Sticking rubber to fiberglass

[awharbutt]

Hi Guys I bought a length of rubber U channel to stick on the lower edge of my fiberglass swim platform to protect the dingy from the flaking edge of the gell coat, on advice I used Sikaflex 291i, after a few days I noticed the Sikaflex had stuck to the fiberglass but not to the rubber!
Any idea what I should have used instead to make a strong bond?

 

[prv]

I used the A262 two-part adhesive from http://www.sealsdirect.co.uk/shopping.asp?intDepartmentId=7#56 to stick a sealing gasket onto my cockpit locker. Apparently they use the same stuff for sticking the skirts onto hovercraft. No sign of it coming adrift so far, despite dinghies etc being dragged and shoved through the hatch.

Pete

 

[Nigel_Ward]

Just a thought but maybe the rubber has some surface coating e.g. silicon. Most ones I have used seem slippy to the touch. A good clean with solvent and light sand to the mating surface may give a better chance of adhesion whichever glue you use.

 

[coopec]

Not knocking Pete's nor Nigel's suggestion but what about contact adhesive? I would think it would have to be an elastic type adhesive because of the rubber.

 

[prv]

Not knocking Pete's nor Nigel's suggestion but what about contact adhesive?

Yes, the A262 is a particularly serious kind of contact adhesive.

(I always find things more convincing if they come in two pots that have to be mixed )

Pete

 

[ribdriver]

Look on ebay for Stormsure. Its a one part rubber/ everything glue and can also be used as a waterproof skin. I use it on my drysuit with a plasticised coating. Its as good as the 2 part stuff.

 

[Avocet]

Is there any way of finding out exactly what the "rubber" is? A natural rubber is likely to stick quite well with contact adhesive like Evo-Stick. Some of the synthetic rubbers are much harder. EPDM, in particular, is supposed to be a real pig to get anything to stick to!