Power Kite Forum

Kite material for repairs

marine_hm - 25-9-2014 at 08:20 AM

I know I'm thick headed and determined...
I bought a kite off ebay. Some nice folks on here are sending me stuff to help heal the wounds so to speak. I need some education on what materials are used in the making of the kite. HQ Rush IV 350pro. I'm doing repairs on the ribs. My ultimate goal is permanent repair with either a sewing a strip along the tear or replace the rib all together. I know shinola about denier.. What weight denier? Does this stuff look like what I need?:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251611650989?_trksid=p2055119.m1438....


Laughing at myself. For right now, it's kitefix and gorilla glue duct-tape. We'll see how that works. Not getting my hopes up yet.

riffclown - 25-9-2014 at 01:01 PM

Respectfully, please stop looking at ebay. You'll end up with more of what you are already dealing with..

Take a look at this link


https://goodwinds.com/sail-supplies.html


I would also like to second the motion of a professional repair.. It's possibly worth it in the long run..


bigE123 - 26-9-2014 at 02:42 AM

Generally a lot depends on the kite, a light weight kite will use a 40g/m ripstop nylon, 50g/m is a slightly heavier material and more hard-wearing. Ribs tend to be a heavier weight again up to 70g/m. If you do fancy doing it yourself you will be able to feel if there is a difference in material weight between the kite skin and the ribs.

Your kite uses 42g/m Chikara so that should give you an idea of what rib material you will need. Replacing a full rib is not that straight forward, you will need to open the whole kite up LE to TE then sewing the two wing sections and keel together can be a bit tricky if you haven't done too much sewing. A rib repair can be done by opening up the TE and turning the kite inside out to get to the rip. With the cost of the kite it may not be a viable option getting it repaired professionally as opposed to an undamaged second-hand kite.

marine_hm - 26-9-2014 at 07:27 AM

Quote: Originally posted by riffclown  
Respectfully, please stop looking at ebay. You'll end up with more of what you are already dealing with..

Take a look at this link


https://goodwinds.com/sail-supplies.html


I would also like to second the motion of a professional repair.. It's possibly worth it in the long run..




Cool! Two for the price of one.... I'm just waiting for an estimate from a kite repair shop out of FL. The above link has the kite material I was looking for AND is in the US which is important to me, but they also have material for my Rod repairs. I have some hand made fishing rods that the tips have snapped.

rtz - 26-9-2014 at 12:06 PM

You can also get a free quote from this place: http://www.fixmykite.com/