2014: Post 27 – My first drysuit gasket replacement

After last weeks Thursday practice, while taking off my drysuit, I split the neck gasket!!  In more than five years of wearing drysuits, I have not had to replace a gasket.  I contemplated bringing the suit to the local outfitters to get a new one installed, or maybe pick up a gasket and get one of my paddling buddies to do it for me.  

Then on Friday night I searched the internet and found a bunch of how-to-videos showing how to do the gasket replacement yourself.  It didn't look too difficult and I figured that if I could only find something that was the right diameter around the house I could try to do the job myself. The worse thing that would happen is that I would muck it up and then I would just take it to someone who could do it properly.

I tried several items to find something that would fit in the neck of the drysuit... a basketball, a paint can, a pail.. all no good.  Then it dawned on me that the cooking posts in the house were of various sizes so I started looking at those.  I found one that looked to be fairly new and it seemed to fit just right... 

On Saturday morning I went to the local outfitters when they opened and picked up a gasket and a tube of Aquaseal.

I wrapped the pot with wide, clear tape so as not to get Aquaseal all over it...

I read the instructions that came with the gasket and set to work. Yes, I am one of those guys that will read instructions.  Now I don't always follow the instructions exactly, but I will (almost) always read them.  But no, I almost never ask for directions.  But anyway...

I cut away the old gasket with with a pair of scissors, leaving about an inch of it on the drysuit... 

Then I dry-fitted everything.  I put an elastic band over the new gasket and then peeled it up to expose the shiny side of the new gasket...

Next, I buffed the latex of the old gasket with a bit of sandpaper and then put a  layer of Aquaseal on both the old and the new latex where they would meet...

Although the instructions said you did not have to unless you are using cotol, I let the Aquaseal get a bit tacky for a few minutes before folding it down over the old gasket latex.  I added clear tape to keep everything in place, and added some extra elastic bands for good measure...

The instructions said the Aquaseal required eight to twelve hours to cure.  I let things sit for about eleven hours and decided the Aquaseal was dry enough.  So I removed the clear tape and elastics to have a look at the repair...

This side looked like a pretty clean job...

... but this side looked a bit 'goopy'.

And the outside looked like it wasn't too bad of a job at all.

I hung my drysuit up to let the Aquaseal continue to cure overnight, although it did seem that it was fully cured at this point.  

Tony had proposed a paddle on Sunday morning...  I had been feeling under the weather all Saturday and figured not to be paddling on Sunday.  But if I did decide to paddle my neck gasket would be ready to go...