C-Forum

Hi Folks, I'm trying to remove a few glued-in plastic D rings and two plastic foot pegs to make way for a future saddle. I tried using a crummy heat gun and a scraper to break up whatever glue is under there, but its just not working.

I don't want to damage my awesome Dagger Genesis I'm setting up for long wilderness trips.

Will MEK or Acetone dissolve the glue or will it also dissolve the vinyl on top of the ABS plastic inside the boat? Some other nasty hydrocarbon perhaps?

Any advice you all have would be greatly appreciated!

Thank You!

both acetone and mek will dissolve vinyl
given age of genesis, if dring mounting plates are rectangular grey hard plastic I think they were usually mounted with construction adhesive, best to cut or grind them out. I have salvaged some out of encores by carefully tapping a putty knife through adhesive, then grinding out most of remaining adhesive, but have also dinged boats in the process more than once when plates weren't installed on flat surface.
I don't know about adhesive for plastic foot pegs. construction I've seen used in old boats yellow brown, often oozed out around edges of plates.

<t>Not totally relevant, but are you removing a seat with thigh straps and foot pegs, and replacing it with a saddle? Maybe you could leave the D-rings and/or the foot pegs??? BTW, I'm a fan of solo whitewater tripping canoes. <br/>
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Most D-rings patches are not plastic but vinyl, but there are grey hard plastic bases that hold a D-ring. <br/>
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There are vinyl foot pegs by NorthWater for instance, but there are also grey hard plastic foot pegs. <br/>
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The grey hard plastic D-rings and foot pegs that I've had were in a composite solo canoe. I don't know who they were glued in but it was definitely not with the usual vinyl outfitting adhesive--probably some kind of epoxy. The glue was hard, so maybe a grinder would work. <br/>
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Nowadays, I would try searching YouTube. If you find a good solution, please post back here as well. <br/>
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You could try searching here on CBoats as well.</t>

I found hard plastic D-rings called rigid anchor at the Jenda Paddle Sports website. It states to use a 3M Urethane glue.

Thanks for those suggestions!

I tried a few things in the end: deadly toluene, scraping, a bit of a dremel. In the end, the best was to just grind it out, as was suggested, and although it took a while and made a big mess, it did the least damage to the rubber/vinyl topsheet over the ABS. Its easy to tear off that vinyl topsheet in little bits, so now I have to put in some protection over it.

I'll probably use G Flex (or is it K Flex?) to harden on top, then paint or something else to avoid direct UV.

I tried to just live with them, but my new saddle just won't work with the previous configuration of d rings.

Yes there's lots of 70-100 mile wilderness trips here punctuated with both steep whitewater and long flat stretches of very little current. Self supporting opens everything up but its always hard to find the one boat that rules them all...

Thanks again for those suggestions.

So true!

its always hard to find the one boat that rules them all...