# Installing uhmw on my 1656 G3



## Fisher88 (Sep 22, 2015)

I've had the boat almost a year now been wanting to put on some uhmw before now but I am just now getting around to it. I have the boat stripped down and flipped on the trailer so I can get started I will post more pics as I get them.


----------



## redrum (Sep 22, 2015)

Are the chines on you boat pressed out of the hull? I'm interested to watch this project. I know a couple people that have done this and have thought about it myself.


----------



## richg99 (Sep 22, 2015)

Guess l don't understand why one would want to do this. What is the expected gain?

richg99


----------



## RiverBottomOutdoors (Sep 23, 2015)

I wish I had it on my G3 1656 CCJ. Can't wait to see how this project goes.


----------



## PSG-1 (Sep 23, 2015)

richg99 said:


> Guess l don't understand why one would want to do this. What is the expected gain?
> 
> richg99




Being able to slide over rocks without worrying about damaging the hull. Added weight may slow it down a few MPH, but at least the hull is protected.


----------



## amk (Sep 23, 2015)

what exactly does uhmw stand for.


----------



## Fisher88 (Sep 23, 2015)

Uhmw stands for Ultra High Molecular Weight polyethylene which is basically an extremely dense and slick plastic. Hoping to do some more work to it tonight if so I will have some pictures to follow.


----------



## Ranchero50 (Sep 23, 2015)

What's the plan of action to install it and what thickness are you going with? Only suggestion I have is to use thin plyboard as templates to see if it'll conform to your hull before cutting up the expensive stuff.

I'd love to do it but I think it would turn out looking like crap on my pressed rib thin hull. I think some of the epoxies will give me better results from a low speed impact.


----------



## amk (Sep 23, 2015)

ok ive always just heard of it as poly. Thanks for the clarification. Should be interesting to see how it turns out ive only seen it on flat bottom air boats.


----------



## Fisher88 (Sep 23, 2015)

Ranchero50 said:


> What's the plan of action to install it and what thickness are you going with? Only suggestion I have is to use thin plyboard as templates to see if it'll conform to your hull before cutting up the expensive stuff.
> 
> I'd love to do it but I think it would turn out looking like crap on my pressed rib thin hull. I think some of the epoxies will give me better results from a low speed impact.



I got some adhesive from a company called Reltek they claim it has been used in some pretty harsh conditions and holds up great I hope they are right as much as it costs. I know that mostly everyone that installs it from the factory bolts it but I can't bring myself to drill holes in my almost new hull. I am going with 3/8" I plan to run that between the ribs and above the water line on the sides. I will be getting a 1" piece as I get closer to finishing and I plan on routing the center out to fit over the ribs and cutting the sides of the strip on an angle so I won't have big square blocks of plastic for ribs in case I am drifting downriver sideways and find a shallow rock hopefully it won't hang as bad.. That's also why I am going up the sides.


----------



## JL8Jeff (Sep 23, 2015)

How close to the tunnel were you planning on running it? I wonder if it will affect the flow if the geometry changes too much.


----------



## Fisher88 (Sep 23, 2015)

JL8Jeff said:


> How close to the tunnel were you planning on running it? I wonder if it will affect the flow if the geometry changes too much.



A friend of mine has a complete flat bottom 1648 he ran the plastic all the way to the tunnel and tapered it flush with the tunnel and did not have any issue with cavitation any worse than before. If anything I'm guessing I won't be able to trim it quite as high while running since technically it is raising my tunnel 3/8".


----------



## Scottinva (Sep 24, 2015)

I would seriously reconsider gluing it. I have 3/8 on my boat and it is screwed. I am not in the know as some are, but the only person I know gluing only in our area is James river Jets and he is only gluing 1/8 or 1/4. I cannot see 3/8 holding up to gluing. I am sure you will have a mess if it starts peeling off. I would talk to some boat builders before venturing too far on that project. They screw them for a reason.....it works.


----------



## PSG-1 (Sep 24, 2015)

Maybe this would be a better option for going over the ribs?




Might save you a lot of router work....


----------



## Fisher88 (Oct 2, 2015)

I have a small update have not been able to work on it as much as I would like. The plastic and the adhesive are in and I have the bottom almost completely stripped to bare metal. The next step for me is get the plastic cut and prepped for adhesive then clean the hull one more time and hope for the best.


