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Repair adhesives / glues for rafts and other inflatables, replacement
valves, boat maintainence products, Aquaseal, repair tools, fabric,
and repair advice is found on this page. Updated May 2008.
Please Note: we have a $15 minimum order, so we can't ship just
one valve cap or tube of glue.
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Adhesives & Containers
Flammable liquids, including all raft glues we carry, can only be shipped by UPS ground. Even if you order a boat like an AIRE from us that comes with a screw-top can of glue in the patch kit, if you happen to live someplace like Hawaii the glue needs to be removed before the boat ships. We can sneak small tube-packaged items like Aquaseal
and Barge Cement through the Post Office but we would still rather avoid air delivery. If you are on
the east coast and are in a big hurry for your glue, you'll need to buy
it elsewhere, sorry.
We actually had someone call from Israel early this year wanting us to ship him two cans of boat glue. Forgetting for the moment that our minimum order for something like this is far larger
than the price of two cans of glue, it still leaves the question of how he expected it to be delivered. Should it go through slow mail via boat, there was a good chance the cans would have leaked or been degraded before they ever got to him. Occasionally we really are amazed at the some of the requests we get.
UPS handles smaller amounts of glue with ORMD labels, but if you want to eliminate any chance of leakage or a mishap, buy a Nalgene container (directly below) for us to pour your
glue into. Lids
can leak due to pressure changes if your shipment makes a journey over,
say, the Rockies.
We sell rubber glue (for neoprene,
hypalon, EPDM, and nitrilon boats) and pvc/urethane adhesives. We are
not buying directly from the glue manufacturers anymore since the quantities
we've sold the last few years have decreased dramatically, and we have
actually lost money since 2000 almost every year because we have had to
discard so much outdated adhesive. Thus, we're only carry each glue in
one or two sizes.
Shore Rubber Adhesive for neoprene, hypalon, nitrylon, and epdm
is an excellent one-part general purpose product similiar in working characteristics
to Apollo or Bostic's rubber glues. We have Shore glue in 8 oz. size in
one-part for $10 with brush cap, or a 16 oz. two-part (the 2nd part is
accelerator that increases heat resistance somewhat) for $18. Please note that we do have a $20 minimum order. . 
Clifton's Two-Part Adhesive is meant to be used with either heat
or m.e.k. re-activation (instead of simply slapping the two halves together
after five or six minutes). "Reactivating" simply means that
after the second thin coat of glue has dried sufficiently - like ten to
fifteen minutes - you wipe both surfaces with a rag wet with m.e.k. to
re-activate, or put the two surfaces together and then apply heat from
a very hot hair dryer or heat gun while applying pressure with a rolling
tool. When trying to simply slap the two surfaces together after five
or six minutes without using re-activation, we've had wildly inconsistant
results. In 16 oz. with catalyst $20
note- If you own a "lexatron" Sotar, Wing, or urethane "encapsulated"
Maravia boat, regular pvc glues like the Stabond, Bostic, Clifton, and
others, are tricky to use. Check out the two-part Aquaseal below.
Nalgene containers are really the only sensible way to carry glue
in a patch kit and a good way to UPS glue to you as well. If you use metal
cans all too often the glue pukes out the lid, turning everything inside
your kit into a gooey nasty mess. This is especially likely if you change
elevations dramatically on your way to the river. Nalgene bottles are
priced as follows:
1, 2, or 4 oz: $1.50; 8 oz: $2.50; 16 oz: $3.50; 32
oz: $5.
Note: Under absolutely no circumstances should you ever
take boat repair adhesives on a jet - even in a Nalgene bottle. The minimum
fine for getting caught is $2,500 in the States, and it's an exceeding
bad idea in the first place. Flamable liquids have no business on planes,
and any glue in a metal paint-style will pop it's lid every time in an
unpressurized compartment.
We
also carry 2 oz. tubes of Barge Cement for rubber boats. Barge
Cement is a good one part glue that's been around for years and we've
used it on some fairly extensive repair jobs when nothing else was handy.
$3 each.
If you could only have one item in your patch kit, it would have to be
Aquaseal. This urethane based repair product sticks to just about
anything including almost every type of boat imaginable, so it is good
for far more than just fixing wetsuits. Additionally, when it drys it
is much stronger and more abrasion resistant than any raft material.
Here are a few things we've successfully used it for: repairing small
air tube rips up to 1/4" long and floor rips up to 1/2", coating abraded
areas on the undersides of boats, as a "seam sealer" on paddle jackets,
to repair and replace cuffs on drysuits, in place of regular contact-type
glues for patching, filling in cracks on raft valve boots, repairing broken
river sandals, fixing small rips on lifejackets (it sticks to nylon too),
mixing with fiberglass pigments to make touch-up paint for encapsulated
Maravia boats, and even to make piston cups for barrel pumps.
