Help with altering wetsuit

[aoumi]

I'm tall and skinny, and the scubapro everflex 7/5mm suit which I purchased (at a cheap price) fits very well everywhere except there is a gap from the small of my back up to about 2.5 inches below the bottom of my shoulder blades.

So I'm thinking to alter it by removing some material from the sides, from the top of my hips up to the bottom of my rib-cage. (Basically to make the waist diameter smaller, pulling the gap in the back in).

I was thinking to make an elongated oval cut up each side like this () , about 3"-3.5" long to remove some material. I think the material in this area on the sides is 5mm, so I was going to use scissors (are scissors ok?) to make the cut and remove the material.

And then use neoprene glue to glue the sides together again.

Is this the right way to do it?? Has anyone done this before? Any help/advice you may have?

There is a hoizontal seam (the whole suit is glued&blind stiched) on the sides, and there is a possibility that in making the cut on the side panels, I may have to cut across this seam. But after glueing the sides back together, I was thinking to put some aquaseal or similar where the hoziontal seam may be cut across, to make sure the stiching doesn't unravel. (see photo for area to be cut, its on the side)


Thanks

 

[00wabbit]

WETSUIT AND DRYSUIT MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR by Steven Lindblom

I bought this book. It has a lot of knowledge about glue and techniques. I think it would help you a lot to do this project. It discuss the procedure for glueing and stitching neoprene.

 

[spectrum]

It can be done, I have done something like that to make my wife's hood fit better. Here are a few pointers....

1) You are dealing with 3 dimensional material so the cuts need to be nice right angle vertical walls. This will give you good surfaces to marry together once a few coats of wetsuit cements are allowed to tack up. I think a sharp razor may be the tool of choice.

2) Once cut do a dry fit of the seams and make marks at the mid and quarter points. You want to keep it even so it just comes together as the last of bit seam bonds.

3) When you do glue it back together be sure you don't crush the material as you bring it together. Keep your fingers away so that material is full thickness when is makes contact and bonds. One wrong move and you have a thin seam that has very little surface area hence it's weak.

4) It's said that most of a suit's strength is in the gluing but stitching still adds some strength. The back can see a lot of stress while bending and with your tailored fit it will see some tension. Manually replicating the stitching can be tough to make look good so skip the stitching and add a backer such as iron mend.

5) The only place I would use Aquaseal it where you break the stitching. Use a drop of Aquaseal to lock the thread ends.


Pete

 

[GillScales]

If the suit doesn't already have a spine pad, you could try gluing one in to,help seal that gap.
also having a tank/ bc on your back may press on and flatten out that excess material.