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Fixing a Creek Boat

5K views 17 replies 13 participants last post by  Waterwindpowderrock 
#1 ·
So I recently put a small gouge in my LL Huck on Bear Creek. It's only about a half an inch long, so I figure it should be pretty easy for me to fix. Does anyone have any experience patching holes like these? Any ideas? Recommendations?
Thanks,
-Christian
 
#2 ·
boats

hmmm fixing a boat, i have a crappy micro 240 that had a couple cracks i fixed by just heating the pastic back up and melting it back together you don't want to change the shape of your hull so be careful to not burn a hole in your boat! i don't know what every body else thinks about your plastic weekening from this so ask around first i bought the boat for 100 bucks so i didn't care and now its awsome
 
#4 ·
So there are few different methods here. I have seen people that have a clean crack drill holes at each end of the crack to prevent it from further cracking, and then take duct tape or gorilla tape and place it on the inside of the boat over the crack while heating it with a blow dryer or heat gun and pushing the tape down with a spoon to smooth it out. Be sure to put 3 or 4 layers of tape on in this method to ensure water tightness. Another great method is to cut some of your plastic off the inside of the cockpit rim and light it on fire. The plastic will burn and slowly drip into the crack, so first put tape on the inside of the boat over the crack, cut a strip of plastic, heat the outside of the boat but do not overheat causing your boat to melt, then start to drip plastic into the crack from the strip you cut off. This welds the boat back together with the same plastic. This second method works great on non-flex parts of your boat, or patching up holes from missing screws and things like that. Use the first tape method for the bottom and edges of your boat where it flexes and would cause the plastic weld to crack again. Any time your using either of these methods know your boat is pretty much done. Check your boat before you go out every time and keep patching until you can buy another boat, I would not recommend taking your patched boat on a wilderness run, that should be common sense though. Hope this helps anyone that may have broken their boat this weekend on bear creek.

P the K
 
#5 ·
I once patched a crack in a Y with a piece of old boat and it held for over a year.

We were at OBJ, so it was a bit of a McGyver thing but somebody else had a destroyed boat that they let me have a piece of, and I just glued a square of that to the inside of the hull over the crack with that blue engine gasket material. Ran OBJ in it the next day dry as a bone!

Before the patch, I used a hot wire to burn the ends of the crack round, so it wouldn't propagate. I think that's better than a drill (smaller, smoother hole), but your mileage may vary...
 
#6 ·
With a creek boat the best way is the two posts above. Drill each side of the crack to prevent it from getting larger, than apply the bitchathane. It is bomber. If you are really getting into the fix apply a wiefel ball on the nose to take up some piton action like dave eckardt used to do back in the day.

Gary
petex, gum and some duct tape for quick fixes
 
#10 ·
I've used Bitchuthane (i.e. ice & water shield, Grace (brand name) etc.) on a creek boat and it held solid for two seasons. If you want to mess around with melting plastic, be careful not to overheat it (when the plastic starts to turn shinny) or it'll turn brittle. In hindsight, I would have just thrown on some bitchuthane and called it good, instead of cooking my plastic to crispety crisp. OR...better yet, just get a new boat, as yours is pretty much dunbar.
 
#17 ·
It goes inside. Drill out each end of the crack with a cordless drill, that will stop the crack from spreading. When you put it on the inside make sure you get the boat and patch quite warm before applying. Imo you should expect to replace that boat in the next six months, thats about how long mine lasted after the first crack. On it's last run it got five cracks, on top of three or four that were already repaired. The plastic just goes at some point :)
 
#18 ·
if you're doing a bitch patch, ther is no need to heat the boat or the bitchethane, that may be why your boat got more cracks later. just drill the ends, clean & dry the area, slap that gooey crap on & let it sit in the sun for a while. If you don't have the time to let it sit, then just heat it lightly with a blow dryer till you see it smooth out a touch, then stop. I know folks that have bitch patches & paddled the boat for years after.

heating the plastic is probably the worst thing you can do to certain types of plastic, it just makes it more brittle & become a self fulfilling recurring crack. (had 16 cracks in my last huck, it had 3 & after I had those welded the other 13 popped up in the next 3 weeks) after I slapped some bitch on it I the rest of the season out of it.
 
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