''PVC Skinning Procedure by Hendrik Maroske''

PVC Skinning Procedure (HHM)

Making these end pieces helps a lot in acquiring the skills to work with PVC. Throw away a piece if you are not satisfied. The next one will come together a lot quicker.

Having made a pair of useful end pieces, the large skin panels are glued over the end pieces, and when all the skin is done I add a nice looking finishing layer over the end pieces, smooting out the curvature and hiding all the seams, glued patches and the rugged connection between skin and end piece.

After having made the skin, I rip out the innermost PVC layer of the end pieces, thereby ensuring that the stem and stern will always slide into them without too much trouble. So, the very first PVC layer for these pieces is attached only very temporarily, with double sided tape or masking tape.

Do your PVC skins have a seperate panel for each Keel to chine, Chine to gunwale, and gunwale to deckridge, or are you able to cover greater areas at once?

Greater areas simplify nothing. They make things more complicated, and if something goes wrong, you'll have to throw away more skin. My boats have fairly high gunwales, more like 'planks'. The sequence is like this ( I began inside-out, here's a sketch, but that is not absolutely necessary):

preparation: skin the stem, stern and cockpit areas

tape two keel pieces onto the frame (inside-out)

sew two middle pieces onto the frame inside-out

glue the middle pieces to the keel pieces (inside-out)

sew the keel pieces together (inside-out)

cut the keel seam flush and turn the skin around (hope it's symmetric!)

cover the keel seam with a rub strip

glue the gunwale pieces on

slightly weld PVC strips with heat gun over seams

rip strips off, glue them on

sew one single deck piece from gunwale to gunwale, stretching it slightly, starting from the ends, working to the cockpit, one piece in front, one aft of the cockpit, temporarily holding the skin with tape and seams

glue them on, removing temporary seams and tape

remove frame out of skin

cover seams inside skin with rub strips

important: _NO_ glue area wider than 3/4 inch! not less than 1/2 inch either! wide areas tend to disintegrate easier, yielding very stiff joints.

My glue is the German "Pattex Transparent", thinned with Acetone. You might want to ask my brother Gerald, who is a chemistry professional, what the american equivalent is.

In my first attempts, I also have put rub strips inside the skin; this is not so good, since skin folds less easy, is more heavy and tends to develop folds. Also I simply cannot glue well on the frame from the inside.