oc-1 seam repair

kalikikopa

I have an old Viper that started to leak on the seam again. The first time was a small leak so I pulled a vacuum on the hull and dropped epoxy in it until, it sucked it then took off the vacuum. That worked. This time it was about 3 inches of seam that came apart. I took a screwdriver in the seam and it popped apart for about 2ft. I was thinking I would put thickened epoxy in a ziplock cut the corner and pipe it in. Think this would work? Should I try to just pop the while seam and pipe the whole thing? Advice and opinions welcome.

Submitted by kalikikopa on Sat, 12/27/2014 - 12:26pm

mrs1000

Hi kalikikopa!
Probably you will not like my suggestion, but I would have the whole seam re done. Cut, sand, clean, apply new epoxy and glue the hull again.

#1 Thu, 01/01/2015 - 2:26am

kalikikopa

That's what I was considering. That's why I asked. I also thought not knowing how to deal with the rudder tube, it might be over my abilities. I did push on the whole seam and split as much as would come apart without cutting. you could detect a slight flex at the weak points so i split the seam where it felt weak then piped thickened epoxy into it. The canoe feels solid again. I took it out into some rough conditions( where i could recover from if the boat got totaled) and it held up very well.
I will continue to monitor it's condition( as you need to with any 16 yr old boat) to see how it holds up.
Thank you for your advice.

#2 Thu, 01/01/2015 - 11:21am