How To Repair A Plastic Boat Hull For Free 

You are my kind of man, thanks for taking the time to make this video. You have saved me a lot of money and given me the satisfaction that I can make my own repair. Thanks again.

Thank you for taking the time and effort to help the many of us with Plastic boats, it is very much appreciated.

i will do this to my 2 man boat thanks man this a good video I never would have thought of this.

I know you mentioned that you weren't going for beautiful, but before applying your first piece of plastic it would be a great idea to sand or scratch the surface in order to provide a stronger bond between surface and milk plastic strip. After applying your bonds you can actually sand and buffer, and paint. You could of also gone from the back in order to conceal your work. Good job though man, you should get a few more years of fun with that work. Another trick I use is to use a simple wooden stick with a round tip that I use to apply pressure to the plastic once is melted and put pressure to where it is being applied to. Again, good job.

Thank you for your thank you. It's not often I can put together a video just to help. It means a lot to know someone appreciates it. Hopefully some boats & future good memories can be saved in the process.

Thanks for posting this. I have some rock garden kayak friends who are using this technique to repair gouges on the kayak hulls. They use strips of blue plastic tarp as the filler, then they sand it down to the hull shape. comes out perfect, though not necessarily the same color.

Thankyou for your help ! I have 3 cracked wheelbarrows that need just this fix !

Something I learned from stopping a crack from growing in drum cymbals. Thought it might help & couldn't hurt.

Yes. Most good reference material suggests using some of the original plastic off the boat, finding a place on the boat where you can cut off some spare plastic to use for your welding. If not, HDPE #2 seems to be the best bet. In my case, the boat was quite old. The areas that had long term exposure to sunlight were too oxidized/dried out to work well.

Dude!! Just picked up a free paddle boat and, of course, had two small holes in the hull. This should work fine!

Exactly what I needed, thanks 😊

That is a vintage SportYak boat made by Woodall Industries - Detroit Michigan made for Dayton Marine Products. All U.S. Coast Guard approved. They had a patent on vacuum forming. My dad worked there over 40 years. Those boats sold new for about $150 in 1970 and you could put a mount and boat motor on them or buy a sail kit. They made 7 foot and 8 foot models. I still have my 8 foot model with a seat fore and aft and a 7 h.p. motor on it. They are great for small water fishing. The company use to advertise that they were indestructable and they would send them over Niagra Falls. There are similar boats for sale only 7 foot models for about $500.

Thank you just found a dump Sport yak sun damaged bottom m. M. M looks fun to see if I can repair it 👍🌍👀👀

Thanks. I tried that but the plastic only allowed that at times. I really think a lot of the aspects that didn't work too well were due to the age of the plastic. I believe this to have been from the 70's or 80's. So, being stored upside-down for years, the hull was rotted from sun exposure. The hull cracked at the drop of a hat and was dry. So, the hull areas didn't pass the test. The areas that were aqua colored (stored in shade) worked out great. I think that was due to its being "healthier".

Great video, thanks for posting, too bad about the critics and after the fact opinions. You got my thumbs up

Ah, the fine art of jury rigging. Poor people can fix just about anything if they want it bad enough although it's not always pretty.

