Oyster Rash with tiny leak in kayak. How to repair?

[FormerJaxDweller]

Hey,

My loaner kayak (10ft wilderness systems sit-in) was used by my mid-western cousin this Christmas and lost track of tides and ended up stuck on an oyster bar for 4 hours. There's a several hairline cuts that leak significantly over the course of a day.

I'd like to repair it cheaply. It's just a loaner kayak to me. How would you all seal it permanently?

[Jwray]

Go to Harbor Freight and buy a cheap heat gun. Watch a couple of youtube videos. You can really work that plastic with a putty knife. Black Creek and All Wet Sports can also fix it for you.

[jstachowiak]

A soldering iron with some HDPE plastic usually plastic bottles work if HDPE usually stamp on the bottom of the bottle. You have better control with soldering iron a flat blade on the iron works best.

[tadpole]

I have found that if you can have the kayak upside down and use a water hose to lightly spray the inside, you can keep the heat down and help prevent the thin parts from collapsing. You really only need to melt the very surface and get the filler material just to the gooey stage - maybe a little drippy. I also was able to get some scrap PE pieces from a kayak shop. They install hatches and cut out big pieces. The color didn't match but that doesn't bother me.


Oh - I used a propane torch, real low, and a light touch.

[jstachowiak]

Search YouTube. Here’s one.

https://youtu.be/8BBvxl-lbUA

[fishesfromtupperware]

I like the west systems g/flex epoxy for crack repair. I've used both and the epoxy was hands down the better method. You have to follow the instructions on the package closely, but it fixed my Hobie Adventure drivewell crack VERY well.

The welding method is good, but takes a modicum of skill. My welded repair was done by Andy at AllWet (a well respected pro) and it still left me with a flooded hull.

Here's a link to a g'flex repair post I stuck up a while back. The pics have all disappeared (thanks comcast ) but the info is still good. And that link to the West Systems g/flex vid should still be good.


topic25026.html?hilit=epoxy#p184469

[JeffreyMcGovern]

I used a wide spoon heated with a torch to smooth in sections of HDPE. Cleaned the area first and roughed it with coarse sand paper. A final sanding with fine grit smoothed the area like new.