Finished Business
Well-Known Member
Lordco carries the Sikaflex and claims its the same product at half the cost. Is it? or is the 5200 far superior?....
Sikaflex or 3M 5200
- Thread starter Finished Business
- Start date
Sculpin
Well-Known Member
There both good. If you going to end up using a lot of it then save some money and go with the Sika.
Finished Business
Well-Known Member
cool thanks John.
Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
If there's "flex" in Sikaflex, my experience with 5200 is there ain't none in that stuff
salmonkiller01
Well-Known Member
5200 for a permanent adhesion, pulled gelcoat off my boat taking the pod off.
Secretpursuit
Member
Had a major amount of 5200 to remove, search the net for a product called debond. It releases and removes the 5200 as claimed, bought mine from the us online. Amazing stuff.
Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
That is a hot tip, Secret--- When I sold my old boat, I had to give up a $ 150 "wetbox" for an M260 Airmar transducer ( glued to the floor with 5200). Wish I'd known about debond back then.
I'd always thought that marine parts glued in place with 5200 were subsequently renamed "leverites", as in, "leave her right there".
I'd always thought that marine parts glued in place with 5200 were subsequently renamed "leverites", as in, "leave her right there".
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Finished Business
Well-Known Member
just a note....i am using the sikaflex for waterproofing/sealing joints....not really using it as an adhesive, but for the parts I do need to glue down, sounds like theres no compromise when it comes to 5200.
trendsetter
Active Member
5200 is great stuff. Nothing is better for permanent adhesion and sealing on a boat. But the key word is permanent. You can also use the 3m 4200 fast cure for sealing or gluing down items that will be removed at some point in the future. For sealing on things like sonar transducers or other removable hardware I use 4200.
Another thing to note is that 5200 adheres to wood and fiberglass with a much stronger bond then aluminum. So if you have a joint that is wood or glass glued to aluminum and you need to separate it the 5200 will let go of the metal first. That makes it a bit easier to remove on tin boats.
Finished Business
Well-Known Member
is there away to increase the bond strength on an alloy boat? Scuff the surface a bit?
trendsetter
Active Member
Yeah, if you scuff the surface then you increase the bonding area so that should help. regardless, it still makes a strong bond. A few years ago I was buying an outboard and had to remove it from the back of the guys boat. He had applied tons of 5200 on the bracket to seal around the mounting bolts to the transom. After removing the bolts three men pulling up on the leg of the motor couldn't break the seal. The outboard bracket was aluminum and it was bonded to the fiberglass so it's a strong seal!
We used putty knives and a hammer to slice through the 5200 and remove it.
We used putty knives and a hammer to slice through the 5200 and remove it.
ComfortZone
Member
5200 is good stuff, especially since I know you will be glueing down some bilge pumps...sikaflex is good too used it to adhear/seal my front cabin windows worked well...it seems 5200 has a better rep for permanent adhesion and sealing, and sikaflex has a good rep for adhesion in situations where there will be flex/expanding and contracting....I think 5200 will better suit this part of the project
Guys, 5200 and Sikaflex are darn good sealants. 5200 dries with a bit more gloss, but neither one of them are very "flexible" after a year. As far as removal, they are permanent. IF you are waterproofing things like stanchions, or cleats, do NOT over look good ol' Butyl tape. That crap will flex for years, if you have a good mechanical fastening, just squish some butyle tape in there from an RV place (Not underwater, but topside is ok), and you are good. It will never harden. Cleats and things that have a lot of stress on them will benefit, because it will move a little, 5200 is strong, but usually it will just pull the oxide off of the topside layer up a bit and leak in a while.
I have 5200 all over my 26 footer, which at 4 years of me having it, has needed some fittings re-bedded. I darn near damaged the fittings removing them. but when I did, I could see small channels where water had come in because of the 5200 not moving, and the surface it was affixed to moving a little. Try the Butyl.
As far as aluminium, you could go all out acid etching and such, but I imagine if you hit it with a flap wheel and then 5200, you would be fine. My 225 Yamaha took a nudge with a prybar to get it off of the pod after the bolts were pounded out, and the pod was nice and grey when I glued 'er on there.
5200 is tough stuff, I recently ran across a saying on the web somewhere, at a boat yard, two things get cursed at the most.
1) The Trav-L-Lift Operator
2) 3M 5200/Sikaflex.
I have 5200 all over my 26 footer, which at 4 years of me having it, has needed some fittings re-bedded. I darn near damaged the fittings removing them. but when I did, I could see small channels where water had come in because of the 5200 not moving, and the surface it was affixed to moving a little. Try the Butyl.
As far as aluminium, you could go all out acid etching and such, but I imagine if you hit it with a flap wheel and then 5200, you would be fine. My 225 Yamaha took a nudge with a prybar to get it off of the pod after the bolts were pounded out, and the pod was nice and grey when I glued 'er on there.
5200 is tough stuff, I recently ran across a saying on the web somewhere, at a boat yard, two things get cursed at the most.
1) The Trav-L-Lift Operator
2) 3M 5200/Sikaflex.
