How To Repair A Pelican Kayak- A Perfect Tutorial!

Does your Pelican kayak start drowning when you put it in water? Is water getting onto your plastic canoe?

There’s absolutely nothing to worry about if water is getting onto your plastic boat unless you’re kayaking in deep water without a life jacket. However, if you face such issues, bring back your kayak to the land in order to fix the crack.

What Issues Can You Have with Your Pelican Kayak?

Well, Pelican kayaks are highly durable and have features to be comfortable for both professionals and newbies. You can ride these kayaks effortlessly on calm and comparatively smaller water bodies. Not to mention these are strongly built and don’t get cracked easily. However, you must not hop on a Pelican kayak in wild waters.

Since these kayaks don’t get easily damaged, but somehow you managed to fault your kayak, you should be worrying about yourself more than the kayak. And see if you’re injured because the accident must be serious to crack a plastic canoe.

Nonetheless, you can always repair a Pelican Kayak using fiber tapes/ kayak repair tape or self-adhesives and sealing off the crack. Plus, you can also apply heat on your boat and melt the plastic and patch to attach the patch to your canoe.

That is to say, you can repair your kayak plastic any day in no time.

How to Prepare your Pelican Kayak for Repairing?

After you’ve got the necessary materials to repair your Pelican Kayak from a nearby store, it is now time for you to prep the Kayak for the operation. For starters, you have to secure the Polyethylene kayak on a flat solid surface upside down rigidly so that it doesn’t slip.

Since you have to burn the plastic materials of your canoe repairs or to fix it, it’s better to do it in an open place as the black fumes might be toxic for you.

Next, you have to identify the damaged areas of your plastic kayak carefully for plastic kayak repair and so that you don’t have to repeatedly waste time to repair your Pelican Kayak. Assess the entire boat inside out and mark the affected areas with a marker and note them down.

Before starting the process, clean the Pelican Kayak with water thoroughly so that the heating and sealing process can be done effectively. You’re now ready to begin repairing your Pelican Kayak.

How To Repair a Pelican Kayak?

If you’ve got a few cracks or small holes on your plastic canoe or hole in kayak from dragging, no worries! You can effortlessly repair your Pelican Kayak at home by following a few simple guidelines and also learn how to fix a hole in a kayak.

Six simple steps to repair a Pelican Kayak-

Step 1: Sand the Edges and the Patch

Take sandpaper and start sanding the edges of the crack or hole.  Make it even and smooth enough for the heating process. Sand the kayak patch as well for this you can check on kayak patch kits. Then sand the sides of the patch so that it sticks to the plastic of your canoe or kayak.

Step 2: Drill through the Crack Ends

When there’s a crack in your water vehicle, the crack tends to extend further in the plastic. To stop the crack from deteriorating and saving yourself from work, just drill both ends of the crack with a drilling machine to prevent it from cracking further.

Step 3: Heat the Kayak and Patch

At this step, wear your hand gloves. Put on the heat gun or spark the torch. Be careful while doing this part, you might burn your hands. Now take the pliers and hold the patch with them. You can now start applying heat to the patch you’re holding. Keep heating it until it is droopy enough.

Now, for kayak hole repair quickly start heating the cracks or holes on the canoe or kayak until it gets sticky. The plastic on the Pelican Kayak may change color in this process like yellow or white. However, make sure to do this entire process in a rush. You have to have both a hot patch and a hot kayak which are on the verge of melting.

Step 4: Attach the Patch on the Crack or Hole

Now hold the hot patch with your gloves on your hands. And press it against the droopy crack or hole area of the kayak or plastic boat. Your gloves may get a little hot as well. Remember to do this process extremely quickly to have a perfectly attached patch on your Pelican canoe.

You have to keep applying heat to the boat until the sides of the patch turn a different color and start melting. But make sure not to make another hole with the head torch. This method will make the edges of the patch stick around the kayak. It will give a tighter hold of the patch and the plastic boat.

Step 5: Smooth It Out

After attaching adequate heat and melting, it is often found that the patch is in an uneven condition with the surface of the Pelican kayak. To avail a smoother surface, apply heat to a small area of about four square inches on the patch edges and press it against the canoe using the spoon or putty knife. Keep repeating this process until you’re satisfied enough with the smoothness.

However, don’t heat a large area at a time as it cools down quickly and gets hard. Moreover, don’t apply pressure too harshly since it may bend your boat obnoxiously.

Finishing Up

For the final touch, place your Pelican Kayak on some bricks or sawhorses and pour water on the renovated area. If you think your canoe needs to smoothen a little more, you can use the head torch and serve the purpose.

Finally, sand the kayak with sandpaper and give it a professional touch.

Congratulations! You’re done repairing plastic kayak or your Pelican Kayak and all set to kayaking with your rebuilt plastic canoe.

This May Help You

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Hopefully, this article could help you in repairing your favorite kayak, and you’ll be able to hit the water again. Happy kayaking! For more ease, if you don’t want to do this on your own for that situation you can check on kayak repair shop or kayak repair near me by searching.