Canoe protection clear coat/ epoxy

[yellowcard129]

I have a Wenonah Canoe in there flex core lay up and most of the clear coat is gone and starting to look a little thin in spots. Whats the best stuff to apply to seal and add a little protection to the bottom? Also have a royalex lay up thats been through alot, would be nice to apply something on the bottom of that as well. thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Mike McCrea]

Yellowcard, I don’t know about the “best stuff”. I have refinished the bottom of a couple worn and UV faded TuffWeave canoes, and a couple vintage glass & nylon boats by lightly sanding the bottom, rolling & tipping a coat of epoxy resin, letting that cure for a week or so, wet sanding the bottom and finally rolling & tipping a coat of spar urethane.

The boats came out looking like new, and have held up well over the years.

I suppose that could be cut down to a single step by using an epoxy resin with UV resistance. West 207 hardener has UV inhibitors, but I have never used it for that purpose.

For a Royalex canoe I would not go whole hull hog. If the damage is mostly restricted to the stems I’d add Dynel skid plates, or on a worn vee bottom possibly a full length skid at the apex of the vee, and I’ll be doing that soon to a well work ‘70’s Explorer.

Otherwise I’d scribe a mark near the waterline and paint the bottom with a couple coats of topside paint.

Badly scraped and scarred Explorer with scribe line.

P6130015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

New white-on-white bottom.

P6160010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

You could use a hull matching topside paint, or go two-tone with a different color.

 

[yellowcard129]

Yellowcard, I don’t know about the “best stuff”. I have refinished the bottom of a couple worn and UV faded TuffWeave canoes, and a couple vintage glass & nylon boats by lightly sanding the bottom, rolling & tipping a coat of epoxy resin, letting that cure for a week or so, wet sanding the bottom and finally rolling & tipping a coat of spar urethane.

The boats came out looking like new, and have held up well over the years.

I suppose that could be cut down to a single step by using an epoxy resin with UV resistance. West 207 hardener has UV inhibitors, but I have never used it for that purpose.

For a Royalex canoe I would not go whole hull hog. If the damage is mostly restricted to the stems I’d add Dynel skid plates, or on a worn vee bottom possibly a full length skid at the apex of the vee, and I’ll be doing that soon to a well work ‘70’s Explorer.

Otherwise I’d scribe a mark near the waterline and paint the bottom with a couple coats of topside paint.

Badly scraped and scarred Explorer with scribe line.

P6130015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

New white-on-white bottom.

P6160010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

You could use a hull matching topside paint, or go two-tone with a different color.

Thanks for the reply. I was looking at the west system 105/207. Would one quart of 105 and one pint of 207 be enough to cover the bottom of a canoe? or do I need more.

 

[dougd]

I recently did the bottom of a canoe and quart should be enough. I had about a 1/4 of the cans left when I was done.

dougd

 

[yellowcard129]

My Royalex canoe has a small 1" crack thru the 1st layer, thinking I could just get a kevlar patch and put down the 105 over it? I'm not concerned about looks, just want a reliable fix.

 

[dougd]

I'm not a fan of kevlar for patching, just my take on it. I have a variety of different clothes I use. Since it's such a small crack I would be more then happy to send you some Dynel cloth which is my go to stuff for bottom work. Shoot me a PM with your address and I'll have it off in the mail this week!

dougd

 

[snapper]

A bit off topic but here goes...

Doug's reply is why this forum is so valuable to me. Folks helping folks, sharing advice and offering help where they can. It's a tremendous community of like minded people who will do what they can to keep you on the water. Thanks so much for all your generosity.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[Mike McCrea]

FWIW this is a scratched, scraped and scarred glass & nylon bottom after a coat of epoxy, wet sanding, and a coat of spar urethane.

DSCF1720 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Held sideway there for some diamond accents over patched and repair hardware holes. That boat, a Phoenix Vagabond, had been out and about on a few trips by then and the bottom refinishing held up fine. Still looks decent 10 years later.

 

[ppine]

I just paint em.
I use epoxy for repairs and coating wood. Then a couple of coats of high UV resistant varnish.