I have put the patch on the inside with a dab of aquaseal in the hole after. I've fixed bladders, a wet suit and a dry suit that way.
Repairing wetsuits with tire patches
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Damselfish
Contributor
What you can get away with depends some on how big and if the area stretches. The rubber might be ok but I don't know what the tire patch glue is like. Especially for something major I'd experiment on a scrap of neoprene first. But neoprene scraps and Aquaseal (or Goop for that matter) are not that hard to come by. Or better yet real wetsuit cement which I think stretches better.
Jeans patches typically have no stretch and the heat needed to iron them on (since they're designed for cotton) will probably not be so good for the nylon fabric around the patch, or the neoprene for that matter.
Jeans patches typically have no stretch and the heat needed to iron them on (since they're designed for cotton) will probably not be so good for the nylon fabric around the patch, or the neoprene for that matter.
Bubblesong
Contributor
I should have known without asking since the patches are not that great in certain stretch-requiring locations on jeans.
Rred
Contributor
Bicycle patch glue is plain rubber cement with naphtha as the solvent. On a bicycle tube that's fine, but it is not a very strong adhesive. If you get a grip on the patch you can pull it off. Aquaseal is way stronger, although it stretches less. E6000 adhesive (the thin black version) probably also would be good. Neither one melts neoprene.
there are 2(actually 3, but latex is more special and we don't patch them) different types of bicycle tubes/patches real rubber tubes or "plastic-rubber" tubes. patches for/on real rubber-tubes is fairly good, take a while (24h) for them to harden(thats why we carry spare tubes and repair the tubes at home), but you can not pull them of, usualy you tear the tube if you try. the cheap plastic ones does not often work, and if you try to mix real rubber with plastic type it is worse.
Rred
Contributor
Thanks, Magnus. I wasn't thinking of the high-tech bicycle market, just of the plain black vulcanized rubber that all the mass-market bicycles are using.
spoolin01
Contributor
Bicycle patch with rubber cement should be a fine way to fix a wetsuit, basically the same as a rubber (hypalon, not vinyl) boat patch. Cleaning the patch zone and patch with acetone or MEK, or even carefully with Toluene (not too much, it dissolves rubber), and applying compression with initial mild heat, like from an iron, will help make a good bond.
There is doubtless varying quality among rubber cements, but the main issue that I've found is in how the cement is applied. Less is better - there is lots of good guidance available for rubber boat patching, where it has to stick well. Substituting a sparing amount of Aquaseal for the rubber cement would probably work even better.
There is doubtless varying quality among rubber cements, but the main issue that I've found is in how the cement is applied. Less is better - there is lots of good guidance available for rubber boat patching, where it has to stick well. Substituting a sparing amount of Aquaseal for the rubber cement would probably work even better.
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