|
|
Member
Posts: 163
Location: Oshkosh | I have a rubber keel guard on my Ranger that appears to have been factory-installed. The back half of the thing has come loose from the hull, meaning that it is all but impossible to launch my boat without the thing hanging up on a trailer cross-member.
Last fall I talked with someone who suggested that I try Gorilla Glue, as it was supposed to be waterproof. I did, and it seemed to take to the hull rather nicely.
I fished at De Pere Saturday and I noticed that I had a little dificulty launching the boat, but chaulked it up to the thought that I am a dumb Polock who still does not know how to launch off of a bunk trailer. After fishing (caught 12 dandies, by the way... circle hooks ROCK!) and trailering home, I saw the darn thing hanging down again.
I talked with MW and they did not have good news to report ("It's gonna cost ya..."). I am thinking about doing this myself... I think if I sand-down the old epoxy as close to the gelcoat as I dare, I should be able to re-epoxy it and use an ingenious setup of 2x4's cut to various lengths to wedge the keel guard tight against the hull as the epoxy cures.
Do any of you have any experience doing anything like this? Is there a specific type of epoxy I should be using? Other than using like a 30 minute or longer cure time epoxy to allow myself enough time to position it, I'm kinda flying blind. Any tips out there?
Thanks,
Mark |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 3899
| Probably a Hamby's if it was original on the Ranger. I would call them and see what they have to say.
Here's the phone number.
1-800-742-2813 |
|
| |
|
| My hambys ripped off my Ranger also. Ranger would do nothing for me. Hambys sent me a new one, but I paid somthing like $400 to have it replaced. The guy at Hambys said they are having problems with the white material. He suggested I get black, which I did. |
|
| |
|
| I had a shop near me put a keel guard aftermarket on my last Ranger. It was a Hamby's. I recall from your comment about sanding it down TO the gel coat, that they actaully sanded the gelcoat itself to get a better seal. |
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 163
Location: Oshkosh | It almost looks like they used some sort of fiberglass resin to apply it, as there are fiber-like strands pulling away from the hull in this spot, but from what I can see it isn't the hull material itself. Weird... I will call Hamby's myself- thanks for the tip.
Mark |
|
| |
|
| Gorilla glue doesn't seem like the right type of glue to use, my experience has been that GG is best used for wood to wood applications. I would say the first thing you would want to do would be to clean off as much old adhesive from the keel guard as you can; try using denatured alcohol or acetone but be really careful with the acetone because it melts a lot of thing you don't want melted.  Then I would lightly and carefully sand the hull where the keel guard will touch to clear off any rough impurities.
The type of glue you use will be very important because you are really trying to bond two dissimilar materials>>>keel guard = vinyl + hull = epoxy resin. My first thought was 3M spray adhesive, but even though I think it will bond the two together well, I just don't know how strong the actual glue is. I think your very best bet will be to use contact cement... Clean it up like I said then brush liberally on the hull and keel guard; wait for them to dry and then carefully put the two together from the still bonded end down with a small hand roller to help the contact cement make good contact as it goes and to prevent air pockets or loose parts.
|
|
| |
|
Member
Posts: 163
Location: Oshkosh | I spoke to Roger at Hamby's. He offered me 2 solutions... one was to peel the keel guard back as much as I could from the hull, clean away the old epoxy/glass mesh, clean with acetone and reapply new epoxy/glass matting and reinstall the rear portion of the keel guard. Option 2 was to send it to some place in Green Bay where they would remove the old one, prep the hull and install a new one (which he would sell to me for $100 but the place in GB would proabaly charge upwards of $500 or more to install for me).
I think the thing that sucks, for anyone thinking about installing one of these (especially on a glass boat) is that once you commit to doing so, you are pretty much tied to always having one on the boat. When (not IF) they fail, there is so much labor involved in removing the old product and installing a new one... plus you have to rough-up the gel coat on the hull to increase your odds of the thing holding that you are pretty much always committed to having a keel guard on to hide the roughed-up hull area.
I spent 5 hours last week Saturday removing as much old epoxy that I could from both the hull and the keel guard. I got it pretty good but probably need to go back over it with acetone on a rag to wipe away any other areas I missed. Hamby's sent me some new epoxy and glass matting but I either need a warm day or a warm garage to do this in, both of which seem unavailable at this time! Sure would be nice to actually get a chance to FISH in the spring for once...
Edited by Brother Otis 4/4/2009 6:41 AM
|
|
| |
