Restoring canoes help.
 

Hi All,

I've wanted to me and my family get in to canoeing for a while now (My first
experience was a 30 or so mile charity race a long long time ago).

So I bought a second hand canoe to start out, when I went to pick up the
canoe the seller offered at no cost another two canoes or she was going to
scrap them!

In fact I like the other canoes so much I gave the canoe I bought to a
friend.

I'm pretty sure one is a sea canoe, It's about 14 foot long and at the front
it's more boat shaped that canoe, it's as small 6 loops along the side
behind the seat fixed with webbing and also a compartment for storage. I'm
really hoping it is a sea canoe but it has no rudder and the boat shape to
the front is less pronounced than the modern sea canoes I've looked at. Any
hints to what makes a sea canoe would be most welcome.

The other is a Design Concept (1987) kayak and the owner said it's kevlar
and it does feel different (softer?) and looks more like cloth, but not
knowing what kevlar looks like I don't know.

Both have had a few repairs and seem watertight (filled them up with water)
and seem sound, but look tatty which brings me to my main questions.

1.. The gel on both is scratched all over the place. Is it possible to get
the scratches out of a gel coat?
2.. The Sea canoe (?) colour has faded lot, is there a way to restore the
colour like using t-cut on a car?
3.. Has anyone sprayed a canoe? Is there a flexible spray paint that works
well on canoes?
I hoping to restore them a bit them as they look nice and it would be a
shame not to try. Any tips would be most welcome.

Steve

SJT wrote:
Hi All,

I've wanted to me and my family get in to canoeing for a while now (My first
experience was a 30 or so mile charity race a long long time ago).

So I bought a second hand canoe to start out, when I went to pick up the
canoe the seller offered at no cost another two canoes or she was going to
scrap them!

In fact I like the other canoes so much I gave the canoe I bought to a
friend.

I'm pretty sure one is a sea canoe, It's about 14 foot long and at the front
it's more boat shaped that canoe, it's as small 6 loops along the side
behind the seat fixed with webbing and also a compartment for storage.

It sounds like a small sea kayak.
Are there any names on it?

If you have a kevlar boat it is worth some effort.
One of the local canoe clubs should have someone willing to have a look
at it for you. Good luck.
Alex

I'm
really hoping it is a sea canoe but it has no rudder and the boat shape to
the front is less pronounced than the modern sea canoes I've looked at. Any
hints to what makes a sea canoe would be most welcome.

The other is a Design Concept (1987) kayak and the owner said it's kevlar
and it does feel different (softer?) and looks more like cloth, but not
knowing what kevlar looks like I don't know.

Both have had a few repairs and seem watertight (filled them up with water)
and seem sound, but look tatty which brings me to my main questions.

1.. The gel on both is scratched all over the place. Is it possible to get
the scratches out of a gel coat?
2.. The Sea canoe (?) colour has faded lot, is there a way to restore the
colour like using t-cut on a car?
3.. Has anyone sprayed a canoe? Is there a flexible spray paint that works
well on canoes?
I hoping to restore them a bit them as they look nice and it would be a
shame not to try. Any tips would be most welcome.

Steve

SJT wrote:

1.. The gel on both is scratched all over the place. Is it possible to get
the scratches out of a gel coat?

Sand and polish, lots of both. Something like Plastic Padding (a brand
name) Gelcoat Filler in the deeper score marks probably a good idea, or
there won't be anything left after the sanding and polishing!

2.. The Sea canoe (?) colour has faded lot, is there a way to restore the
colour like using t-cut on a car?

Probably UV fade, but you could try T-cut: if it works, it does, if not
it shouldn't do anything nasty.

3.. Has anyone sprayed a canoe? Is there a flexible spray paint that works
well on canoes?

Don't know about spraying them, but yacht paints are available from a
good chandler (where the gelcoat filler should also be found) which can
be used on glass boats successfully. A friend has taken a couple of
very ancient boats which had pretty much no gelcoat left, were very
faded and leaked like sieves and turned them into fully seaworthy and
rather smart craft by using yacht paint. It's formulated to keep going
in seawater, which is ghastly stuff for eating at things, so I'd stick
with a specialist product if you can find it.

I hoping to restore them a bit them as they look nice and it would be a
shame not to try. Any tips would be most welcome.

If it's watertight to start with it sounds like a good deal better than
the hulks my pal has rescued with sanding, more sanding, more sanding,
some more sanding, a bit of filler and yacht paint. You may have
gathered that sanding will feature in your life... ;-)

Start on the one you're least interested in: results tend to get better
with practice AFAICT.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Hi,

Thanks for the replies, I'm starting on th kevlar boat as it's the most
tatty and while in the wet don't look bad at all. So I hope nothing is to
bad!

Cheers

"Peter Clinch" wrote in message
...
SJT wrote:

1.. The gel on both is scratched all over the place. Is it possible to
get
the scratches out of a gel coat?

Sand and polish, lots of both. Something like Plastic Padding (a brand
name) Gelcoat Filler in the deeper score marks probably a good idea, or
there won't be anything left after the sanding and polishing!

Remember that the only waterproofing on a GRP boat is the gel coat. GRP is
not waterproof. So unless you want to have to redo the whole boat don't sand
through the gel coat. Just key it, paint on your new gel, and lightly sand
and polish that. if there are bigger star cracks or similar the GRP and gel
can be restored to original strength if you read up on the skills required
BEFORE you start :-)

Ewan Scott