Wetsuit repair...how?

Greenheart

Greenheart

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My wetsuit is at least a couple of decades old, and I was slimmer then...

...trying it again this year, I later discovered a serious split down the lower back/butt portion. Refrain from humorous comments for a moment, please...

...because now, after eight tireless weeks of relentless dieting, I'm now just about the same weight and shape I was in the mid-nineties. The only question remaining, is can I save the wetsuit? It's probably 5mm fabric. Does it need patching or just stitching? Or some other fixative?
 
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Before you rush off buying glues you might want to ask if its worth repairing a 20 yr old wet suit when there are dozens of second hand ones on e bay. Also found I couldn't fit into mine anymore. Sold it on e bay and bought the same make next size up for about the same price.
 
Thank you for these replies gentlemen. I'm especially attracted to the idea of using contact adhesive because I bought a big can lately for another job.

Wouldn't the best thing be, to find another piece of similar fabric to patch discreetly over the rip, using the contact adhesive? Otherwise, I'll have to overlap the sides of the damage, making the suit smaller and tighter overall...and I'd have to lose another 5kgs to fit in it.

I wonder how physically similar the fabric patching needs to be? I really need the wetsuit tomorrow...is there likely to be anything around the house which would substitute?

I suppose it won't matter much if it's visually different...the damaged section will be wholly concealed by my trapeze harness in future. :rolleyes: Would a strip of elderly genoa do it?
 
Don't use a general purpose contact adhesive, use proper wet suit glue, it sticks neoprene very well indeed. In my caving days people made wet suits from kits using glue alone.
 
That sounds like good advice, thanks, I don't mind spending £10 on bits to repair the wetsuit - it's been very lightly used generally.

The damage consists of two black lines running up the blue fabric; these don't actually open (letting my fundament spill out) but the cloth feels very thin along the lines, so I'm hoping I can patch the damage before it grows revealingly worse. For the purpose, I'm guessing I'll really need a couple of neoprene patches, perhaps 25cm x 3cm...

...is such fabric available, widely?

I sense that I may be sailing in shorts and T-shirt, tomorrow...
 
You need it tomorrow! well you have nothing to loose other than get the glue on now. How about sacrificing a bicycle inner tube to go over the top and reinforce the material. You can sew it but its hard work.
 
dancrane said:
Wouldn't the best thing be, to find another piece of similar fabric to patch discreetly over the rip, using the contact adhesive? Otherwise, I'll have to overlap the sides of the damage, making the suit smaller and tighter overall...and I'd have to lose another 5kgs to fit in it.

I wonder how physically similar the fabric patching needs to be? I really need the wetsuit tomorrow...is there likely to be anything around the house which would substitute?

I suppose it won't matter much if it's visually different...the damaged section will be wholly concealed by my trapeze harness in future. :rolleyes: Would a strip of elderly genoa do it?
Click to expand...

It's not normal to overlap a wet suit join. Apply the contact adhesive to both faces of the tear and then butt them together. It normally pays to stitch the joint as well. I think you will find all the joins are stitched in manufacture to keep them together.

Last time I repaired a wet suit I'm pretty sure I used Evostick

I have just read your last post again and you say the cloth is intact. In which case you may have to patch it if you haven't got a clean tear to repair. I was thinking more about the older single lined neoprene suits that often split.

A piece of sail cloth wouldn't have any give in it. So I don't think that would work too well.
 
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Thank you for these latest posts.

By an odd coincidence I'm looking at an old inner-tube at the moment...such things occasionally litter my living room. Is such a tough, non-cloth-like material suitable for this repair?

I'm much more concerned with making a resilient repair, than about making it look perfect.
 
As said use the correct glue.

I made a pair of wetsuits many years ago... seams were just glued edge to edge......

Glues like Evostik don't work the proper stuff does
 
If the neoprene has split inside the fabric, it would suggest to me that the neoprene is breaking down due to old age. I've tried to repair wetsuits that have started to fail like that and it's a nightmare. As soon as you complete one repair, the neoprene breaks down somewhere else, often immediately beside the repair. You can sometimes get away with a patch, glued and stitched over the area of the split: you need to use a piece of neoprene to make the repair.

At twenty years old though, no matter how little use the suit has had, it's getting towards the end of its life and you'd do well to start looking on eBay.
 
Thanks, all. I'll try sailing without it today...

...that might scare my wallet out into the open. :encouragement:
 
Best source of neoprene patches and strip is an old wet suit from a charity shop. If the material is very thin like many modern suits are, do use extra material.
 
If you intend on spending any time in the water at all it is definitely not worth repairing a twenty year old wetsuit. If you are going to do it the best way to repair a big split is to use a neoprene adhesive like black witch and stitch ot with dental floss then use some more black witch to seal the holes made by the stitching.
 
Thanks again...I borrowed a Laser on Sunday and wore my wetsuit which doesn't look half bad for its twenty-something year age.

I took a combination of advice...I concluded that I don't want to spend much money, repairing an old wetsuit - I'd rather put it towards a new one...or possibly a drysuit...

...meanwhile I used the contact-adhesive I already had, to glue a shaped section of the holed inner-tube that was lying about, over the damage in the neoprene.

I wore shorts over the top, to prevent the rubber tubing from gripping the dinghy's deck as I hiked...which would have ripped it off the neoprene, I'm sure.

I may go over the patching with needle & thread...sailmaker's thread, I'm thinking, unless there's advice to the contrary?

Thanks for your suggestions anyway, the wetsuit seems to be still going strong. :encouragement:
 
dancrane said:
That sounds like good advice, thanks, I don't mind spending £10 on bits to repair the wetsuit - it's been very lightly used generally.

The damage consists of two black lines running up the blue fabric; these don't actually open (letting my fundament spill out) but the cloth feels very thin along the lines, so I'm hoping I can patch the damage before it grows revealingly worse. For the purpose, I'm guessing I'll really need a couple of neoprene patches, perhaps 25cm x 3cm...

...is such fabric available, widely?

I sense that I may be sailing in shorts and T-shirt, tomorrow...
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Guess the deadline has passed however go to your local dive shoppe and buy a small tube (or tin) of neoprene cement (adhesive), and some seam tape - the tape used to come in ¾" and 1" wide - clean the tear and apply thin layer of adhesive - allow to dry then apply another thin layer - allow to go touch dry and press both sides of the tear together.

Apply seam tape over the tear/joint - apply adhesive to tear area and to the tape, allow to go touch dry then press firmly together starting at one end
 
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