Whale tail rubber repair

[Dug89]

Anyone have a trick way to repair whale tail rubber. Mine has pulled away due to the inner metal core rusting away, taking the screw fasters with it.

Is there a way to glue in new fasters? Any recommended glue to use? I imagine there must be a Werth product for that.

Thanks in advance. Doug 84 911 ROW

[Zendalar]

I removed the whale tail rubber and dried the inners with compressed air. There was plenty of water/crap inside. After that I removed some of the metal parts from inside (had to use knife to remove some rubber).

Then I cleaned all the parts from rust with this sanding machine and painted the parts with rust inhibiting paint. Put some SikaFlex (silicone based glue) in the rubber and pressed the metal parts back in place. I also used these clamping thingies to keep the metal parts in place until the SikaFlex was dry. This also helped to reform the shape of the rubber back to original.

After the metal pieces were in place and the glue dry, I used a knife and sanding machine to make the edge even. Voila, done. Remember to use black SikaFlex, I used white, and I can see some white spots in there if I look closely.

Today if I am gonna get black SikaFlex I will tape the edges of both the glassfiber and the rubber and spread black SikaFlex with my finger to make the crack air/watertight.

Just remember to get out all the rust and crap from inside the rubber, I used a screwdriver and compressed air to get those away.

//Zen

[This message has been edited by Zendalar (edited 09-19-2001).]