint scraper, we'll see how this goes.

The type of anchors I think you are talking about used to be sold by Voyageur years ago. Voyageur usually recommended bonding them in with a 2 part urethane "structural adhesive" made by 3M: http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/e ... gv%29&rt=d" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The 3M 3535 adhesive usually was a butterscotch color when cured, but I found that the color in the hardener faded when it was stored a while, so it could be the gray stuff you describe. A lot of folks did drill holes through the plastic base plates and even applied adhesive over the top of the plates to try to get a more secure bond.

If that is what it is, I doubt you will get a solvent to dissolve it. I have been able to chip that stuff off with a paint scraper at times or get most of it off and grind off the remains with a Dremel tool.

A trick to use when soaking an area with paint thinner is to place a rag over the area to be worked on and soak it with paint thinner. Then cover the rag with a plastic sheeting such as polethelyne vapor barrier material. You'll use a lot less paint thinner and can soak the area for long periods w/o having to monitor it.
Zap

Yeah, that is a good trick and it does work. Thanks for mentioning it. If you use water to soften contact cement residue you can, of course, just leave some water sitting inside the boat for a while.

looks like it'll be dremel and patience, along with some sandpaper and g flex for the after, thanks for the input on this one guys, if anyone else has anymore suggestions please hit me up.


oh yeah, g flex for applying the new d ring correct?