Aquaseal also makes a 2-part with Cotol accelerator which
lets it set up in one hour instead of 12 - 24 hours. This is a very important
item for every Wing, Maravia, or lexatron Sotar owner to have in their
repair kit. These boats are quite difficult to repair with conventional
urethane based glues, especially out on the river. Yet with 2-part Aquaseal
even a five year old can do it. Just put a layer (approx. 1/16th to 1/20th
of an inch thick) on either the patch or ripped area of the boat, lay
the patch down with some weights, and let it dry for an hour. Since some
Aquaseal will ooze out the patch edges you should put a piece of waxed
paper or a plastic grocery bag in between so the weights won't stick to
the boat. It would likely take an hour to properly fix one of these boats
with regular glue anyway, even if you are successful. We had to adhere
six huge zipper patches to a Sotar raft a few years back, and we tried
the best pvc glue we could get our hands on, as well as our hand welder,
and the Aquaseal was the only thing that really worked. We cannot say
enough good about this product or about how underated it is. Just don't
confuse it for the toothpaste tube.
1 oz: $7; 1 oz. with Cotol Accelerator: $10
Assorted repair fabric, sold by the square foot-
Please Note: Last year, for reasons unknown we had quite a few
phone calls from people ensconced in strange jobs that involved trying
to make this or that inflatable pontoon or pneumatic object, for this
or that wierd prototype or college science project. These phone calls
tend to come in clumps and we may not get any more for ten years, but
in general we do not bill ourselves as a large-scale supplier of
coated material. We do have bulk access to certain materials shown below,
but any orders for large quantities of material need to be accompanied
by substantial non-refundable deposits.
Also, we do not always have every fabric listed below in stock. Since giving up the boat rental, our own need for it has dropped by at least 90% (we used to make our own footcones for all of our rental rafts, which used a lot of material). Since the overwhelming majority of people who call us for repair fabric only want that and maybe glue, trying to pay close attention to rubber and pvc inventory is a very low priority for us.
Rubber coated fabrics per square foot:
420 denier neoprene (black) or Hypalon one-side (yellow or grey)..$5
420 denier Hyside Hypalon two-sided (blue)..$6
840 denier Hyside Hypalon two-sided (blue)..$7
840 denier neoprene (black or blue)..$6
1050 denier Hyside Hypalon two-sided (black)..$7
1050 denier Hyside Hypalon two-sided (blue)..$7
1200 denier floor Hypalon two-sided (black)..$8
PVC & urethane fabrics:
2000 denier 33-oz urethane (specify color; for Wing etc)..$8
As above, scrap, in orange/yellow or blue/teal..$2.50
210 or 420 denier urethane coated nylon (for AIRE floor bladders)..$4
Clear 14mil urethane (for AIRE tube bladders & Sevylor repair)..$3
1100 denier Haku Incept fabric (red pvc)..$5
1000 denier Jacks tube fabric (blue pvc)..$4
840 denier AIRE 18 or 20 oz/square yard pvc (yellow, grey, blue, purple,
aqua)..$3.50
1200 denier AIRE 25oz (yellow, grey, blue, red, purple)..$4
2200 denier AIRE 40oz (grey, blue, yellow, purple, aqua)..$5
Patch-N-Go is a new release paper-backed clear film in 5 and 10
mil thicknesses, that comes in small precut circles and strips.
When you get a hole, you just clean the area with alcohol, dry it for
a moment, and slowly apply & burnish the patch. Wait five minutes,
or more if you want, and you are on your way. In other words, it is like
using tape to cover the hole. The problem is, even the best military duct
tape won't quite adhere well enough on the exterior of an air holding
chamber to keep the air from tunneling out from the rip or hole to the
edge of the tape no matter how much you put on.
Gotta admit, we were very skeptical of the Patch-N-Go, and we fully expected
the same thing to happen with it during testing even at modest reinflation
pressure. We were wrong. At 2 p.s.i., which is as much as you should ever
think about putting in a freshly repaired boat (actually it's double what
you should have), the Patch-N-Go patch hung in there amazingly well, with
no air tunneling out from underneath.
We tried a 3" patch on a 1" cut, and a 6" square on a 1"
X 2-1/4" L-shaped tear. It worked flawlessly. And this was after
only a few minutes. The adhesive cures
more over time so it will only get stronger after an hour or a day. Not
only is the glue powerful, but it also seems to help that the Patch-N-Go
base material (which appears to be mylar) does not stretch like even the
best duct tapes will. Not stretching means there is less chance for the
tear to open up under the patch.
These are not intended to be a permanent patch for quality boats that
use 2 to 3 p.s.i, but on a Sevylor (or any unreinforced vinyl) kayak you
could call it "good enough" due to the low pressure they run
on, and the 5 mil Patch-N-Go cirlces will defintely provide a permanent
fix on an AIRE tube bladder.
