I'm curious if anybody has made significant repairs to a Wenonah skin coat kevlar boat, but mostly curious about long-term results? I am doing repairs of over a dozen of these canoes this winter. They have been literally ridden hard and put away wet for a number of years, with some much worse than others.
The list of repairs needed for these canoes includes cracked foam ribs just above the foam core, various rips and tears in the bottom and sides, old repairs that need to be redone and in a few cases the skin coat has degraded to the point of the canoe needing a recoat of resin and possibly even a large patch of glass over soft/fuzzy kevlar. All of the canoes have the big ugly kevlar skid plates installed, and those have done what they needed to do and are in fine shape. I have done a few minor repairs on canoes like these in the past, and have had good luck using epoxy with kevlar and s-glass patches. Those canoes have gone out in the world with the repairs but I have no idea about their long-term survival. I told people that the epoxy needed to be varnished for the long-term, but I doubt any were.
An online search finds people doing repairs as I did with epoxy, and some using polyester resin. Wenonah suggests using polyester resin for repair, especially if I have to re-coat the bottom of a canoe, or patch a large area with new glass. I think these boats were built using polyester resin, so that makes sense.
Now for the Questions: Is it actually a good idea to use polyester resin for these repairs? The advantage of polyester seems to be the compatibility with the original material as well as quick cure time and the fact that polyester is a bit more stable with UV exposure, meaning no varnish. What are the downsides of using polyester? I’ve read about bonding problems as well as possible long-term cracking and peeling, but the stories appear to be mostly second hand. Epoxy adds time, cost and the need to varnish everything eventually. I'll definitely do some small repairs to get the feel of the polyester prior to doing anything large. Any suggestions from the canoetripping crowd?
Mark
The list of repairs needed for these canoes includes cracked foam ribs just above the foam core, various rips and tears in the bottom and sides, old repairs that need to be redone and in a few cases the skin coat has degraded to the point of the canoe needing a recoat of resin and possibly even a large patch of glass over soft/fuzzy kevlar. All of the canoes have the big ugly kevlar skid plates installed, and those have done what they needed to do and are in fine shape. I have done a few minor repairs on canoes like these in the past, and have had good luck using epoxy with kevlar and s-glass patches. Those canoes have gone out in the world with the repairs but I have no idea about their long-term survival. I told people that the epoxy needed to be varnished for the long-term, but I doubt any were.
An online search finds people doing repairs as I did with epoxy, and some using polyester resin. Wenonah suggests using polyester resin for repair, especially if I have to re-coat the bottom of a canoe, or patch a large area with new glass. I think these boats were built using polyester resin, so that makes sense.
Now for the Questions: Is it actually a good idea to use polyester resin for these repairs? The advantage of polyester seems to be the compatibility with the original material as well as quick cure time and the fact that polyester is a bit more stable with UV exposure, meaning no varnish. What are the downsides of using polyester? I’ve read about bonding problems as well as possible long-term cracking and peeling, but the stories appear to be mostly second hand. Epoxy adds time, cost and the need to varnish everything eventually. I'll definitely do some small repairs to get the feel of the polyester prior to doing anything large. Any suggestions from the canoetripping crowd?
Mark