Contact   Imprint   Advertising   Guidelines

Tips and Tricks to Repair Kites - add your experience!

Here you can exchange your experience and datas about your home build boards
toddsphresh
Medium Poster
Posts: 187
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 2:54 am
Local Beach: folly beach
Gear: Flex Ion Two, Naish Torch , Slingshot Octane
Omega board
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 2 times

Re: Tips and Tricks to Repair Kites - add your experience!

Postby toddsphresh » Sat Jul 07, 2018 3:38 am

just wanted to share my latest valve repair success. i fly older 2008 flexifoil ion 3s. as you probably know the valves all needed to be replaced again. my 14.5 needed all new strut valves as well as le valves all the way around. Replacement valves are super expensive at around 15$ a piece times i would need 13 of them so around 200$ and this is assuming i get them all to take. i decided to try and make some newish 2013 new slingshot valves as they have entire strut sets available for 7$ on their website as well as le sets for the same price. i ordered one set of 13 m fuels struts and an le set as well. when i got them they looked like they would not fit as they are curved and skinnier than mine. they ended up expanding perfectly in all of my smaller struts buy my main middle strut they were too small for so i took the end of the le bladder and made a strut by simply tying a knot on one side if the last valve as well as on the the end of it and it worked flawlessly. For the other valves on the le bladder i just cut them off off the fuel le bladder and aquasealed them onto my le bladder. Now my kite holds air perfectly all for a total cost of 20$. just wanted to share this with anyone in a similar situation that has a solid older kite that just needs new valves but does not want to pay 150 + dollars to replace them on a kite thats barely worth 200$ but you still love it.
Attachments
20180706_223241.jpg
20180706_223228.jpg

NorthernKitesAus
Rare Poster
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2015 4:47 am
Local Beach: Altona Beach, Melbourne
Pallarenda Beach, Townsville
Favorite Beaches: Altona Beach
Torquay
Bells
Winki Pop
Bushland Beach
Pallarenda & The Strand
Cocos Islands
Fiji
Bali
Style: Freestyle
Gear: Flysurfer Speed3 dlx 15m
PANSH Aurora 12m
Naish SLE Boxer 15m
RRD Type 9 12m
Peter Lynn WF 5.6m
Fluid ATV 10m
Slingshot 9m
Slingshot Fluid 13m
Naish Boxer 12m
GlobeKites 12m
Naish Cult 13.5m
Naish Helix 12m

MBS Core 95
6'2" thruster
9'2" "The Gill" (1963) malibu board
9'2" "Waterman" Merricks Longboard (2003)
Brand Affiliation: Peter Lynn
Location: Townsville, Australia
Has thanked: 9 times
Been thanked: 1 time
Contact:

Re: Tips and Tricks to Repair Kites - add your experience!

Postby NorthernKitesAus » Fri Sep 07, 2018 2:08 am

I don't understand what you did exactly. Did you source cheap valves and glued them on, or new bladders with valves attached, or?

NorthernKitesAus
Rare Poster
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Nov 28, 2015 4:47 am
Local Beach: Altona Beach, Melbourne
Pallarenda Beach, Townsville
Favorite Beaches: Altona Beach
Torquay
Bells
Winki Pop
Bushland Beach
Pallarenda & The Strand
Cocos Islands
Fiji
Bali
Style: Freestyle
Gear: Flysurfer Speed3 dlx 15m
PANSH Aurora 12m
Naish SLE Boxer 15m
RRD Type 9 12m
Peter Lynn WF 5.6m
Fluid ATV 10m
Slingshot 9m
Slingshot Fluid 13m
Naish Boxer 12m
GlobeKites 12m
Naish Cult 13.5m
Naish Helix 12m

MBS Core 95
6'2" thruster
9'2" "The Gill" (1963) malibu board
9'2" "Waterman" Merricks Longboard (2003)
Brand Affiliation: Peter Lynn
Location: Townsville, Australia
Has thanked: 9 times
Been thanked: 1 time
Contact:

Re: Tips and Tricks to Repair Kites - add your experience!

Postby NorthernKitesAus » Fri Sep 07, 2018 2:13 am

Tear-Aid A is only good for very small pin-holes or small tears. Anything more than 2cm long, and it's time to patch the area with another layer of bladder or a replacement.

User avatar
GregK
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 689
Joined: Sat Jul 24, 2010 6:22 am
Kiting since: 2000
Local Beach: Comox, BC
CANADA
Style: Average
Gear: Lift V2 Surf & HA wingsets
Ocean Rodeo kites & wings
Brand Affiliation: started Comox Kite Repair
Location: Comox, BC CANADA
Has thanked: 54 times
Been thanked: 136 times

Re: Tips and Tricks to Repair Kites - add your experience!

Postby GregK » Tue Sep 11, 2018 9:26 pm

NorthernKitesAus wrote:
Fri Sep 07, 2018 2:13 am
Tear-Aid A only good for very small pin-holes or tears. Anything more than 2cm long, and time to patch with ...
TearAid and with an inner layer of thin ( 40 micron ) bladder film behind the cut-out. Have done many TearAid repairs this way, some quite large.

Image

LE bladder from a 9m LF Envy, blow-out was about 14 inches long and 3 inches wide. Repair was done in the summer of 2015 ; haven't heard anything back, so assume it's holding fine.

