At 01:00 AM 1/25/2011, Max Wellhouse wrote:
>Having bought two rolls of the black rescue tape for my Vanagon

"Rescue Tape" is a brand name, rather recent.  I think they may have
come up with the pretty colors as well.  Self-fusing silicone rubber
tape has been around in the marine community for many years (15?) and
has always been pricey.  It used to be available in silicone rubber
brick red, which seems to be a default color - I have sheet and foam
gasket material the same color.  Some brand or another should be
available in any marine store in the country, I would
think.  Certainly West Marine carries it (presently the Rescue Tape
brand).  The stuff I used to buy was thinner at the edges to make a
more even patch but I don't think it improved the results and meant
that the rolled tape was more liable to contamination.

When I had my little accident Sunday my toolbox and roll of yellow
Rescue Tape (TM) were naturally sitting in the back of Millee's van,
fifty miles away.  I camped out at a very friendly Advance Auto Parts
until they opened and managed to find some self-fusing rubber tape of
the kind that used to be called electrician's rubber tape, rated up
to 212F.  I made a patch with that and bought enough antifreeze to
make up 24 liters, eight of which went into the beast
immediately.  That patch got me almost to a West Marine store - I
went the last three miles at about a gallon a mile - where I bought a
roll of the real stuff.  On a whim I chose white, and found that it
had the very practical advantage of being quite translucent, so that
while applying it I could see the layer underneath.  I expect that
for most purposes I'll be using white henceforth.

So far my luck asking for the Nashua stuff at Home Depots has been
zilch.  If I can come up with a SKU maybe I'll do better.  I
understand it comes in your choice of black but costs noticeably
less.  Nashua generally make good tape.

Yours,
David