Removing cracked royalex for repair

[jdombrowski]

I have a new to be 1996 MRC Duck Hunter that was relatively well cared for, but I cracked the stem after a season of use. The cracks are only on the bottom and don't go all the way through the foam.

My plan is to repair the cracks, then apply dynel skid plates over the exposed ABS areas on the front and back.

I've gotten a lot of good info on this site, but have two quick questions:

1. For the two cracks, do I chip away the ABS that has come loose from the foam core? Or do I leave as much as possible and just fill in the GFlex underneath it? I can stick my fingernail under the gouge, maybe a 1/16 of an inch.

2. When applying the dynel skid plate, do I need to sand down to ABS where there is still intact vinyl? I think the answer is yes so that I can flame treat the ABS (and I think the GFlex adheres better to ABS than vinyl).

Pictures attached.

Thanks in advance.

 

[goonstroke]

1. My suggestion would be to only remove as much as necessary to ensure the g-flex is getting in there and there won't be an air bubble under the skidplate.

2. I wouldn't remove the vinyl, just rough it up with sandpaper to help with the bond. The epoxy adheres to vinyl quite well. I've never flame treated an ABS boat before applying a skidplate. That's only necessary for polyethelene boats. I just make sure the surface is clean and free of oils, including greasy palms, etc. I wash the area, rough it up, wash it again, let it dry, wipe it with alcohol, then do the deed. Since your hull is dark you may want to color the dynel or the resin so it blends in more.

That boat looks pretty good! (My first thought was "'tis but a flesh wound!") I've definitely seen royalex boats much more worn than that running around without skidplates. I trust you know about cold weather storage issues with wood gunwhale royalex canoes.

 

[jdombrowski]

1. My suggestion would be to only remove as much as necessary to ensure the g-flex is getting in there and there won't be an air bubble under the skidplate.

2. I wouldn't remove the vinyl, just rough it up with sandpaper to help with the bond. The epoxy adheres to vinyl quite well. I've never flame treated an ABS boat before applying a skidplate. That's only necessary for polyethelene boats. I just make sure the surface is clean and free of oils, including greasy palms, etc. I wash the area, rough it up, wash it again, let it dry, wipe it with alcohol, then do the deed. Since your hull is dark you may want to color the dynel or the resin so it blends in more.

That boat looks pretty good! (My first thought was "'tis but a flesh wound!") I've definitely seen royalex boats much more worn than that running around without skidplates. I trust you know about cold weather storage issues with wood gunwhale royalex canoe

Thank you for the detailed reply. It saved me a lot of work sanding off the vinyl.

I plan to color the dynel black using pigment and graphite powder. There was a post on here that laid out all the ingredients and where to get them. I think the black will look good with the olive drab and dark stained gunwales.

I am aware of cold cracks, but thanks for mentioning it. The previous owner garage stored the boat and I garage store it in Michigan. We've had some wicked temp swings and I've been okay so far. We winter canoe and I was worried about using my boat, but it's been okay so far. Even when I left it outside during a weekend trip.