By Karl Gesslein

ForPlay

Went to the boat store Sunday to check out the Grind and the Forplay. To make a
long story real short I ended up going home with the ForPlay. As far as I know the
biggest guy to sqeeze into a ForPlay without massive modification is David M.
Lining up the ForPlay with the Mr Clean I realized that it was defidently possible to
modify the end so that I could fit. I plunked down the $1000+ (with tax) to my
local boat dealer and drove home.

Its a little unnerving to take a torch to a brand-new $1000+ boat without a single
scratch on it, but I had experience having done it before with the Mr Clean so I
wasnt too nervous, in fact in retrospect I wish I was more nervous than I was. I
spent a long time looking at the end of the boat and decided that my best bet
would be to puff up the end so that m feet would point perfectly straight and
(hopefully) go between the little plastic pegs that hold the grabloop. I used a torch
because my dad took his heatgun back when he was house sitting for me (can you
believe it, I had only borrowed it for about 10 months). The seat would have to be
moved back 2 inches past the furthest rear setting, the thighbraces removed, and
the minicell would have to be drastically modified. I think I may put a piece of soft
wood in the end to support the puffed out bow. I went to work using the torch and
heating around the edges and massaging with a stone. The stone made a rounded
pimpling kind of surface so I switched to using the chunks of Minicell that came
with the boat and crammed them into the ends, progressively using large chunks of
minicell as the bulge got bigger. Although the minicell melted a little bit from the
extreame heat it worked quite well. Then things really went awry.

I wasn't on my toes with the torch and overheated a small area about 1/2 inch
square. The plastic melted all the way through and started to sag. I reached in to
push it back out and got my fingers burned. I let it cool then looked at what had
happened. In hindsight I should have hung up the torch for the night and given up,
but instead I though "Shit I can fix that". I was wrong. I heated up the plastic again till it
started to sag then I push up the backside with whatever I had in my right hand. A
plastic lighter. The hot plastic started to stick to the plastic and I said knew I was
in trouble. I called Marlo down to turn off the torch which I was holding up in my
other hand.  She came down to turn it off at about the same time that the plastic lighter
exploded. I called it an evening. I was mortified that I had spent $1000 on this
boat that had this dimple on it. That night I went to bed feeling horrible. The next
morning I got up and looked at it. The 1/2 inch square dimple that was about 1/4
inch deep didn't look so bad anymore. In fact I think if I get one of those portable
soldering guns they sell at Radio Shack and remove the tip so the butane hot air
can come right out I think I can add a little plastic scraped off the cockpit rim and
it will be flush, level and as good as new. (OK not Quite as good as new).

So where did I go wrong.

1) I wasn't paying close enough attention to the torch. 3 seconds in the same
place was all it took to liquify the plastic.

2) Quit while you're ahead. I should have stopped as soon as there was a problem
and taken it up at a later date.

3) Don't beat yourself up. A small defect in my workmanship and I was ready to
write off the whole boat. The plastic may have thinned slightly but it by no means
was THAT structurally unsound.

4) Think about the problem instead of just responding to mistakes.

Prologue: After several hours of working on adding plastic
and sanding it down level, then heating it up I have finally
returned the boat to a structurally sound and decent looking
state.  I am swearing off Torches and will only be using heat guns
in the future.

RPM

The RPM was pretty beat and I wanted it to have about 1/2 the volume it had previously.
I messed around with a paint stripping gun but it simply did not put out enough heat. I ended
up modifying an Oxy-Acedelene torch to become an Oxy-Propane torch with an $8 adapter
from the welding store.  This torch put out WAY more heat than the paint stripper gun ever could.
The good part was immediate results, the bad part was the plastic kept popping back to its
original shape and melting when I didn't want to.  It took 3 squashing sessions to get it to finally
stay squashed I learned the hard way to not apply pressure to hot plastic
and not to pull up on the cockpit rim when it was hot.  I have not sold the RPM
and probably never will because it is not a safe boat, exspecially for beginners.  If it ever pinned on
a rock, I have no doubt that it would wrap very easily.  I have paddled it on class V stuff but it was
kindof silly to do so.  It did well river running but it would unintentionally disappear in eddylines. This
is a cool move called a Mystery move, but when it is unintentional it can really freak you out.
I consider the RPM a learning experience and would encourage everyone to find a broken or
unusable kayak to practice on before taking the heat to your $1000 brand new boat.

Mr. Clean

The foot bumps in the Mr Clean were a much more successful endevour.  When I bought the Clean
I knew I was going to have to modify it.  I was 6'10" with size 13 feet and the Mr. Clean just did not
accomidate someone of that size.  I wanted to do the modification well so if I had to sell it I could.
The concave section in the bow was perfect for creating foor bumps because there was already extra
plastic there and essentially all I had to do was turn the plastic from concave to convex.  I used a
paint stripping gun since the heat was much easier to control than with the torch.  Careful to keep
the torch moving at all times I managed to massage the plastic out by using large stones and rubbing
them back and forth.  As Dana suggested I heated up around the area I wanted to push out then pushed
in the center.  The results are pretty good, and while the foot bumps looked goofy they were (relitively)
comfy and when the time came to sell the Clean I didn' t have too many problems.  My advice?

1) Be patient
2) Keep it simple
3) Remeber re-sale-ability
4) Have fun
 

Karl

Tools of the Trade

A paint stripping gun (preferably with 2 settings)

For those of you that are wilder and less picky about results the Oxy-propane torch puts out
a massive amount of heat.  This is an Oxy_acedalyne torch with a Propane tank instead of
Acydelyne.  Acydelene burns VERY HOT and VERY DIRTY.  Propane is clean and lower temp.

This is the Propane adapter to hook up a propane tank to a Acydelyne Regulator.
Any welding supply store SHOULD carry this item.

This is a Radio Shack soldering gun with the metal tip removed and the gas Cylnder modified
to run off a normal Propane tank.  The O2 side is disabled making it a lower temp torch good
for detail work.

The problem.  This is the dimple that was caused by overheating.
Ugly but not as bad as it looks.

First cut a few strips of plastic to work in as filler

Then melt the strips in and sand, melt and sand, melt and sand

About 1/2 way through it should be level with the original plastic

The final result.  (Not photo-retouched)  Close examinitation shows a problem
but it is generally not noticible by cursory examination.

Orion is trying my new boat on for size.  Hey, HE looks happy.

The outfitting in the Z.  Thighbraces removed and it is padded out.
No need for pads UNDER the thighs as the fit is very tight as is.

My puffed up bow on the Mr. Clean

This is how I padded the boat after pulling the thigh braces out
notice the pads that go UNDER the thigh.  These are Key.

This is what happens if you try to pull up the rim when its hot ... Don't do it.

This is what happens if you step on a hot spot ... Don't do it.

Squashed Bow

The inside of the boat

This is the new profile

A nicely squirtable stern

Take me home