Nice but nothing can beat the original. My dad bought one of these "Brand New" in 1968 for me and my brother. We towed it behind our 20 Foot Cobia powerboat, wow felt like we were millionaires at the time, great being a kid and NOT knowing any better. Anyhow life was a whole lot simpler. The original was made in Dearborn Michigan. Unlike this boat, it contained two main air chambers/seats one in the bow area and one in the stern providing perfect balance. If the boat ever flipped over which we did purposely all the time it was easy to right but we loved swimming under it when turtled and used it as an underwater breathing space. The bow had a cutout for the sail rig and you could purchase side oars that acted as stabilizers and one main oar was used for steering. There were no oar locks, just holes drilled on the sides that oars fit right into and when not in use, the oars just flipped up on the upper pontoons. The boats were very durable and could also be fitted with an optional motor mount. I think my dad paid $100.00 which was a lot of money at that time for just the boat and oars. The boat never took on any water but did have one drain at the bottom of the boat if memory serves me correctly. The Sport Yak also doubled as a great kiddy pool for my young cousins. We often used it at home. Just fill it up with water on hot days and the kids could play in it without the fear of being in water over their heads but of course still required proper adult supervision. You could store these in doors during the winter and they would last a lifetime. Our dies an early unnecessary death. We made the mistake of leaving it out one winter turned upright. It filled with water, froze and cracked the hull, what a foolish mistake; otherwise it would still be around today. If you buy one of these boats, take good care of them as they should last a life time if they are built anywhere as well as the old ones were. Thanks for sharing this video, brings back good memories. BTW, ours only came in white. A few years later they came in green and orange as well. Blue was not an option at that time.

creative and strong, wtg brother, blessings

Hey thanks for the video I have a polyethylene boat and I have used everything to no avail was getting really discouraged until I seen this thank you again

Thanks, that's really useful!

I have the exact dingy with a couple small holes on the bottom. My question is will the patch hold up if its being dragged on the ground on the beach and the shallows? thanks

Great. Keep us posted. I would have rather used a great gun but a torch was what I had on hand. Hopefully the plastic isn't dry rotted on yours.

That should work fine. Maybe use a soldering iron to smooth it out too.

Do you wear a breather?

Very important to match the plastic. There are a lot of different plastics and they don't cross mix.

Milk bottles, plastic bags, and many other plastic articles have an ultra violet light trigger that causes them to become brittle when exposed to sunlight. They crumble to small particles that are less of an eye sore in the environment

Thanks so much for posting, I just bought a Pelican 245 8' boat today for $40. Great deal, but it does need some work. It's got two holes about fist size that have been glassed. I like this repair better. Do you think the thicker laundry detergent bottles would be good for repairing these larger holes?

Why didn't you use the laundry bottle?

what sort of music do you play?

Dang, I got to go find some kids now....😂

My pleasure.

Thanks for this video, You have saved me $ :)

yea for a torch you did well...in fact i would say very well

As hot as you got it with the tourch y9u could have just molded the original plastic in place of crack...

Didn't want to mess the edge up plus I just wanted to see how well this would work with really available plastic.

Wow

Is that a canoe or a plastic bathtub?

Just saying if you are going to use a torch you should use a big flathead screw driver and heat the screw driver press it in to the plastic and bond your strips in that way instead of heating all the plastic and making in brittle. Not criticizing just pointing out a better way.

I am "this guy" I went to the recycle bin & got whatever was on top & the right plastic.

I am a plastic fabricator and this really hurt watching this. That patch will peel off pretty quick always scrape both materials and at least .3 mm a good temp with hdpe is 240 c

I used whatever was at hand and the right plastic.

flame torch is way too hot for this ...a hot air gun gives a constant heat and never gets so hot to set the plastic alight.....

but why didn't this guy use the laundry bottle?

Why not repair it using fiberglass?

Blues, classic rock, funk, disco, R&B, soul, dance, folk, country, Americana, Motown, pop, um.... Basically no hard stuff.

A wide brazing tip for your torch would work good for that: www.eastwood.com/soft-flame-propane-torch.html?Shopzilla01&Shopzilla&Merchant-Centre&SRCCODE=1SE1532 This one is under $20 but I know you can buy just the tip much cheaper. Thats the best I could find for you at this point but ill subscribe and when i find cheaper i'll pass along the info.

Ugly patch but effective.

ODAT

Omg he destroyed it,lol

it was good you destroy it.

What are you guy smoking that is as good as a cracked boat you might as well not bother if your going for this finish. don't use a gas torch its way too hot, don't use milk bottles rather use a paint tub or better yet go get some mdpe rods at the hardware store. this job looks free, cheap, nasty, .....