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How to Repair Your Kayak or Canoe

Using the KC Welder, you can repair your Pelican® canoe, Coleman® canoe or kayak, quickly and easily.

Using the KC Welder or the KC Welder Pro, you can create permanent repairs to your cracked kayak or cracked canoe including...

This is NOT the time to wonder about your repair.

Quit making temporary repairs

You may have tried to use different methods to repair your kayak or canoe using some creative techniqes. Techniques like...

Liquid Nails (it peels off quickly)
Glue Gun (Doesn't "burn in" well and quickly peels away)
Rivet an aluminum plate and caulk the edge and hope that it holds. (Gets scraped off from the first rock you go over.)
Sandwich a piece of rubber between an alumium plate and the kayak with rivets (or screws)

Those techniques you've tried must not have worked, or you wouldn't be looking at this page now. The KC Welder and the KC Welder Pro allow you to do permanent repairs.

Step-by-step Instructions

Step 1

This is a typical crack that you might find on the bottom of a kayak. The first thing you need to do in any plastic repair is to clean the plastic. Use soap and water to remove any water soluble contaminants. Use a plastic cleaner like our Part Number 1000 - Super Clean Plastic Cleaner to remove any sovlent soluble contaminants. Realign the plastic if is has overlapped itself.

Step 2

To maximize the strength of the repair, it helps to embed some wire mesh into the plastic. It is similar to putting rebar in concrete. Cut some of the included wire mesh to span the crack about an inch on side. On this particular repair, we had to fold the mesh because the crack was on a corner.

Step 3

Using the KC Welder, melt the wire mesh into the plastic. This is similar to putting rebar in concrete. It makes the repair a lot stronger. Sometimes, the mesh wants to "pop out" of the plastic before the plastic cools. If that happens, use a screwdriver or another tool to hold the mesh into the plastic until the plastic re-solidifies.

Step 4

Here is what it will look like once the mesh has been melted into the plastic.

Step 5

Apply the filler rod by pre-melting one side of the rod.

Step 6

Flip the filler rod over so that the melted side is toward the plastic that you are working on.

Step 7

Cut the tip of the rod off by melting through it with the edge of the welder tip.

Step 8

Spread the melted rod while pushing it through the mesh. You may need to apply an extra layer of rod after pushing it through the mesh. Get the plastic hot enough so that the new melted plastic melts together with the existing plastic.

Step 9

Continue applying plastic until the crack is repaired completely.

Finished

The repair is complete.

Here is a temporary repair that one of our customers sent in....

I have a rather humorous story about my vain attempt to repair a canoe...and some pictures from the mess I made trying to remove my latest patch job: tar backed aluminum roof flashing.

We, for the past 3 years, have tried everything...yes everything conceivable in the form of adhesive, epoxy and tape to fix this old boat.

Actually duct tape (our first attempt) worked the best of them all but due to the size of the hole we were covering it just wouldn't last.

Epoxies won't stick, not even J.B. weld. And riveted patches always leak and snag on rocks.

Last year, in a last ditch desperate attempt to get the thing in the creek again, I applied a layer of tar backed aluminum roof flashing to the keel.

It worked for about 1 mile and then began to leak.

Finally I contacted Coleman and asked their advice, so I am now ready to fix the thing right...well, not quite...I now have to remove the freaking tar!

I got out my trusty grinder with a cup brush and slung the crap everywhere, before realizing it wasn't removing jack crud, just smearing it and slinging it all over my legs and patio cover. So I went and got some turpentine which is pretty useless on 1/8" thick tar.

Finally I got out my Wagner Heat Gun and melted it and scraped it.

These pictures are AFTER 2 hours of work. It looks like I have another couple hours left...But at least I know what to do now...

Feel free to use this email and pictures on your website, and some complimentary orange filler rod would be nice too :)

Canoe crack repair