That composite repair I was sure was snake oil saved my hide

I've been a mechanic for 12 years and I ALWAYS swore by metal patches for skin repairs. Then last month a supervisor on a C-130 job near Little Rock handed me a composite patch kit and told me to try it. I figured it would fail in a week but I followed the cure cycle exactly. It's been 6 weeks and that repair is holding up BETTER than the riveted patch on the other side. Have any of you actually switched to composites for structural fixes or am I still the odd one out?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_charlie1d ago

Buddy of mine out in Oklahoma had the same exact reaction. He was doing a patch on an old cargo trailer frame, swore up and down it would never hold. Couple months later he hit a pothole so hard it nearly shook the fillings out of his teeth but that composite fix didn't even flinch. He's been telling everyone he knows to at least try it once. Sometimes you just gotta let the new stuff prove itself, you know?

the_pat1d ago

Man, have YOU ever seen the look on a guy's face when that stuff holds up better than his old welds? I did a repair on a crack in my truck bed a couple years ago, figured it'd be a temporary patch til I could afford a new one. That thing is STILL holding, through snow, salt, and me throwing junk in the back every weekend. The stuff is wild, I totally get why your buddy is spreading the word.