Splicing shrinkwrap

D

danielcooper9

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I have been shrinkwrapping my own boat for the last 4 years and have several large sections of left over wrap. Is there a good way to splice a couple of these together rather than continuing to strip off a continuous section from a new roll and if so how would you do it? I though about melting the two together by overlapping them on the ground and heating the overlap up then put it up on the boat or maybe shrink taping both edges and then melting the overlap? Thought maybe there were some professionals out there that might offer some advice. By the way I have a 26 ft cruiser with radar arch.
Dan
 
I help a guy with a big Silverton CMY and he splices in a piece on one side every year. We just overlap (while on the boat) heat it up and pat it to meld it together.

Good luck
Niles
 
I have done this as well for smaller sections but the kind of splice I would have to make on my boat, based on the size of remnants that I have would be about midship (like around the radar arch or a bit towards the bow). I would have nothing behind it to "pad" it against after I heated it nor could I reach the top center unless I found a way to do that from the inside. But again I wouldn't have anything to pad it against.
 
The key is to secure the wrap before you actually bond it to itself. In order to do this, use 4" shrink tape on the entire seam. Then apply heat and pat in order to adhere the materials together. If you don't use the tape, the material just shrinks up and you don't get the proper adhesion.
 
DL2525 has the right idea.

And it does have to be done on the boat, not one the ground, unless you have a very clean area to work in. The dirt on the shrinkwrap will make it tough to weld it to itself. Some times it is not worth the fight.

I do sometimes splice a couple of feet to make a short roll work, but to splice several pieces together is a lot of work.
 
I spot weld the two sections together then cover the seam with the 6" wide tape. There is a tpye of tape for this that has a better adhesive.
 
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