The one thing you should know is that when you do get around to doing
a permanent repair to your boat, there will be some nasty goo left behind
by the Patch-N-Go. This must be removed before the real patching begins.
The residual adhesive cannot be removed with alcohol, so you will need
MEK for this part of the process.
The weather has been warm in San Jose where we are located, but not over
the mid-eighties, so we cannot say for certain if the bond of the Patch-N-Go
might be degraded by high heat, but according to the company it's not
supposed to.
Patch-N-Go's are expensive for what you get, but then again, getting stuck
on an impromptu overnighter along the riverbank is a real drag. We do
wish they provided bigger alcohol wipes in the little circle kits, and
the burnishing tool is kind of a joke and way too flexible. No matter
which type kit or strip you get, you should probably bring a small smoothed-over
putty knife for burnishing and maybe some extra alcohol in a little Nalgene
- and don't forget the rag.
Circle Kit with two 3" 5-mil patchs, a toy burnisher, instructions,
alcohol wipes, in a zip lock: $7 ; Extra 6" square patch in
5-mil: $5 ; 3" X 24" Strip in 10-mil: $9 each
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Maintenance Products
303
Protectant is a water based sunblock for boats (inflatable and otherwise),
sails, auto upholstery, lifejackets, and it should be considered mandatory
for use on drysuit gaskets. Unlike that other scam product found in most
automotive stores, 303 contains no destructive silicon or petroleum products.
We list it under "repairs" because of its tremendous preventative maintenance
potential. If you own a boat coated with epdm, neoprene, or less than
60% hypalon, using 303 on all the top surfaces every two or three river
trips will greatly extend the life of the coating - by more than half
again. We used this on our rental life jackets too, since it reduces fading
and makes them easier to clean at the end of the season. 8 oz pump bottle:
$9; 16oz pump bottle: $16 Quart pump bottle: $23. Gallon:
$59 (gallons are special order only)
New - 303 Fabric Guard.
This is 303's equivalent to Scotchguard, though the sailing industry seems
to consider it superior to the 3M product for treating sails and fabric
boat upholstery. This is not something we've tested yet, but we have had
some requests for it so now we are keeping 16 ounce spray bottles in stock.
(no photo) $17; buy two or more and get 15% off/
Spare Valves and Valve Tools

- Standard shallow Halkey Roberts valve (grey)..$16
- Pump hose to valve adaptor for above..$5
- * Newer style shallow Halkey Roberts valve (grey)..$16 (we do not always have this item in stock).
- Summit I valve.. $11 (this was used on the first generation of AIRE Tributary Tomcat kayaks, and rarely you'll find them on a few of the first Strikes)
- Summit II valve.. $12 (found on all newer Strike and Tomcat kayaks, as well as the first year Tributary rafts)
- Pump hose to valve adaptor for Summit II valves and newer generation shallow Halkey Roberts valves.. $5
- Cap for old style shallow Halkey Roberts valve (grey only)..$5
- Cap for Deep Halkey Roberts valve (#3)..$6 (we're not even sure we have any left at this update, so don't get your hopes too high)
- Hyside metal military valve, black anodized..$16
- Riken nylon military valve, white..$15
- Rubber boot for military valve..(call for price)
- AIRE seat valve (also works for kayak float bags)..$2
- Plastic Halkey valve removal socket, 1/2" drive..$4 (for old shallow
Halkey valves - item number 1 - also see line drawing above right)
- Leafield C-7 valve.. $20
- AIRE/Avon Leafield B-7 valve..$20
- Professional Stainless 3/8" drive Halkey removal socket..$29
- Pressure relief valves..call
* A few notes on the items above: The "new style" Halkey valves (item
#3) can be distinguished from the older ones (#1) by the fact that they
have two extra holes around the outer edge for the cap string to
run thru in case the first one breaks.
Items 13 & 16 are all designed for removing the standard shallow
(#1) Halkey Roberts valves. The #13 plastic removal tool is very cheesy
and is guarantied to break. No Returns! The #16 is way overpriced, but
our cost was $24 and at least these are hand-machined sockets.
And sorry, but we don't currently have a source for valve wrenches for
the new style (#3) shallow Halkey Roberts valves.
A Few Hints about patch kits:
There are a few important items that a lot of whitewater boaters either
leave out of their repair kits, or, they have them but may not realize
why! You don't need a whole hardware store in the kit, but here are some
things to pack along with the glue, brushes, and burnisher:
- Absorbant cotton rags- if you get a rip through an air tube
or inflatable floor, water will get inside; if you don't have
rags or a sponge, how will you get the rip area dry enough to repair?
