Anyone know how to repair a torn parachute?

ReverbSF · Post by **ReverbSF** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 5:13 pm

So apparently, dust storms and nasty sharp pokey metal points on a dome are not a parachutes best friend. Anyone know of any good, chea and/or easy way to repair an approximately 10' gash in a parachute? Anyone in the SF bay area that would do this kind of repair? I live right above a guy who does hemming and alterations on clothes but he just looked at it and laughed at me... *sigh* A place that repairs sailboat canopys, perhaps?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Lassen Forge · Post by **Lassen Forge** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 5:48 pm

If the parachute cloth is old and getting to the beginning to rot stage, it's prolly not fixable - it'll cut loose where you try to patch it.

If the cloth is still usable (not sunfried or agefried or dryrotted or alkali-rotted or whatever) you can sew it back together - it's a long and time consuming process by hand but you lash the tear back together with a whipstitch kinda thing, then place a larger patch over the top of it to take the stress off the repaired tear.

Tho before I went to the hassle of doing it I'd look and make sure I wasn't wasting my time putting together something that will blow back out in the next windstorm.

There *is* another way - remove the torn panel and replace the whole piece with new, but then again, if what you're sewing t to is also bad, you're throwing time and money after something not worth it. And that, too, is a lot of time and effort.

Check with a sailmaker - they can tell you if it can be fixed or not. But have a stout wallet!

ReverbSF · Post by **ReverbSF** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 6:09 pm

Thanks Sue!

The 'chutes only got 2 years of Playafication so it's still in pretty good shape. I'll see what I can do about the hand sewing technique (Sounds painful...).

Badger · Post by **Badger** » Mon Jun 06, 2005 6:39 pm

I agree with Sue. If the UV damage is such that the nylon is pretty much crapped out it might not be worth it to invest any real time or money into it. If you think it might hold a seam I'd suggest a thin bead of super glu 1/2'' (or more) along the torn eam and then overlap the second section and give it a few minutes to seat and dry. Do it way from any wind source BTW.

Sharky · Post by **Sharky** » Tue Jun 07, 2005 9:37 am

One of the best and most durable methods for repairing a long tear like that would be to cut a long strip of fabric ( I'd use rip stop nylon if it's a nylon chute) that is about 12 inches wide and about 12 inches longer than the tear. Use a hot knife to hot cut along the ratty edges. this will seal the nylon and keep it from fraying. Use pins or tape to hold the tear closed, and then pin or tape the long fabric strip on the back side (peel off the tape after sewing). It should have about 6 inches extra fabric all the way around the tear. Use a sewing machine with heavy poly thread and zig-zag stich through all of the layers. Sew along each torn edge, then go back and zig-zag stitch over the now touching torn edges, overlapping both with the stich line. Finish up with stitching along the border of the repair strip. To make it extra tough, I would go over each stitch line several times with the machine and possibly go a little "wild" with the sewing and cris-cross the whole repaired panel with zig-zag stitching.
This repair should go pretty quickly.............. Good Luck!