hey guys well first off i bought a pelican 9' fishing boat off of a friend for 50 bucks a couple weeks ago and i wasnt expecting much since i got it for cheap, but he told me before there was a small crack in one of the corners but he had put patched it up with silicon or something. Well after a couple of uses and sliding it down rocks and dragging it across falling trees the silicon has came off. I went to empty the boat this weekend and there was at least 2 gallons of water having to be drained.

So my question is. whats the best way to repair this? Put silicon over it like he did but have a chance for it to come off and just be more careful, or is there a way to permanently fix the crack.

Thanks!

I would get some glass and resin at walmart and patch it up for good, doesn,t have to look good just seat it  good maybe a picture would help

A fiberglass patch is the obvious answer but are you sure it is a fiberglass boat??

I was under the impression that Pelican only made plastic boats.

if its plastic would PVC glue work?

Clean the area put the clear primer on not the purple then add a heavy dose of glue

I have used 3M 5200 on my plastic boat with much success.

1.  a picture is worth a thousand words.

2.  is it plastic or fiberglass?

3.  unles its PVC i doubt PVC glue would work.  even if it is PVC Idoubt PVC glue would work.

4.  3M product work realy good.

your right, the more I think about it PVC glu would be to brittle. You would need something that would flex

well the guy said it was fiberglass, but i thought before they were plastic. I dont have a picture but heres a link to what it looks like kind of. Mines probably 10+ years old though.

http://www.pelicansport.com/gator.html

That looks plastic,  go get some Duct tape!

RAMX is plastic.  A fiberglass patch won't work on that, you need a plastic repair kit.

first thing you need to do it so stop drill the crack or it will just keep on growing.  Take a 3/16" drill bit or so and drill a hole at both ends of the crack, it should look like this    O------------O.  I would then sand it well,make sure it is clean and cover it with some sort of plastic-compatible and flexible epoxy.  If that ended up breaking off I would make a little aluminum repair patch for it and rivet in in place.

That looks plastic, go get some Duct tape!

I second that motion

Here is a link that walks you through John Whaleys duct tape welding technique

http://oregonkayaking.net/how_to/boat_repair.html

They sell those pelican boats at academy and they are plastice also take a sharp knife and shave a thin slice off the bottom not very thick just enough to tell if it is plastic I am 99.9% sure it is plastic.

Yes that boat is a type of plastic.

Drill the holes at the ends of the crack.

That duct tape repair will hold for a longer than expected time.  I have done extensive surfboard repairs with duct tape and some last for 2 years, but I am not dragging my board across rocks.

The 3M 5200 marine stuff will last longer and flex with the hull.  

If your patching material doesn't flex it will crack.

would 3M marine adhesive sealant work?

I don't know the exact material of your pelican, but I got a green coleman canoe givin to me a while ago that was cracked. The material was that RAMX stuff, HDPE (high density polypropylene). Nothing sticks to it. I had a friend that has a plastic welder so we welded it together with some HDPE strips. Pretty easy to do once you have the plastic welder and tube feeder. The canoe has been through some stuff since and hasn't failed yet. I would suggest that you weld it back together, cause I tried everything before eventually welding it.

I know it sounds silly, but you could take it to a decent auto-body shop.  There are plenty of techniques for repairing cracked plastic bumper covers.  I'm sure a body shop could do it, cheap.   (Heck, if they make money painting appliances, fixing a plastic boat isn't so far fetched.)