Hi all,
Just skinned my first SOF kayak with Spirit Line's 840 Original nylon. I followed the excellent video posted by Cape Falcon kayaks and laced up the skin with fine nylon twine to bring the skin to tension, and then finished the seam with unwaxed dental floss using a whip stitch.
Trouble came when I tried to shrink the skin a bit. I misted down the deck (maybe too much- very damp but not dripping wet) and the fabric went limp quickly. The tension in the lacing created a bunch of puckers in the deck skin. I assumed that these would “steam out” (I used an iron) but to no avail- the deck skin looks substantially worse than before the shrinking fiasco. I didn’t want to overdo the ironing- I stopped when it was dry.
I’ll be using Spirit Line’s 2-part urethane and it seems like it’ll be a real bear to use with this lumpy ripply deck. I’m thinking of removing the original lacing that’s causing much of the rippling- in theory it’s done its duty- and having another go with the iron to smooth things out. While it wasn't recommended to sew this fabric wet, I'm wondering too if I should mist things down and take another pass at the seem to take up a little more slack before ironing?
Any words of warning/encouragement?
Thanks,
Patrick