HCC Paddling Forum

It is polyethylene not Royalex  that is hard to attach anything to it. I see that West Systems claims that Gflex  Plastic epoxy will attach to polyethylene but I have not tried it yet on poly but it is only $39 for the two cans which should suffice for much more than one time. Old Town used to sell a grunge pad kit that was a rip off. The claimed special epoxy was really not that special and they only provided enough of it to saturate only one of the two pads. It required torching the poly in a special way which really was what allowed the epoxy to stick. Plastic welding is the other way to repair polyethylene which involves using melted poly to do the fill in. There is a kit available to do small welding. 

Royalex is different because it is about as easy to work with as a fiberglass boat. I put grunge pads on my Dagger 15 in 2000 and they are still there except the river has worn off some of it. I attach D-rings and padding to Royalex with contact cement. Back then they did not have Gflex so I used standard West 105.

Maybe the webbing provides enough reinforcing to the epoxy for the D-ring. Usually fiberglass is used with epoxy to reinforce the epoxy.

My 2-cents worth.

There's this newsletter article from a few years ago:
https://thcc.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=496051&module_id=81990

I know for Royalex you had to use a special epoxy, as most do not adhere properly to Royalex.  You paid $75 for a "Royalex repair kit" which included the substances, and the kit was only enough for one medium-size patch.  West Marine is really proud of their epoxies too.

Good luck.

          - John Rich

I used E6000, a couple of months ago, to adhere d-ring patches to my ABS canoe. So far so good. I think two big factors to a good bond is roughening the surfaces then cleaning them well.

I know it is hard to do, but following the instructions is helpful, also. lol

Here’s a link on a possible solution https://www.masterbond.com/applications/properties-and-applications-polyolefin-bonding?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIv6u6xdPs2gIVnLXACh1s5AMqEAAYAiAAEgLRdPD_BwE

polyethlene pipe pipe is joined together by “welding “. The two surfaces are held in a jig so the two ends are parallel. A heating plate is placed in contact with both surfaces until thy melt the Plato’s quickly removed and the ends forced together and a “bead is formed all the way around the pipe and held til the pipe cools 

i would not recommend attempting this

the thru bolting method is the way to go

Does anyone have any practical advice for this guy?  My "brute force" solution for installing attach points below the waterline has been large washers with SS bolts and silicone, but I wouldn't mind hearing about an adhesive that would stick to plastic.  Does E6000 do that?

Best Regards,
Kent