which side of Whites' patch goes down, does it matter?

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spoolin01

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I've got some White's patches and need to patch a small hole in the heel of my Fusion. I see the patches are gray on one side, black on the other, but otherwise it's hard to see or feel any difference. For the acetone/MEK/heat activated glue-less patching, does it matter which side goes against the suit?
 
I am about to buy a Fusion Bullet, did watch some videos and other reading during research. Grey side down if I am not mistaken. Give me some feedback on your experience once done.
 
Yeah, after watching the videos I first tried putting the grey side down, but the one actually seemed to stick a bit better with the black side down. There may not be a difference - the two sides don't appear any different to me - but what I think really made the difference was how much I scrubbed both the suit and the patch with acetone, and how much heat. I thought I saw one video that said the patch could be activated even with a hair dryer - I had to use a heat gun and more heat than my fingers could stand. There seemed to be a clear transition from not-sticky to sticky as I applied more heat. I also had to scrub and re-scrub when the patches first wouldn't take. I've done two patches now and both look solid. The second one I just put black side down to start with.
 
How does the patch sit? Can you lift the corners? Picture(s) please :D
 
The patches seem to sit fine, no evidence they are lifting anywhere. They don't come up with light fingernail picking. The first one sits astride a seam tape, but seems to be solidly attached even so. Only that one has been in the water, and that was just a quick check in a pool, so neither has had a proper test yet.

Here are a couple of pics that came out OK. PC131070.jpgPC131068.jpgPC131065.jpgPC131069.jpg

I had it backwards in the previous post. I had initially thought they had put grey side up in the YouTube videos, but simply so that the patch color would match the suit color, since though they mention the different colored sides in the DRIS video, they don't say which one goes down. If you watch closely though, it looks like they put the grey side down. In the Whites Diving video, both sides look the same to me and they don't specify, either.

I first tried black side down, but didn't get a good stick. I had to try a couple of times, re-wiping with acetone each time, to finally get a stick, and frankly at this point I don't have a clear understanding of whether it was the side, the heat, the extra wiping, or how long I let the surfaces dry that truly made the difference. It is clear that with persistent application of high heat, the patches both finally went on positively and permanently, and that seemed to be a sudden event. In rewatching the DRIS video just now, they do emphasize letting the surfaces dry from the MEK they used, before applying them together.

My suit is an older one, and some black did come off the surface using acetone. It's possible that cleaning the suit surface a couple of times over was necessary, but again I can't say for sure. If I do one again, I'll try to make a better experiment out of it.
 
Thanks for the feedback.
 

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