[Richard]

I want to tell you about my bay door skin reglue project this week. First, several of the doors were loose enough that I could remove the skin from the frame. I scraped off the old adhesive tape with a wall paper scraper and caulk remover (goof off). It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

I used G Flex from West Marine. I didn't use clamps. What I did do was lay the frame on a flat table, I put on the epoxy, and then the skin. I simply filled five gallon buckets with water to get the skin to lay flat against the frame.

What I really want to tell you about is my goofy mistake, with hopefully a great long term outcome.

On one of the doors, I only noticed a small gap at one corner, so I filled a syringe with the G flex and squirted it into the gap. Applied some pressure and let it cure overnight. A couple of days later, the other corner of the same door has now pulled loose. I suppose tightening one corner put pressure on the other. Well OK I thought, don't patch it again. Pull the skin off, and do it right. I could get all the tape loose but I COULD NOT get the three inches where I used the epoxy loose. Not hammers, not wedges, not exorcisms would get that corner to budge.

I hope I don't ever have to replace the skins where I used the epoxy.

I have played with some good stuff over the years, I was in the carbon fiber business for 7 years and had access to the really high end resins. But that G flex is the toughest epoxy that I have ever used.