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 How to temporarily seal cracked fiberglass? 
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I'm getting another total knee replacement in a little over two weeks. I've got a couple of cracks in the coach roof of my sailboat (stupid mistake on my part, but I'm not going to have time to fix it before surgery). I need to seal both of them to stop water ingress over the winter (I'm getting seepage leaking through into the cabin and dripping out one of my light fixtures). I'm looking for ideas on how best to seal it for the winter that won't be a PITA to remove when I'm able to work on the boat again in a few months. One crack has been repaired and the repair has cracked, maybe about 8" long. The other crack is about 1-1/2-2' forward of that, and only about 2" long or so.

My ideas:

Clear or regular black Gorilla tape? This seems the easiest route, just not sure of the clean up in the spring, maybe it'll come off with acetone or something?

Pieces of plastic laid down with butyl tape? I like this because I know the tape is relatively easy to work with, and I'm thinking a gallon milk carton for the plastic pieces.

Tarp over the area? Both cracks are within about 2' of each other. However the mast is right there, so not so easy to get the tarp over everything without leaks.

Ideas?

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Thu Oct 05, 2017 6:53 am
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Gorilla tape should hold well, and it does a pretty good job of sealing. I've used it on small cracks on my boat before. I still have white duct tape on the sidewalls of my Livingston dinghy that has been there for 2 summers now. Still holding as well as it did when I applied it. Your cracks sound small enough that it won't take too much time to clean off the adhesive residue later. If they were really long, I might reconsider, but they are short. I like to use 90% isopropyl alcohol to clean up instead of acetone, but they'll both work.


Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:20 am
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Gorilla tape is moving up as my method of choice I think. Anyone else have another idea that'll be easy?

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Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:27 am
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you can use a mastic, like a roofing compound, but that is not going to be an easy clean up. At least not compared to residue from tape. I'd vote Gorilla as well. If you want to get anal about it, you can lay a good bead of silicone down as well, but once that stuff sets, it sets.


Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:35 am
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Gaffer tape will work, and not leave residue, use it to tape down your plastic "patch".


Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:37 am
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Massivedesign wrote:
you can use a mastic, like a roofing compound, but that is not going to be an easy clean up. At least not compared to residue from tape. I'd vote Gorilla as well. If you want to get anal about it, you can lay a good bead of silicone down as well, but once that stuff sets, it sets.

Yeah, been there with silicone, what a PITA to clean up, especially out of non-skid. Nix on mastic, super PITA to clean up.

quantsuff wrote:
Gaffer tape will work, and not leave residue, use it to tape down your plastic "patch".

I've heard the term, but what is Gaffer tape? (I can Google it later).

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Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:52 am
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Gaffers tape won't hold up very well with long exposure to weather. I assume this temporary patch will wait until spring to be repaired, so you want something that will last in weather. Another option that I thought of when the QS mentioned Gaffer is HULL Tape which is a thick poly waterproof membrane that will adhere to about anything. It's expensive though. You could probably use 10x layers of gorilla and still be cheaper than applying Hull tape.


Thu Oct 05, 2017 9:10 am
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Gaffer tape should last a few months, if not, reapply, the main advantage is no residue to clean up. It is more expensive than gorilla tape. Movie crews use them all the time outdoors, though usually not for months.


Thu Oct 05, 2017 9:26 am
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A couple bumper stickers. Remove them with a heat gun and clean up with solvent of your choice.


Thu Oct 05, 2017 9:32 am
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Old Growth wrote:
A couple bumper stickers. Remove them with a heat gun and clean up with solvent of your choice.


That's not a bad idea!

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Thu Oct 05, 2017 10:29 am
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I've had good luck using flex seal for small holes and leaks.

Or maybe flex tape.

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Thu Oct 05, 2017 11:30 am
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I wonder if you went by a vinyl sign shop if they would give you a scrap of sticky back vinyl to put on it?

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Thu Oct 05, 2017 4:45 pm
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RocketScott wrote:
I wonder if you went by a vinyl sign shop if they would give you a scrap of sticky back vinyl to put on it?


That's a good idea too! I think there's a sign shop not too far from my shop.

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Thu Oct 05, 2017 5:33 pm
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Leak seal, like the guy on tv that put it on his boat.


Tue Oct 10, 2017 7:28 pm
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Eternabond for the win. Duck tape and Gorilla tape will not work for long. This will last for years.
https://www.eternabond.com/RV-Leak-Repa ... s-s/22.htm

Eternabond roof seal is your ticket.
http://www.eternabond.com/RoofSeal-p/rv-rs.htm

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Tue Oct 10, 2017 7:41 pm
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