Shoe Goo for dinghy repair?

[jimbojonesbos]

We used to just use rubber cement on our hypalon crash boats, the same variety used for tube repairs in old cars and bikes. It was cheap, easy to use and would hold up for years of daily use. But that is for small punctures and whatnot, not a major tear, for that we used the Avon single part adhesive. We also painted a 30 year old Avon with oil based paint when the hypalon started to wear out, and that boat lasted another decade at least, although it looked funky. Hypalon is easy to patch, a great material.

[onestepcsy37]

if you mean 5200, not 5300, i have to disagree. i used 5200 on a patch i did on my avon more than 20 years ago and it's still there. i needed something in a hurry and in a remote place and that's all i had on hand.

for a small patch i did on another hypalon inflatable i used gorrilla super glue.
still there after maybe six years. the good thing about gorilla is it comes in small bottles so you can get a couple to keep on hand for not a lot of money. what led me to first try it was that i read the ingredients list on the bottle. it said 'contains rubber'. i figured that was a good sign....

[Hillbilly]

Surprised to see Shoe Goo appear so soon after I mentioned it myself only days ago in another thread. I have used it with success on my PVC dinghie. It has good body, as you know, so it will seal without the intimate contact and prolonged pressure required by the solvent adhesives. Also I mentioned another product I have tried on test pieces of vinyl. It has good working properties and very good adhesion. I called it by name but have lost the name now. It is by a major company, maybe Permatex, and you can't miss it because the fact that it is for marine use is right in the product name. I got my tube at Home Depot.

My rule is that if you can't fix it with either epoxy or Shoe Goo, then you'll have to throw it away.

[chrisr]

going back to the 2 part hypalon glue not working : did you check the humidity before using ?

you may already be all over this, but hypalon glue is quite sensitive to humidity - don't try it if humidity is above 70%. i've just done some repairs on our hypalon dink and needed to wait quite a lot for days when humidity was workable.

cheers,

[Peeew]

I used shoe goo to fill in some holes in my dinghy rub rail. It started to break up after a time in hot sun. I’ll use something else next time.

[Mickeyrouse]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

IIRC my old Achilles repair instructions said you have to clamp the repair after gluing.... which of course is very hard or impossible to do sometimes!

I clamped. Oooh, I CLAMPED!

[Mickeyrouse]

Originally Posted by chrisr

going back to the 2 part hypalon glue not working : did you check the humidity before using ?

you may already be all over this, but hypalon glue is quite sensitive to humidity - don't try it if humidity is above 70%. i've just done some repairs on our hypalon dink and needed to wait quite a lot for days when humidity was workable.

cheers,

Here in Southeast Texas, where we get 60+ inches of rain on average per year, and where daytime temperature high is only rarely less than 92 degrees Mid-May to October, a dry day is probably rarely less than 80 percent. But your point is well taken.

[CATJAVA]

I use shoo goo on my dinghy for small patching at the rubrail & seams. It works good, but I always paint over it with white latex paint for UV protection since I also use the latex paint on the entire topsides of my dinghy for UV protection. It’s worked great for many years. I usually recoat it about once a year because I live in the tropics. Much better than chaps which are heavy & wet on the bum in the frequent showers, and no problem with deteriorating stitching, straps or Velcro. Evan on cat JAVA

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

if you mean 5200, not 5300, i have to disagree. i used 5200 on a patch i did on my avon more than 20 years ago and it's still there.

I agree. I've used 5200 on hypalon and PVC. The clamp time was around two days. In both cases I had access to nothing else and in both cases lasted for years.

[Jim Cate]

Originally Posted by chrisr

going back to the 2 part hypalon glue not working : did you check the humidity before using ?

you may already be all over this, but hypalon glue is quite sensitive to humidity - don't try it if humidity is above 70%. i've just done some repairs on our hypalon dink and needed to wait quite a lot for days when humidity was workable.

cheers,

Chris, a repair guru in Auckland showed us how to use a hair dryer when doing hypalon repairs with SC2000 in high humidity periods. His method was to apply the coatings to both surfaces and then keep a flow of warm (not scorching) air over the glue whilst it was getting its initial skinning over. Without delay, put the second coat on and continue the air flow until assembly time. He claimed that this would negate the high humidity, and we were successful a few times with his method. It also reduces the delay time before assembly... sometime useful!

Jim

[chrisr]

Originally Posted by Mickeyrouse

Here in Southeast Texas, where we get 60+ inches of rain on average per year, and where daytime temperature high is only rarely less than 92 degrees Mid-May to October, a dry day is probably rarely less than 80 percent. But your point is well taken.

maybe necessary to move the dink inside an airconditioned workshop ?

or try jim's suggestion with the hairdryer ?

cheers,

[chrisr]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Chris, a repair guru in Auckland showed us how to use a hair dryer when doing hypalon repairs with SC2000 in high humidity periods. His method was to apply the coatings to both surfaces and then keep a flow of warm (not scorching) air over the glue whilst it was getting its initial skinning over. Without delay, put the second coat on and continue the air flow until assembly time. He claimed that this would negate the high humidity, and we were successful a few times with his method. It also reduces the delay time before assembly... sometime useful!

Jim

interesting thought...

i did use a hairdryer to lift off the D-ring pads (the leaks - 2 off - where underneath the D-rings) but did not think to use the hairdryer to help cure the glue.

as it was, took about 2 weeks to get 3 days when humidity was low enough. on occasions it meant dropping everything in a hurry to start gluing when the app gave the magic number, so hairdryer could have been useful !

anyway, done now and all seems to be holding

cheers,

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Mickeyrouse

I applied two coats of two-part adhesive, waiting the specified intervals between. I then re-attached the rail and clamped it for 24 hrs. At first it seemed it all went well.The other day I noticed a couple sections starting to lift up.

How thick were these coats? Folk make the mistake of making them thick with the idea that more is better. Completely wrong and the coats need to be really thin. I doubt you can do more than one single pass with a brush without it starting to bind up.

Once finished, run a bead of sikaflex with a wet finger along the edge with masking tape to blend in any ridges that water might start to lift when in use. Again, wet finger one pass only or it will all go to rats.

Pete

[hpeer]

RE: clamping weird bits.

Diving weights. Or shot in 25 lb bags if you get serious.

[Elie]

I have used Shoe Goo to reatach an oarlock that my super strong grand son had pulled rightout by rowing with enthousiasm from my Caribe RIB DINGHY. Fantastic result. I now use the stuff exclusively for dinghy repairs.