Repair of RedBird Cedar Strip Canoe

[shawnkielty]

Four years ago I built this canoe and over time the fiberglass has delaminated at the stems (I didn’t wrap the stems with the glass). Additionally, there was a spot near the stems that was damaged.

My intention is to remove all the loose delaminated glass and varnish, restore the damaged wood, and glass both stems with about 4” overlapping the existing glass and patch, then revarnish. Lots of sanding.

My original question was: is it imperative to remove the varnish prior to applying new epoxy and glass? The varnish is sound. ITT seems a moot question at this point, as it’s pretty easy to tell when it’s removed.

The materials are ash stems, cedar strips, West System 105 and Epiphanes varnish.

 

[Boatman53]

Yes, sand off the varnish.
Jim

 

[shawnkielty]

Thanks Jim!

 

[Gamma1214]

I'd say the safe bet is to sand off the varnish, and sanding through the glass closest to the repair site will probably help you feather the repair to be least noticeable. (think: old bare wood against new bare wood and layers of glass / varnish gradually becoming thicker until you're past the repair site if that visualization makes sense)

I'm curious about your 4th picture: is there a double layer of wood strips or is that just some wood stuck to the inner glass layer? (good adhesion if, as I suspect, it's the latter)