: Interesting.

: Last night I met a local kayak builder at the pool session. He had
: his Petrel with him this night. I asked him how he fastened his
: KayakSport hatches to his Petrel. He set them in a bed of
: thickened epoxy. Strong. Tight. No problems. I mentioned my
: quandary and he wondered why I was a bit hesitant about using
: the epoxy. I explained that at some point I may need to replace
: the rim. His response was that if you need to replace the rim
: (which he thought was unlikely) simply cut out the existing rim
: and plywood base, and replace the whole lot. In actuality, this
: would not be a big deal.

: The reason I ask about the viscosity of 3M 5200 was because I'd
: like to set the rim in a bed of adhesive that would settle out
: nice and smooth so that I could paint it the same colour as the
: deck. One consideration, of course, with epxoying the rims is
: that you need to rough the underside of the rim so that the
: epoxy will adhere to the plastic. I'd do this but I also have
: some G-FLex that might work well here.

: I would've simply used the bolt and seal if I had not've seen a
: plastic valley boat in a local outfitting shop that had the rims
: fastened without bolts. That set me to thinking . . .

Well...using 3M's 5200 is very similiar to using epoxy, it's permanant. It will though seal it without leaks and is more flexible than conventional epoxy. G-flex might be a good solution, should work fine, specially if you've already got it :)

Bill H.