Re: Plastic Peddle Boat Repair
I was wondering will fibreglass resin stick to it?
There's only 1 way to find out, mix up a batch of resin and apply it to an inconspicuous area of the boat ,,, I bet it peels right off.
I had a Coleman Crawdad that was made out of the same plastic and no glue, epoxy, silicone, caulk or resin that I could find would stick to the plastic, it always separated. However, roofing membrane (the stuff that's sticky black tar on one side and a plastic sheet on the other side) did stick, got it at Home Depot. On my old crawdad, there were several places where rocks and other debris wore holes through the hull, the roofing membrane was the only thing that would stick and seal it water tight.
Seeing that you probably don't want to be sitting and stepping directly on tar, you could apply a few layers of the roofing membrane to repair the cracked areas and then contact cement on some upholstery to cover the roofing membrane.
Honestly, there is really no good way (I found) to repair the cracks that will be strong enough to bond the plastic, yet remain flexible enough to move with the plastic. I considered plastic welding, but this was expensive and not a "sure thing" so I never looked into having it done.
Here's another idea, make fiberglass seat and foot wells that would completely cover the cracked area (kind of like a pan) and then stick these to the hull with roofing caulk. You would be sitting and stepping on the fiberglass parts, but the roofing caulk would seal the fiberglass to the plastic hull.
I wonder how 3M 5200 would stick?
Edit; The 2 hull sections are probably stapled together with black trim covering the staples. One of my friends had a plastic dingy that was constructed like this, it was impossible to separate the hull and get it back together,,, unless you have a HUGE stapler.
