Have I sanded away too much?

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Hey guys. I got a PVC west marine dinghy that I am reattaching the tubes to the fiberglass bottom. On my hypalon dinghy, I had to sand all surfaces before gluing, so I did the same to my PVC dinghy (stupid I know).

Anyways, the super nice guy at defender was helping me out, but I just wanted to post some pictures and see what you all thought. Most of the areas have just lightly been surface sanded, nothing too deep. But I am attaching the areas where I went too deep and I am wondering if there will be a problem. Am I in the clear? Will the glue bond successfully? I am just using it once or twice a month as a fishing boat in my lake. Thanks guys.

And yes, I know I messed up by sanding.

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Shoot, dont even know how to post pictures.

[Fenlander]

When making a post/reply you can scroll down to additional options and then see the button manage attachments where you can upload a picture from your computer which will appear at the end of your post.

Edit: Ahh I see you sorted it.

[jyasaki]

With PVC, the cement softens the material and sort of welds the 2 pieces together (moreso than with hypalon.) I believe that less sanding/keying is required with PVC. Office can probably give more info.

I would think you'd be fine as is, as the areas you're working on are not holding air, so you just need a good mechanical bond.

What is causing that dirt colored discoloration, and can that be cleaned up? I'm assuming it's not dust (as it appears); hopefully it's not oil? That would make it tough to glue.

jky

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Originally Posted by jyasaki

With PVC, the cement softens the material and sort of welds the 2 pieces together (moreso than with hypalon.) I believe that less sanding/keying is required with PVC. Office can probably give more info.

I would think you'd be fine as is, as the areas you're working on are not holding air, so you just need a good mechanical bond.

What is causing that dirt colored discoloration, and can that be cleaned up? I'm assuming it's not dust (as it appears); hopefully it's not oil? That would make it tough to glue.

jky

Thank you for the response! And yes, I hardly sanded the tubes, so I think those are good. I was just sanding the attachment points more heavily. I am glad you think I will be alright

And that discoloration is from the previous owner, I believe he tried to glue them back on but was not using the proper glue? I have scrubbed the hell out of them with mek trying to get it off, but its still there. I figured the glue he was using just stained the fabric. The tech from Defender said some discoloration that I cant get off is ok, so i hope so! Fingers crossed!

[office888]

Don't sand PVC.

MEK will prepare the surface of the material.

Old glue can be removed with MEK and a lot of scrubbing...or if you're extremely careful, you can utilize methylene chloride (sold as aircraft stripper / paint & adhesive stripper) to scrape away old glue with a spatula.

Some discoloration is normal from the glue, but excess discoloration may point towards material contamination. The joints are not washed usually when someone washes a boat, so hydrocarbons tend to deposit there. Over time, the oil is driven in to the material and it makes it impossible to reglue. If the material is VERY stiff, I would replace it with fresh material, or your gluing work may fail.