Hi all

Have any of you guys seen Legends of the Falls? At one time time they took a kayak and heated it up and stretched the plastic with a car jack. Do you think it could be done to add a bit more leg room. I want to make the hull a bit higher.

Please give me your opinions or advice

Cheers

There has already been a thread about this, but to sum it up, it will work, but weakens the boat and will void your warranty. What kayak do you have would be my next question, because you might be better off getting a larger used kayak.

Fluid Flirt Medium.
In South Africa and especially in my town playboats is not easy to find.

CJCC, do you know where that thred is?

Here's one:
playak.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&f...105&id=8022&Itemid=0

You should be able to find a Fluid Flirt L or a Nemesis M/L easily. As for dealers, here is a link: www.fluidkayaks.co.za/Dealers_Africa.htm

As I said earlier, you will be better off getting a different kayak so you still can sell your current kayak for something. For one final question, when did you get your Flirt? if the warranty is already expired, you won't have to worry about warranty problems.

I Bought it secondhand, so no warranty issues

How much leg room do you have? If you have the Fluid bulkhead in, try taking it out to see how much room you have. If you could post a few pics of your feet inside of the boat, it may help us figure out what to recommend. Finally, if you want to heat it, go to an expert that accepts liability for anything that goes wrong, so you don't have to worry about what happens in the worst case scenario.

I have lowered my seet by about 2cm, removing the rail that runs beneath the seat as well as the foam blocks underneath. Ive made brackets to lower the seat and still be able to bolt it to the origanal rail on the ssides. That helped quite a bit, was a bit more comfortable.
Yesterday evening I took the heat to it!

I used a heat gun and heat the area above my feet (very slowly and evenly) and then pushed the plastic from inside the kayak.
The result is about 1.5cm more room for my feet. I was scared to strecth it further.

The end result is a more comfortable kayak!

Just two tips for everybody, dont try to cool the plastic with water. A drop of sweat fell on the hot plastic and it made a scar! the other is not to touchs the hot plastic on the outside of the kayak, it is softer than the inside plastic and it make marks.
Oh yes, thirdly, take it very slowly and carefully and the chances of damaging your kayak is very slim.

Cheers

One thing to keep in mind is that the plastic where you melted it will be weaker, so you may want to reinforce it with a polyethylene patch that has around a 1" overhang past the affected area. As a comparison, if you take a piece of chewed gum and stretch it, it gets longer but weaker.

I will remeber that, luckily the area I stretched is above my feet, I dont think it gets a lot of knocks.

Thanks for all the advice