----------



## CedarRiverScooter (Oct 3, 2015)

Wow that Relek stuff is pricey!

Are you going to make some coupon samples & pull test the bond before doing the whole boat?

Maybe Reltek can give you a minimum test result that you can look for.


----------



## Fisher88 (Oct 3, 2015)

Reltek claims that it is rated for 350 psi uplift so I'm thinking that will hold plenty well. However I will be testing some first also. I have done about a years worth of research and talked to several different companies they seemed to have the best product I was looking for and the most expensive. I'm hoping its you get what you pay for. Any way I had been looking at some boat manufacturers online and the company with the most videos of them bashing their boats was sjx they glue 1/2" uhmw on and looks to me as if they abuse the boats which I am not planning to do just looking for some added protection. We will see more progress after this weekend hopefully.


----------



## Fisher88 (Oct 7, 2015)

Got a little more done slowly but surely coming around finished stripping the bottom to bare metal and cut the plastic to length.


----------



## Jim (Oct 8, 2015)

Nice!


----------



## redrum (Oct 11, 2015)

Thanks for the updates. I'm glad you decided to glue it. If I ever do this I plan on gluing it as well. I have friends that have plastic on their boats and all of them are bolted. I've heard of a guy taking his plastic off to have a tunnel welded in and he had a ton of sand/silt collected between it and the hull adding weight and basically sandblasting the hull.


----------



## Fisher88 (Oct 11, 2015)

Well I just finished glueing the second piece on both outside strips and got the rib pieces cut getting ready to hit them with the router. So far it looks like it will hold I tried prying the first piece off and it would not budge.


----------



## Jim (Oct 11, 2015)

Awesome thread! Thanks!


----------



## redrum (Oct 12, 2015)

So that triangular shaped piece you are showing. You will use that to link the pieces together to reproduce the chines? Will you be strictly using the adhesive only for those as well? If you don't mind me asking. How much does the adhesive cost?


----------



## Fisher88 (Oct 12, 2015)

Yes I will be routing out the center of the triangular pieces for ribs and using glue only for those as well..I will have 1" of contact on the bottom of that piece plastic to plastic and it fits snug on the rib. I have 3 pieces glued so far.. It is a time consuming process but it seems to be holding very tight we will see after an impact. I got 3 quarts of glue it's a 2 part with a 2:1ratio it was $475 before shipping.. That being said I have roughly $1k in all materials and I would not repeat this process on a used hull for the fact that I had some body work to do. I am also being overly cautious and taking more time than I should to make sure I do it exactly right.


----------



## SPI (Oct 22, 2015)

K-5 Polyurea applied to an aluminum jet boat. Take a look.


----------



## Fisher88 (Oct 22, 2015)

How much did that run and how thick is it?


SPI said:


> K-5 Polyurea applied to an aluminum jet boat. Take a look.


----------



## SPI (Oct 23, 2015)

Over the ribs, around 200 mils and 125 mils on the sides. This 28 ft boat was around $4,000.


----------



## Fisher88 (Oct 23, 2015)

Only thing left is the center rib then I'll be flipping her and getting her wet hopefully this weekend sometime


----------



## Jim (Oct 23, 2015)

Looks awesome!


----------



## riverrat717 (Oct 23, 2015)

How well do you think the epoxy would have done in a vacuum bag? (was it runny or thick) to eliminate air pockets and voids between the hull and the uhmw.
Are they full length (of hull) pieces? Looks great so far!! If I were to uhmw my hull, I'd do the same thing but bag it. Let us know how it turns out!


----------



## amk (Oct 25, 2015)

where did you order yours from. I was thinking of adding maybe some 1/8 inch due to oysters where I run.


----------



## Fisher88 (Oct 29, 2015)

Bottom is done flipped back over on the trailer so glad to have only the easy part left


----------



## Jim (Oct 30, 2015)

Whats next and when is the first test ride?


----------



## PSG-1 (Dec 6, 2015)

SPI said:


> K-5 Polyurea applied to an aluminum jet boat. Take a look.



I think that's similar to Line-X, isn't it?

My boat was done with the Line-X 350, which is a mil-spec grade. It was sprayed about 125 mils thick.