Faxie
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1467
Joined: Tue Jun 19, 2012 10:39 pm
Local Beach: Netherlands. Maasvlakte, Slufter, Domburg, Brouwersdam, Ouddorp, Vrouwenpolder, Grevelingen.
Style: Freeride, freestyle, wave.
Gear: Crazyfly Hyper 2022 7-9-12, Infinity 2021 9, Raptor Extreme 2020, selfmade bar.
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 120 times
Been thanked: 127 times

Re: Tips and Tricks to Repair Kites - add your experience!

Postby Faxie » Sun Sep 16, 2018 9:26 pm

Had a small onestrutvalve leak, probably from a hot car, turns out the air is leaking between the round patch and the plastic base of the connector. Cleaned it up and put some Aquaseal over the edge on the outside and spread it out to get some more coverage. Any one experience with this? Will it hold? Was a tiny leak.

Or is there a big chance that I have to eventually get the round patch off and seal it from the inside? ....

sarc
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1627
Joined: Sun Jun 11, 2006 4:01 am
Has thanked: 37 times
Been thanked: 133 times

Re: Tips and Tricks to Repair Kites - add your experience!

Postby sarc » Mon Nov 12, 2018 8:06 am

Faxie wrote:
Sun Sep 16, 2018 9:26 pm
Had a small onestrutvalve leak, probably from a hot car, turns out the air is leaking between the round patch and the plastic base of the connector. Cleaned it up and put some Aquaseal over the edge on the outside and spread it out to get some more coverage. Any one experience with this? Will it hold? Was a tiny leak.

Or is there a big chance that I have to eventually get the round patch off and seal it from the inside? ....
If you used aquaseal properly, the repair should last a VERY VERY long time.

Faxie
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1467
Joined: Tue Jun 19, 2012 10:39 pm
Local Beach: Netherlands. Maasvlakte, Slufter, Domburg, Brouwersdam, Ouddorp, Vrouwenpolder, Grevelingen.
Style: Freeride, freestyle, wave.
Gear: Crazyfly Hyper 2022 7-9-12, Infinity 2021 9, Raptor Extreme 2020, selfmade bar.
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 120 times
Been thanked: 127 times

Re: Tips and Tricks to Repair Kites - add your experience!

Postby Faxie » Mon Nov 12, 2018 4:18 pm

sarc wrote:
Mon Nov 12, 2018 8:06 am
Faxie wrote:
Sun Sep 16, 2018 9:26 pm
Had a small onestrutvalve leak, probably from a hot car, turns out the air is leaking between the round patch and the plastic base of the connector. Cleaned it up and put some Aquaseal over the edge on the outside and spread it out to get some more coverage. Any one experience with this? Will it hold? Was a tiny leak.

Or is there a big chance that I have to eventually get the round patch off and seal it from the inside? ....
If you used aquaseal properly, the repair should last a VERY VERY long time.
Well, I've flown it a few times now, and no problems yet :)

User avatar
kjorn
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 831
Joined: Tue Feb 11, 2003 10:42 am
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: uk
Has thanked: 55 times
Been thanked: 29 times
Contact:

Re: Tips and Tricks to Repair Kites - add your experience!

Postby kjorn » Thu Nov 15, 2018 12:19 am

Guys. Flew my 7m Bandit into a bush - woops!

Took bladder out, found and patched 39 holes. Used many "park tool super patch" over the pin holes.

Test inflate - stayed up for around an hour before getting too soft.

Put bladder in kite, pumped up super hard. Sprayed with soapy water. Counted around 17 more holes. Some of the bubbles were coming out of the seams of the dacron -- so not sure where those holes are.

Should I keep patching?
Do you think the patches are leaking?

Ozone Kites AUS
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 2781
Joined: Sat Mar 16, 2002 1:00 am
Weight: 75kg
Local Beach: Lennox Head, NSW, Australia
Favorite Beaches: There is a reason I live in Lennox Head.
Style: Old Coot. strapped surfboard
Gear: Ozone 6/8/10/12 Reo V7, 10/14 Enduro v4, Zephyr V7, Edge V12 10M, Alpha V2 8/14M, Firewire Vanguard 5'2" and Evo 5'1" and Delta Designs ReVamp 5'9" couple of custom Blacksheep surfboards Mystic Stealth harness and stealth rope slider.
Brand Affiliation: Ozone, AxisFoils, Armstrong, Core, Cabrinha, Slingshot, North
Location: Australia
Has thanked: 8 times
Been thanked: 9 times
Contact:

Re: Tips and Tricks to Repair Kites - add your experience!

Postby Ozone Kites AUS » Thu Dec 27, 2018 11:48 pm

NorthernKitesAus wrote:
Fri Sep 07, 2018 2:13 am
Tear-Aid A is only good for very small pin-holes or small tears. Anything more than 2cm long, and it's time to patch the area with another layer of bladder or a replacement.
Thats not been our experience, nor that of a few kite repairers I know. We patch large blow outs frequently with Tear Aid and it works great and is a permanent repair. Preparation of the damaged bladder is crucial though.

nixmatters
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 957
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 12:38 pm
Kiting since: 2009
Style: freeride. started foiling, not there yet
Gear: mostly custom made
Brand Affiliation: None currently
Has thanked: 362 times
Been thanked: 245 times

Re: Tips and Tricks to Repair Kites - add your experience!

Postby nixmatters » Fri Dec 28, 2018 7:07 am

kjorn wrote:
Thu Nov 15, 2018 12:19 am
Guys. Flew my 7m Bandit into a bush - woops!

...Counted around 17 more holes.
Did you check thoroughly the LE for any thorns and prickles that may be still in the dacron causing new punctures when you inflate it?


Return to “Gear Builders”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 52 guests