Repair Old Buoys?

[JC McCavit]

Is there a foam or other product you can fill old buoys with? I have a few older buoys with pin holes and small cuts I would like to use for boat gates and repaint yellow.

[RichardDoane]

You could try aerosol foam for large cracks, but I think you'll need to knife some holes in the ball to give it air to expand

[thager]

Many years ago I cut a slit into messed up buoy large enough to insert a small bicycle tube into the interior then partially inflated it. Got us through the week until new buoys came from Overtons.

[oldjeep]

$7 for a new ball vs a $3 can of spray foam and paint seems like a lot of work and mess to save no money.

[JC McCavit]

@oldjeep - point well taken. I just thought someone in the know might have a really cheap fix where just one can of foam and one can of paint would fix 12 buoys.

[Orlando76]

I use spray foam to rescue our buoys. We get 3 months tops out of buoys then the pinholes are too much. Since we ski 13 months a year, that's too many buoys to purchase for two guys on two course. We use medium expansion foam, cut a few 3/4" long knife slits in the buoy. Fill to 50% full ball otherwise the ball will burst two hours later. We get 3 balls per can of foam. We get another 3 months out of them until the foam gets water logged. I was hesitant at first but now use them as turn buoys. After a week or two in the sun they sure get lumpy and ugly looking.

[oldmanskier]

We are on our third year using the same set of Wally Buoys. They have not faded or developed holes. They are not cheap but they sure do last under normal use. They do not survive gun shots very well as someone decided to shoot one of our buoys.

Oldmanskier

 

[gmut]

This year will be the fourth year in a row for the same Wally Bouys. Still holding original color very well.