Little do they know, I take a more positive approach... I am positive this is impossible for an amateur. ;-) But, I already bought the glue... and I have burned all my bridges with the half-ass medical clinic. I'm doing this!
The stuff is all ready...
Joan and I donned our rubber gloves... "I'll go here, you go there." It's important that you have a plan.
"OK, that isn't working - you go here and I'll go there." Honestly, I don't know if mice make plans, but this endeavor was not a best-laid plan - we were flying by the seat of our pants. With each of us taking a side on the dinghy, I started spreading glue. If she pulled my side separated; when I pulled, her side separated.
On to Plan E: I suggested we rotate the dinghy and put the part that we glued on the bottom, thinking gravity would be our friend. Nope, apparently gravity doesn't much like us... the glued part separated. Rotate back, refresh the glue, and... push-pull. This glue has a working time of 20 minutes and a set up time of 1 to 2 hours. I spent the better part of the next hour pushing the glued part back into place. We took a break to make some lunch while things set up.
Gravity's buddy, Mother Nature, must not be too crazy about us, either - the wind blew the dinghy over while we were eating... so much for the glue setting up. We moved it, stuck things back into place, and could see that we weren't going to have enough glue to do the whole job. On to Plan F: let's see if we can get this side done; we'll evaluate things after we see how this side sets up.
There are two flaps that have to be glued along the entire side: one flap sticks to the flotation tubes, running up the side; the other flap sticks to the bottom of the flotation tubes. They have to work together to keep the water out of the dinghy. The inside flap that runs up the side of the flotation tube is the tough one - and the one we did first. With that one in place, the other flap will pretty much go into place. Or, at least that's the plan... we must be up to Plan Q or R by now.
I moved the dinghy against the house to try to get it out of the wind... or, less in the wind. Checking the first glue job...
I then spread the glue on the flap of the floor and the bottom of the flotation tube - it actually went together reasonably well...
It only puckered in a half-dozen places. I put the very last of the glue in those puckers and duct taped it in place... yeah, that didn't work at all. The only thing that works is constant pressure on the puckers. I was able to do a couple of them with the fingers on one hand, a couple more with the fingers on the other hand, one more with my foot... and don't even ask about the last one. Really. Don't ask.
In a day or so, we'll see if that glue held. Then, we'll see if it holds water... or, rather, keeps water out. If so, I'll buy another $27 package of two-part glue and do this all over again. Maybe in a month or two. Maybe.
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