1983 Sawyer Kevlar interior color?

[SouthernKevlar]

Perhaps some of you who have or have had an early 1980's Sawyer Kevlar canoe could answer a question for me:

Was the interior of the Sawyer Kevlar canoes, especially a DY Special in Expedition Kevlar, left in a clearcoat or painted? If painted, do you know what color?

I have a 1983 DY Special that has a yellow paint, similar to the color of Kevlar, that is starting to flake off. It makes sense to me that a paint would help protect the Kevlar from UV rays, but my other Kevlar canoes are clear-coated on the interior. I am wondering if the paint was factory done or if an owner did it. It is a very nice job if done later and the Kevlar under the paint looks new with no sign of UV or other damage.

If you have any info on this, I would love to hear from you and find an answer my question. Thanks!

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Page 10 of this 1988 Sawyer catalog says that "Expedition Kevlar canoes are finished with a full interior gel-coat to prevent decomposition of the laminate due to exposure to sunlight."

1988 Sawyer Catalog | PDF

(*Year published is a guess)

www.scribd.com

Mike Galt used to gelcoat the interior of some of his Lotus canoes. That's a much more difficult, expensive and probably durable process than paint. It might be hard to match with a paint. I don't really know.

There are other Sawyer catalog pages you can scrutinize for info HERE.

 

[SouthernKevlar]

Thanks for the great info on the Sawyer line-up! That is quite a resource.
From the looks of it, the DY Special originally came with a gel coat on the interior, so I now assume that some previous owner painted the interior. Where the paint has peeled the gel coat looks great. I had been debating repainting the insides, but now I am thinking about paint removal.

Any suggestions on safely removing an unknown paint (oil based? Latex? other?) from a gel coated surface?

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Thanks for the great info on the Sawyer line-up! That is quite a resource.
From the looks of it, the DY Special originally came with a gel coat on the interior, so I now assume that some previous owner painted the interior. Where the paint has peeled the gel coat looks great. I had been debating repainting the insides, but now I am thinking about paint removal.

Any suggestions on safely removing an unknown paint (oil based? Latex? other?) from a gel coated surface?

I don't have any knowledge or experience with removing paint from a canoe, but are you sure the yellow coating is actually paint and not the factory gelcoat itself? They may have used a yellow colored gelcoat and not clear gelcoat, possibly per the customer's instructions.

It's just not clear to me why someone would paint the interior of a canoe that already has a fully gelcoated interior, which is a pretty rare thing, unless the interior gelcoat was extremely scuffed up and damaged.

 

[SouthernKevlar]

Pretty sure it is paint. I can peel some off and it is flexible, not stiff or brittle.