Attaching Rubber Fender List To Side Of Solar Cell Driven Catamaran

[ChristianG]

Hi guys.
My name is Christian and I am from Copenhagen in Denmark.

This is my first post in this forum.

I am working on a 15 square meter solar cell driven Catamaran and are now about to assemble the 2 pontoons to the bottom plate that are connecting the two pontoons.

The bottom plate is a 40 mm thick sandwich construction with XPS foam in the middle and 1.4 mm glassfiber on each side of the XPS foam.

I am doing all the work myself and it went quite well - untill today.

Now I desperately need the help from your community.

I made a test where I glued a 50 mm high D-shaped fender list on a 40 mm test glassfiber mock up, with Sika 591, at let it dry for 1 week - See screencapture from 3D model below.

It was highly recommended in several forums for gluing rubber on glassfiber, so I expected, that my small test would show, that everything would work perfect.

BIG BUMMER!!!

The Sika 591 stuck perfectly to the glassfiber, but I could peel off the rubber from the Sika 591 with only a force of about 200 grams!!

The rubber is something, that is a little "foamy" with a thicness of about 6mm and because it has been rolled up for many years, she straight part of the D profile is convex with about 5 mm as well - meaning, it is impossible to press the D-profile in against the side of the bottomplate.

So there is many issues here,
I COULD plug the ends of the D-profile and fill it with a little air while it is glued in place in order to make the D-profile straight again.

Questions:

1. What would you do in my situation?
2. Can you recommend a glue, that can stick on rubber and work for at least 25 years? some 3M product
3. I work with epoxy for all the glassfiber work I do on the boat. Is the solution as simple as using wpoxy and filler?
4. Do you recommend using the tedious and annoying work to place a LOT of threaded nuts and attach the fender list with bolts?

In the hope to get to learn from your experience,

Christian

 

[flashback]

Try a contact cement like weld wood. Guessing there is an oil in the rubber that the sika doesn't like.

 

[flashback]

By the way your asking a lot of the glue at 25 years.. most of the rub rail I've seen fits into a plastic or aluminum channel and the rubber shrinks a lot in 25 years...

 

[kcassells]

Put up some pics.

 

[ChristianG]

 

[ChristianG]

Put up some pics.

Done

 

[ChristianG]

By the way your asking a lot of the glue at 25 years.. most of the rub rail I've seen fits into a plastic or aluminum channel and the rubber shrinks a lot in 25 years...

Thanks, Flashback.
Maybe. I will test with epoxy, I guess.

 

[kcassells]

So I'm going to ask a question,
How did you prep the surfaces prior to trying to make adhesion?
On another note I have no clue what you are trying to accomplish. Your scope, pics, overall concepts are lost on me.
Nobody is going to warrant 25 year install. 3m has great products and you need to research heavily in regards to adhesions, primer and applications. They have an online chat which I have used and they are right on the money with replies. I used their product to adhere plexiglass windows on my boat.
PREP is everything.

 

[flashback]

Thanks, Flashback.
Maybe. I will test with epoxy, I guess.

As kcassells mentioned, 3M makes some good stuff for automobile trim. I think the trim on my old truck is put on with double sided tape and it's 22 years old and still sticking...

 

[Scott Danforth]

I would put on a rub rail and rub rail insert.

Take a look at TACO marine

 

[ChristianG]

So I'm going to ask a question,
How did you prep the surfaces prior to trying to make adhesion?
On another note I have no clue what you are trying to accomplish. Your scope, pics, overall concepts are lost on me.
Nobody is going to warrant 25 year install. 3m has great products and you need to research heavily in regards to adhesions, primer and applications. They have an online chat which I have used and they are right on the money with replies. I used their product to adhere plexiglass windows on my boat.
PREP is everything.

 

[ChristianG]

Hi kcassells.
I am sure I can prep it better. I simply dried it of, as I believed it would stick relatively strong because of all the parise I heard.
I will give it another try and test it together with at least epoxy, maybe also some 3M stuff, and this time I will wipe off the rubber fender list with acetone and then grind it with coarse sand paper.
Thanks for reminding me on the prep

 

[kcassells]

Hi kcassells.
I am sure I can prep it better. I simply dried it of, as I believed it would stick relatively strong because of all the parise I heard.
I will give it another try and test it together with at least epoxy, maybe also some 3M stuff, and this time I will wipe off the rubber fender list with acetone and then grind it with coarse sand paper.
Thanks for reminding me on the prep

Cool, let us know how you make out. Your prep is right on the money.

 

[ChristianG]

Cool, let us know how you make out. Your prep is right on the money.

On my way. I have cut of a sample and will try to pump the profile up in the hope, that it will staighten up after many years on storage as a coil. Then I can better sand it and perform several glue tests at once. Now waiting for the epoxy to dry.

 

[briangcc]

Nothing to lose.

But if its been coiled up that long, chances are good it has a "memory" which you're not going to totally remove without some extreme measures.

 

[Scott Danforth]

1. What would you do in my situation?

4. Do you recommend using the tedious and annoying work to place a LOT of threaded nuts and attach the fender list with bolts?

I would buy rub rail extrusion, screw it in place, then install the rub rail insert