{"id":18391,"date":"2015-08-10T22:28:27","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T21:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unsponsored.co.uk\/press\/?p=18391"},"modified":"2019-03-28T22:24:50","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T22:24:50","slug":"spray-skirt-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unsponsored.co.uk\/press\/spray-skirt-rescue\/","title":{"rendered":"Spray Skirt Rescue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Spray skirts\/decks have a pretty tough life but do an incredibly important job. I’d been on the look out for a spray skirt to rescue from an inevitable trip to the bin and found one close to home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unsponsored’s little brother River (Militia) has a Palm Kevlar RT rand deck that has seen better days. I had offered to repair it for this post without seeing the total extent of the damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fairness the skirt should have been consigned to the bin years ago or at least set on fire and given a grand send off. However the skirt was in such a bad state that it made the perfect subject for this post as most types of repair were required to bring it back to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"unsponsored_Neoprene_Repair<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To put the repair into context most joints on the skirt were compromised and in other areas the skirt had separated from the rand. In two key places the kevlar\/neoprene had worn out\/through and large holes had appeared. Even the top part of the tunnel had separated from the skirt and was also torn in a couple of places. All in all it was in a sorry state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"unsponsored_Neoprene_Repair<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The rand itself was intact and therefore meant that the repair of the skirt was going to be time consuming yet fairly simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To carry out the repairs I used a proven neoprene glue<\/a>, namely Black Witch<\/a>. It is great stuff that I have used before to carry out much smaller repairs. The glue is available as a kit with Black Witch and a series of patches<\/a>, or as a single Black Witch<\/a> tube. The glue has some stretch when set so will work with the material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cuts and Joins:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where the joins had been compromised or little cuts could be seen I stretched the neoprene out from the inside with my hands and covered the area with Black witch glue<\/a>. I used a pen nib to get the glue right into the critical corner areas. The glued parts need to be kept apart for around 2 minutes. Once the time was up the stretch was released and the bonding took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A collection of before and after shots can be seen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n