: A friend came to me today with a 1 1/2 inch hole and 4 inch gouge in the
: front of his kayak from hitting ice chunks while paddling near tidewater
: glaciers. I have never worked with kevlar. The Kevlar seems intact but
: wrinkled, dented and leaking. The fiberglass over it (that was) is pretty
: smashed and partially gone.

: Can I dry it out, sand and taper the edges, fill in with thickened epoxy, and
: lay fiberglass patching right over it?

: Do I need to do anythig special to the Kevlar to insure a good bond?

: Thanks, Randy

Randy--

I have not had to do a repair on my boat--Knock on wood--but I sheathed it in Kevlar, then fiberglass when I made it. You don't have to do anything special to achieve a good bond on an initial layup, so I don't think you need to do anything special in a repair. The one thing that seems most obvious to improve the bond--sanding--won't be any good; the Kevlar will just fuzz up. There is a fiberglass layer over the Kevlar for precisely that reason. It is used as a sacrificial layer, so the boat can be sanded.

Given this, I think your idea is probably a good one: Remove damaged fiberglass, and sand what you can of the surrounding fiberglass without sanding the Kevlar. Apply a patch to smooth out the dent, using thickened epoxy, or thickened epoxy with scraps or strands of fiberglass added in. Then lay up the top layer of fiberglass and feather it in.

That's my guess, anyway. Others may have more relevant experience they could bring to bear on your question.

Good luck,

Will