Quote:
Originally Posted by Stotty
Hello all,
I'm new to this forum and looking forward to joining the community.
I have a Zodiac Medline II C which I keep in Menorca. This year whilst boating i noticed that the tubes (mostly on the starboard side) had started to separate from the hull (where they are usually flush). The gap was the size of my hand.
When inspecting (at the swing mooring) i noticed that the fixing strip that joins the tubes to the tracking in the hull had come away from the tubes. (Glue or thermoseal fail?). Over time the separation became longer so that roughly half of the length of the boat the tubes fixings had failed.
The tubes are PVC and the boat is only 5 years old. I'm trying to decide weather I should attempt a repair (possibly to find that it fails again) or bite the bullet and go for new tubes. The quandry is that the age of the tubes v the wear (very little) its seems expensive to just buy new tubes. I'm uncertain as to the success though of repair.
Has anyone experienced this and can they advise.
Much appreciated.
Stotty
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The bolt-rope assembly is glued to the tube set. Usually the glue starts to come free after about 8-15 years depending on use. It can be exaerbated by high speeds and underinflation.
As with all PVC, regluing is just the nature of the beast....if some of the glue is bad, most likely, most of it is bad and you should reglue the whole thing.
To ensure a proper repair, the tubeset should be removed from the boat.
Trace around the bolt-rope's location and mask it off. This is to ensure the placement of the bolt rope is the same as the factory layout.
Then use a heatgun to remove the bolt-rope. After the bolt rope is removed, you must strip all of the old adhesive off. MEK + a scotchbrite pad is the tried-and-true way of doing it. I've had good success with methylene chloride base paint & adhesive strippers.
The area should be scrubbed with MEK. Then, the bolt rope should be reglued on with fresh adhesive. It will take a lot...I recommend getting your hands on some Zodiac Z7096 / Bostik Vinycol 1520. It comes in an 800 milliliter can.
It should be allowed to cure in a low humidity, climate controlled area for approximately 2-3 days. Then you can reinstall.
