Needs a little TLC

[Mihun09]

We left the Tremblay at our friends camp and brought home her old canoe for some TLC. Chopper Gun fibreglass. It has been used hard and put away wet a few times but it will help me hone my glass working skills a bit.

No rush on this one, we have a year or so.

Don't mind the duct tape, needed that to keep the hull and gunwales together for the ride home

 

[yellowcanoe]

All I can contribute is glass fibers are not your friend
Wear a protective suit and respirator
please. Lung disease is something you do not want

 

[dougd]

That last picture scared me! Nasty cracks!

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

Wow, that'll be a job!

 

[Iskweo]

Holy crap ! Whose idea was this anyway? There is a nice loaner involved in this deal too...what a bargain.

Fear not YC...I will be using full PPE when grinding this barge back into shape.



Christy

 

[memaquay]

Use the money you would spend repairing that worn out turd to buy them a decent second hand canoe. That's one of the fugliest pieces of merde I've ever seen.

 

[Odyssey]

Makes perfect sense. Practise new skills on a hull that will never see tripping use, takes all the pressure off the results.
It will either see a second life as a tandem fishing tub or as a tandem soaker hot tub. ( win - win ) I know which result I'm rooting for.
In either case it will have served it's purpose as a practise model. Brilliant idea. Knowing Wolf Canoes you'll spend the extra effort and wind up with yet another beauty to please the eye and tickle the paddle muscles. Best of luck and play safe.

 

[Guest]

Holy crap ! Whose idea was this anyway?

That is one fugly looking POS chopper gun canoe. The widely cracked keel filler material looks like Bondo to me; I see some (cautious) 80 grit belt sander work ahead.

Definitely full PPE, shower and change clothes immediately after. I am already sensitized and aim a leaf blower at myself as soon as I am done, and do that crap outside the shop.

POS chopper gun fugly and all, I bet they will not recognize that canoe when you are done; after the grinding and sanding a lot of it is cosmetics.

Please take plenty of before, during and after photos of that sows ear.

 

[Mihun09]

This little beauty is almost done. I went through many 60 grit discs to open up all the nasties on the hull to allow a resin coat to fill as much as possible. All old glass patches were removed, larger cracks along the keel filled with short strand fibreglas filler with wood dowels backing where the holes were in the end tanks.

There are still some kinks in the alum gunwales but they don't need to come out as it will be Kim's personal camp/fishing vessel.

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

You said you'd do it and you did. Hats off to you.

 

[Mihun09]

Seats built and installed.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I like the seat webbing colors and pattern. Adds creative pizzazz to the monotonous world of black webbed seats.

 

[Guest]

Karin, that derelict woven roving canoe came out very well.

The scary part in rehabilitating a canoe like that is when (if, better not) you sit down and total the cost of the materials; epoxy, fiberglass, sanding disks, disposable gloves, paint, brushes, tape, wood, webbing, varnish, hardware, heating the shop, etc.

I did that once, down to every machine screw, pop rivet and brush. Once was enough.

Scarier still would be calculating the number of shop hours. No doubt a labor of love on a friend’s sentimental canoe, and money can’t buy that.

I learn something new with every canoe I rebuild. Any process or technique that stands out in mind as an “aha!” moment?

 

[Mihun09]

Glenn, that is not the first time I have woven webbing with the hull colour into the seats, mind you, on Red's Trembly the black/red combo did seem kind of odd to me.

Mike, after totalling costs on a few wood/canvas restorations and deducting from selling price to see my labour was worth about $5 an hour I just stopped doing that.
I have hordes of spare time despite still working full time, so there is no real value I place on it. Should I go work on an old funky canoe or sit and watch youtube or netflix? Still too cold to be outside.

Time well spent on the old turd really. I hope to have it finished this weekend and if Ontario ever opens their borders to us before June it will get delivered mid June.

Karin

 

[Roybrew]

Wow! Love it. Give the old canoe a new life. Kudoos to you.

 

[Iskweo]

There are thousands of these old glass boats all over Canada. Most of them are terribly abused but repairable. Sadly a lot of them are repaired by the unskilled.

These are actually better boats than the plastic garbage Pelicans and Colemans that fill the garbage dumps, some actually having decent enough lines. So if you cant build a stripper ( my first chooice), and you dont want to drop upwards of $3000 on some kevlar wonder craft, this is what you end up with. Not terrible, just a bit heavy. Certainly no worse than a Grumman.
We got sidetracked on this one but it really was not all that hard to do...it just had to wait its place in the rotation. I didnt really have much to do with this one as I was out of provinice for most of it but I love the way it has come together.

 

[alsg]

Wow! Nice rehab!

 

[Mihun09]

I didnt really have much to do with this one as I was out of provinice for most of it but I love the way it has come together.

You got to clean the hull before I painted it this evening.

 

[Mihun09]

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