Although this gives it quite a bit of protection from corrosion and abrasion, I would not trust it against a rock strike. At some point, I might experiment with some 1/4" UHMW and see if I can get it to bond to the Line-X. If it will, I may end up doing my bottom with UHMW, for ultimate protection.


----------



## Fisher88 (Dec 28, 2015)

I haven't posted since I've tried the boat out but I've had her out about 5 times. The plastic doesn't seem to have affected the performance at all and I have smashed one rock running down stream. The overall impact seemed better since it glides over rocks like butter now. It hasn't really even left a noticeable mark on the plastic so I'm very happy I decided to do it.


----------



## Scott85 (Jan 12, 2016)

I plan on using wetlander on the bottom of my boat.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Wood_Duck (Jan 21, 2016)

where did you order your uhmw from?


----------



## redrum (Mar 21, 2016)

Fisher88 said:


> Ranchero50 said:
> 
> 
> > What's the plan of action to install it and what thickness are you going with? Only suggestion I have is to use thin plyboard as templates to see if it'll conform to your hull before cutting up the expensive stuff.
> ...



Which specific product did you use? Reltek seems to sell many different adhesives. https://reltekllc.com/productlist.aspx Can you post pictures of the products? 

You mentioned that you had been researching this for some time. Did you contact any other boat manufacturers to find out what products they were using? I know you mentioned SJX.

Also any further updates?


----------



## riverrat717 (Mar 21, 2016)

SJX is Polyurea. I contacted Bruce Linker of Linktec about his bondable uhmw. He said its difficult to get a good bond without treating the surface first. Linktec uses a hot pressed felt bonding surface on their product. Crown Plastics uses a flame abraded surface. Both manufacturers have an epoxy system that works with their products. But its pricey!!

I'd like to know how the OP's is holding up as well.


----------



## Fisher88 (Apr 6, 2016)

Hey guys I have been fishing nearly every weekend. Doing some exploring on new stretches of river now that I have the protection on the boat. It is holding up way better than I imagined it would. I wish that I had a decent camera to film some of the rivers that I have been running lately. I am not a salesman for Reltek or anything of the sort I just found them by doing my own personal research and I will have to say that anyone looking to take on this project I would without a doubt recommend the product that i used which was the bondit b 45th. I have bashed some rocks running down stream at full speed and it barely left a mark on the uhmw. I don't recall if I mentioned before but i did not use the virgin uhmw either due to cost that also has not been an issue. I have used the boat both days every weekend just about since i have installed the bottom with not even the slightest indication of any of the adhesive letting go. Hope to see someone else give it a try and have the same results that i have.


----------



## riverrat717 (Apr 6, 2016)

Fisher88 said:


> Hey guys I have been fishing nearly every weekend. Doing some exploring on new stretches of river now that I have the protection on the boat. It is holding up way better than I imagined it would. I wish that I had a decent camera to film some of the rivers that I have been running lately. I am not a salesman for Reltek or anything of the sort I just found them by doing my own personal research and I will have to say that anyone looking to take on this project I would without a doubt recommend the product that i used which was the bondit b 45th. I have bashed some rocks running down stream at full speed and it barely left a mark on the uhmw. I don't recall if I mentioned before but i did not use the virgin uhmw either due to cost that also has not been an issue. I have used the boat both days every weekend just about since i have installed the bottom with not even the slightest indication of any of the adhesive letting go. Hope to see someone else give it a try and have the same results that i have.



Good to know brother!! Glad to see it's holding up for ya! :beer:


----------



## handyandy (Jun 7, 2016)

uhmw still holding up well?


----------



## fishing66 (Jun 9, 2016)

A DIY UHMW application that worked out well? I am on this like a German Shepherd on roast beef.


----------



## Raylance (Jun 9, 2016)

I saw the OP's boat for sale on craigslist.


----------



## redrum (Jul 11, 2016)

Raylance said:


> I saw the OP's boat for sale on craigslist.



Are you sure? Do you have a link or what area? Hope the adhesive is holding up.


----------



## Raylance (Jul 14, 2016)

The listing must have been removed because I can't find it now. It was listed in Virginia. He was asking $18500 for it.


----------



## redrum (Feb 9, 2017)

Anyone heard from the owner of this boat or know who may have it now? I have my doubts that the glue worked.


----------

