Mad River resins

[Rubbaboo]

I’m about to start a restoration on an older (1987) Mad River Kevlar canoe and am curious about the type of resin they used to build their boats? Vinylester, epoxy?
Any information is appreciated!

Thanks!
Rubby

 

[Nick Pending]

Rubby,

Probably vinylester, almost certainly not epoxy. Still, I'd use epoxy for any actual repairs needed as it usually adheres better to other resin systems. Not everyone may agree. I don't know for sure which it used, just a gut feeling. Someone else may know for sure.

 

[Sliding Focus]

According to Mad River's 1987 catalog, they used vinylester resin in their Kevlar and Kevlar/Airex layups and polyester resin in their fiberglass layups: https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/MR...Z7YiNzbCSbeQgiHYOwSSxywFZrtMPi9U7qYBWVGagex8w

 

[dogbrain]

Raka uv epoxy resin does a good job. Even so, you’ll ultimately want to cover epoxy with paint or varnish.

Mark

 

[Rubbaboo]

Thanks everyone!
There’s a few small spots in the gel coat with some spiderwebbing so I was thinking of maybe grinding the cracks and gel coating.
Is there any other way or tricks for dealing with the this kind of blemish?

 

[DougK]

also interested in what folks do for the spiderwebbing..
on my old Seda Scout kevlar, I tried a light coat of epoxy on a couple of areas. It looks pretty bad despite my best efforts to blend it in..

 

[Alan Gage]

Thanks everyone!
There’s a few small spots in the gel coat with some spiderwebbing so I was thinking of maybe grinding the cracks and gel coating.
Is there any other way or tricks for dealing with the this kind of blemish?

I'm not trying to be facetious but my advice would be to ignore it. If the gel coat is actually flaking off then fill it with thickened epoxy and paint it with something that resembles the hull color.

I've never tried to repair gel coat in an attempt at a seamless repair and I've never tried to fix it with gel coat. I did enough reading on the subject to satisfy myself that chances of success were low and that the time invested would be high.

 Alan

 

[Cheeseandbeans]

I have repaired chips in gel coat with gel coat repair kits that allow you to blend different colors to get a close match. Many years later they are still holding strong.

I would be hesitant to use it on an area that needs to be “feathered” into the original gel coat like filled cracks. It is incredibly hard to sand and polish.

Photos would help understand the scale of the repair.

I repaired a similar vintage Kevlar Mad River with a myriad of spider cracks and the only cosmetically pleasing option was to grind, fill with thickened epoxy, and paint.

If the cracks aren’t too wide spread and the area isn’t soft or compromised, I would agree with Alan and leave it.

Adding a significant amount of gel coat is best accomplished by spraying (in my experience) and would add a significant amount of weight and require the proper equipment.

Bob

 

[dogbrain]

I have repaired a few gel coat canoes. In the scheme of things it isn’t all that difficult. The problem is getting a color match. It’s pretty easy to get a perfectly smooth hull, but those spider cracks will likely be much more visible than they were before. Even when I bought what was supposedly a color matched kit from wenonah, it was different enough from the canoe color to be noticeable. The “mix your own” color kit comes out much worse for me.

Mark