Tube Refurb
 

I recall seeing a thread some time ago about tube refurb. There was one example in particular that had the whole top side of the tubes recovered/patched.
Can anyone point me in the right direction to this, can't seem to find it?

https://www.rib.net/forum/f16/searide...ect-41799.html

I had the tubes on a searider bought back to life by Scott at rib repairs.

Brilliant job. They were very tired before going to him having spent 25 years kept afloat with no cover. Look like new now.

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Our tubes are a bit worse for wear (a month on a pontoon mooring in the middle of the tidal Thames destroyed them)! Is there anyone around the London/Essex area that can repair tubes?

Try SEMS (South Eastern Marine Services) in Basildon.. I've heard good things about them. Their number is 01268 534427.

Their website (https://www.aerosafe.co.uk) doesn't mention that they do re-tubing and/or repairs but they do.

Peter.

Great, thanks!

I did mine. well worth the effort.
ill post some pics and a description when I'm back w ith the puter

My tubes were very badly UV damaged on the topside. But after speaking to Henshaws RIB tubes, RIB collars, yacht fenders and much more - Henshaw Inflatables Ltd who were very helpfu; I decided to recover rather that retube as they were still holding air fine.
See before pics

The final result was well worth the effort and cost £800 for all fabric glue and thinners. a hell of a lot cheaper than a retube.
See after pics

After pics although cones aren't completed in these pics

Looks great, we have one small puncture though, do you think that means we couldn't go for this type of solution?

I am sure the more experienced out there can probably give you more advise but this is how i did it.

First I removed the top part of the rubbing strake usinga hot air gun and a pallet knife. Take your time and don't force it before the glue goes tacky otherwise you peel of the top layers of the Hyperlon.

Then I belt sanded the tubes to remove any loose or rough surface texture. Use a medium grade paper. It does fell a bit mad belt sanding an inflatable tube but as long as you keep moving you should be fine.

Clean down the tubes with thinners to remove any dust and grease.

Decide how large an area you feel comfortable handling at a time. If you look at the photos you will see the rear of the tubes was done in a very large section, then I did a smaller one in the middle around the valves as this was harder to apply, then a larger section forward of the valves, and then the bow was done in smaller sections to reduce the wastage that a curve results in.

My tubes are 500mm diameter and I found i had enough width on the material to cut it down the center and cover both sides.

Start covering from the rear moving forward overlapping by about 20mm. This will prevent the spray hitting the joints and forcing them open when out in the sea.

once I cut the desired section I cleaned it with thinners then primmed it with a covering of glue (two pack glue that Henshaws supplied) I also primmed the tube in the area I was going to apply the section of hyperlon.

once the glue has dried about 30min apply a second coating to the patch and the tube and wait for it to go tacky about 15min then apply the patch.

I found the easist way was to cut a sheet of polythene to the same size as the patch and lay the patch glue side down onto the polythene. then losely fold/roll the material around a length of 40mm waste pipe.

Then starting on the inside of the boat peel the polythene from the edge of the patch and stick it in position. Then using a soft wooded block slowly peel back the polythene whilst moving the block from side to side to force out any air bubbles. Do this untill you stuck all the material down tucking the last bit under the rubbing strake.

this is basically how i did the whole boat.

you will obviously have to mark out and cut for the valves.
I found when working out the curves at the bow it was easiest to cover the tubes in double sided tape and apply the material dry whilst marking it out for the cuts.
I did find that when applying the curved sections at the bow it was dificult to maintain the even 20mm overlap, so to neaten it up i cut some 50mm strips and then layed them over the joints, the result was very neat.

When its all done clean up the Strake and re glue that in the same way.


As I said this is only the way i did it and not necessary the best way but I am very happy with the results.

Hope it helps

When i ordered my stuff from Henshaws I also ordered a sanding disk that goes in a grinder from there site. It was far too coarse and the moment it touched the tube i blew a 2 inch hole in it. I cut a slit in the tube big enough to slip a few fingers in. then primed the inside of the tube and cut a patch that overlapped the slit/hole about 30mm, primed the top side of the patch. then when dry applied a second layer of glue when this was tacky covered the patch with polythene and slipped it inside the tube, when in position I slowly peeled the polythene back putting pressure from the underside of the deflated tube.

I re inflated the tube and it was fine. Then I covered the outside of the tube as mentioned in my earlier post. as long as you sand it back well the repair shouldn't show through the recovered tube.

I forgot to mention earlier When covering the tubes I deflated them till I could get about 2 inches of deflection when i pushed them and then after sticking the fabric down I would allow a minute or so and the re-inflate to max pressure to pull the material tight

We had a lot of work to do on the boat this winter, sounds like we have even more fun, reading over all of that :-)

I found the little surface prep disks work great to clean up hypalon. The disks are like the scotch brite pads. The nylon scour pads. Something like this. https://www.ebay.com/itm/49-Norton-55...item4d02973b6b

I found they could clear off old glue and fabric bits quite quickly and with a lot of control. I ran them on my air powered 90 degree die grinder. They do come in various levels of grit and I don't know what mine were but they were blue.

Jason