Removing an old repair from an inflatable

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Doineann

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On my new boat, there was a Zodiac dinghy. I recently pumped it up and it deflated in a day. Using washing up liquid I found that it was leaking where the previous owner had rather bodged a repair. He has a patch on, what I take to be, some form of contact adhesive, roughly applied.

Lots of stuff on the web about repairing Hypalon dinghies, but not much about getting off old repairs to start again.

Any ideas gratefully received
 
I've dismantled original seams in PVC boats using a heat gun and a flexible paint scraper. There's a temperature band at which the glue melts but before the material begins to scorch, at which point sliding the scraper in will pop the seam neatly apart. If the glue your chap used was the right kind of stuff, this ought to work very well to remove a patch.

Heat gun on the "half heat" setting, and it's best to round off the corners of the scraper to avoid gouging although with a patch you'll probably be ok anyway.

Pete
 
Doineann said:
On my new boat, there was a Zodiac dinghy. I recently pumped it up and it deflated in a day. Using washing up liquid I found that it was leaking where the previous owner had rather bodged a repair. He has a patch on, what I take to be, some form of contact adhesive, roughly applied.

Lots of stuff on the web about repairing Hypalon dinghies, but not much about getting off old repairs to start again.

Any ideas gratefully received
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If it is Hypalon then heating with a hot air gun will soften the glue and you will simply be able to remove the old patch.

A Zodiac is more likely to be PVC. . I am surprised that Pete has been able to unglue PVC seams by the same method because its no where near as heat resistant as Hypalon .

The correct Adhesive for PVC contains a solvent for the PVC and done properly I'd have though repairs using it would have been very difficult to undo without damaging the underlying fabric.

However if its been repaired using an ordinary contact adhesive then very probably cautious use of a heat gun will separate it without difficulty.

Use the correct type of adhesive and repair material for the type of fabric from which the boat is made. Note that with PVC the repair procedure includes a "priming" stage in which the area is treated with the special solvent. This softens the PVC prior to making the final repair


Lots of guidance on repairs and identifying the fabric type on Polymarine's website at https://polymarineshop.com/about/
 
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VicS said:
I am surprised that Pete has been able to unglue PVC seams by the same method because its no where near as heat resistant as Hypalon .
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I did raise the odd wisp of smoke from leaving the heat-gun too long in one place :). But only occasionally, and no visible damage resulted. I was taking the broken transom out of a large (4m? takes a 50hp 2-stroke) boat, so there was a lot of seam to undo with some complicated multi-layered joints in the corners. Took a while but it all came apart eventually.

Pete
 
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