- Valve removal tool (for Halkey Roberts & Leafield) or screwdriver
(for military valves)- a spare valve won't do any good without a way
to change it. If you drive an AIRE or other kayak using the B7 Leafield
vlaves, which do not come out of the boat, you may also need an old
fashioned tobacco pipe cleaner. These usually come in
a little bag of a dozen. Take one and bend the last 1/4" or 3/8"
ninety degrees with a pliers. Now you have a little cleaning tool for
knocking off bits of sand and debris from the internal valve cup and
sealing edge that it sits against down inside the Leafield. This cleaning
must be done with the valve in the open position.
- Cigarette lighter- no, it's not to light the recreational drugs
while someone else does the repair. A lighter is handy on cold, damp
days to dry out and warm up the repair area a little before you start
applying the glue. Otherwise, on winter days you may have big problems
with adhesion. Don't use it after the glue is applied though!
- Mixing jar- if you have 2-part glue or 2-part Aquaseal.
- A pen- not critical, but if you trace the patch outline before
you begin, you won't slop glue all over.
- Needle & heavy thread- for AIRE or other bladder boats
only. Otherwise it's a bad idea.
- Duct tape- sure, every one carries it, but why? Let's say
you get a rip longer than 2". Big rips require an inside patch, because
without one the exterior patch will start to blow off as soon as you
reinflate the boat. The problem is that doing an inside patch is hard
enough in your garage; out on a rocky river bank it's all but impossible
unless you have an AIRE brand boat. Here's where the duct tape comes
in handy. If you use it for the inside patch, the all-important
function of keeping air pressure off the back side of the exterior patch
is still achieved, yet you don't have to sand, apply glue, and
try to get an unwrinkled patch down inside the tube through the rip
hole. Instead, you can use a piece of duct tape about 2" longer than
the tear to hold the rip shut from the inside. It's still quite tricky,
but with tape you can keep redoing it until you get it perfect.
One last issue is the quality of the duct tape. The thin, plasticky
junk so predominate at hardware stores is almost worthless. There are
two places you can usually find the "good stuff". The first is the olive
green military tape carried at most decent army surplus shops (a.k.a
"100 mph" tape). A second source is the small rolls of "radiator
hose repair tape" sold at automotive stores. Both are excellent and
infinitely superior to the Home Depot crap.
- Pre-sanded patch fabric- why do it out on the river?
- A 21-piece socket set- of course we're just kidding
here, but we are amazed how many people take wrenches down the river.
What for? Maybe a pliers could be handy for a stuck valve or pulling
up a bad patch, but otherwise leave the tool chest at home.
- A waterproof container to put it all in- wet sandpaper is utterly
useless.
Oooops! The Sun and inflatable boats often don't mix well,
and even high quality rafts like the Avon in the photo below (which opened
at a center seam, deflating both front left & right chambers) can
experience major blowouts with a bit of neglect. This particular raft
was probably a mere five years old, but it had seen a lot of use. The
day this happened, a couple of us had been washed out of our paddle raft
at Chachalaca, the last big - though harmless - class IV rapid on Costa
Rica's Rio Chiripo/General. The balmy 70 degree water felt great and there
were no more large rapids following so we elected to enjoy the swim, staying
in the 5 mph current as we drifted more than half a mile downstream. Finally,
after pondering the long walk back, we swam for shore. Shortly after beginning
the trudge back to where the other 28 people in our group were waiting
and surfing, there was a loud, deep boom. Was someone
shooting at us? We honestly thought the noise came from a shotgun, and
we just about hit the deck as we nervously spied the surrounding hillsides.
No crazed natives in sight. Hmmmm....... As we kept walking, a bit faster
now, one of the six rafts back at Chachalaca looked odd. Somehow... well,
shorter. It seems that even though it was only a moderate mid-80's, the
tropical sun had worked it's damage on the grey Avon material and the
seam glue underneath. As your boat heats up, not only does the air expand,
but if you are driving a glued boat, the adhesive simultaneously gets
softer too. Pop! Avon calling. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound
of glue.
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Repair Shops
Our friends at Rapid Repair, formerly located in the Georgetown area of the Sierra foothills, decided a while back to call it quits on sniffing glue. Long term exposure to both MEK and toulene has very serious consequences including liver damage, liver cancer, nerve damage, and leukemia.
Jason and Jeff helped a lot of us out doing complex repairs over the years, but it's in the best interest of their health that they retired. Contrary to some bogus rumors, it had nothing to do with the volume of work they had. The brothers Mellor could have stayed busy into their 90's had they desired. Then again, they probably wouldn't have lived that long.....
In terms of California, we don't know of any great repair shops now, but should we become aware of any we will post their contact info here. If you have had good experiences getting your shredded, detonated raft fixed somewhere in CA or even southern Oregon, please let us know.
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