Huge tear in my winter tarp help 😖

[Japandy]

Hi, I got a huge tear in my tarp from 60 mile an hour winds shredded against a tree. It’s an L-shaped tear 10” x 7” Almost corner corner the seam didn’t rip, but it went right down to it.
I’ve never repaired Silnylon before, but I do have a sewing machine. I’ve been researching on how to fix this tear. I was going to do DIY silicone mineral spirits with nylon patch or buy the gear aid silnylon stickers or try to sew it with the patches and the glue, I read somewhere for a tear this big gluing on the patch and sewing would be the best method. I’m just not sure if that’s overkill or not. If anybody has some suggestions that would be great.

[mattnin]

If it was mine, I'd definitely both glue and sew on a nylon patch and reinforce the seams where the rip went to. I've had bad luck with DIY mineral spirits and silicone for both sil-nylon and sil-poly. I just use Seam Grip +wp now for my repairs and I don't thin it out at all. Maybe someone will chime in with a DIY mix that works but I don't trust it anymore. Do you have any spare nylon material? Maybe from an old tent that you don't use anymore and been meaning to throw out or sell? I repurposed an old tent that was messed up and harvested it for materials for repairs and other stuff. Still using it for parts to this day. I'd also get a new needle for your sewing machine and after the repair, throw the needle away. Make sure to get some polyester thread. If you need to practice, hopefully you have an old tent like I did and then you can practice sewing on that before you tackle your tent. I'd first prepare a good patch with sealed edges, and glue that on and let it fully cure. Then after that, I'd sew it on. After all that, your tarp will look awesome with some nice battle scars.

That is some high winds though, 60mph is super bad. I'll bet it turned your hammock into a parachute!

[Shug]

Here is how one guy patched his tear on You Tube. fixed their torn silnylon tarps....https://youtu.be/HFVAbi4sqH0?si=bRRjEVC2n4YphEYY
You could sew then seam seal or rig a patch. Gives the tarp character. FrankenTarp.
Shug

[Japandy]

IMG_7945.jpgIMG_7946.jpgIMG_7947.jpgIMG_7948.jpgIMG_7950.jpgIMG_7951.jpg

So this is how far I’ve gotten, tape the rip, cut out silnylon out of scraps.

[Japandy]

Yes it was a flash storm, raining sideways with wind gusts 60mph. That’s the Midwest for ya. I’m interested in why you prefer the seamgrip +wp over the seamgrip sil. I have a lot of extra material regular nylon, silnylon, noseeum netting, ribbon to practice on. I had a lot of projects planned only got around making some hammocks. I saw on YouTube a guy used sandpaper to rough up the silnylon to create more grip for the gluing process ( maybe a good idea ) so I recut ( 2-10in length - 3in wide strips and 2- 8in ) of silnylon. And rounded of the edges. And planning to patch both sides with some sort of adhesive. And maybe even recoat adhesive on top of the patches. … if it doesn’t feel like that’s enough I’ll start sewing. I’m still in debate about what glue to use. I thought only silicone glue sticks to silnylon ???

[Japandy]

Thanks for the link, and advice Shug, I’ve been watching your YouTube content for a long while now. Alway entertaining and informative. Keep up the good work. Once I come up with what I come up with. I’ll post photos.

[mattnin]

The only reason I use seam grip wp is because that is what they stock locally at the Seek Outside store, so I figured if it is good enough for their tents, it's good enough for me. I've been using it since and have had good luck with it. I apply it using a broke in half q tip and use the stick side to scoop some seam grip out of the tube. I've used it to repair river country tents and seal my homemade tarps made out of membrane silpoly. Good luck

[Japandy]

Thanks for the reply. I didn’t think about using a q-tip, good idea. I have some seam grip and seam grip sil that’s old maybe I’ll try to revive it with some mineral spirits just as an experiment if not I’ll try your route. Thanks again