SEWING

Stitching or sewing up the belly skin is a protracted process that must be done in stages. Here is a “before” the start of repairs on a previous area where I had taken a short cut that didn’t pan out.

I had stitched the skin with ty wraps that were widely spaced, then covered the seam with gorilla tape. It looked good and worked well for the first few months. However the skin flexes and eventually that caused the tape that covered the seam, to turn loose.

In the next photo, I have removed the tape, and put in more closely spaced ty wraps. The next steps will be to cut off the excess on the ty wraps, wipe down with alcohol, then seal the seam up with silicone. Here is a “during” the repair look with the ty wraps not cut off just yet.

Here is a photo with the ty wraps cut off.

Here is the final result, with the seam sealed off with silicone.

The result is a tougher, more flexible, wind and water tight seam.