Repairing silnylon on Golite SL-3
Shangri-La 3 Silnylon repair with embroidery hoop to stabilize fabric while patching.
I picked up a clearance sample Shangri-La 3 at the Golite sale in Boulder on Saturday. When I got it home and set it up for the first time, I found that it had 4-5 half moon cuts from the center pole being jammed in the stuff sack after the SL-3. All samples are sold as-is and they got me on this one, fortunately it was cheap.
My first repair attempt failed using Permatex flowable silicone. I had a tube of it left over from seam sealing the SL-2 last week. For some reason it just didn't have the right consistency, and combined with my inexperience, led to a patch that peeled the first time I put tension on it. After reading up on patching silnylon on http://www.backpackinglight.com I went to Home Depot and bought a tube of GE Silicone II. While doing the first repair I had trouble with the material wrinkling and sliding around and came up with the idea of using an embroidery hoop to smooth it out and make it easier to squeegee the patch with a putty knife. I put the hoop on with just enough tension to hold the material without wrinkles. Once I smoothed out the air bubbles it looked perfect. I'll have to see how it works up after setting it up, but I think I have a successful repair.
