I have been given an old quapaw 17’ fiberglass canoe. Hardware is in good shape. No visible holes but the paint is chipped and it leaks through the hull. I’d like some advice on repainting and making it lake worthy again. I have a jitterbug i can sand with. Is there a reccomended grit? After sanding should i fill any chips with marine goop and hand work smooth? On the inside i can see old patches and daylight in spots. Doesn’t appear to be painted on the inside. Some of the patches look roughly done but i dont see any exposed glass. Should i paint or wash and leave it alone? Should i add more patches where i see daylight? I plan to use outdoor paint for the outer hull. I can spray, roll or brush. Is any better? Thanks for any replies and advice.
Search fiberglass boat repair Some excellent videos on the web.
Frankly, I would not invest a great deal of time or money in this boat. I would much rather see old boats on the water than in a landfill, but this canoe has a pretty hogged keel and does not appear to be of high quality construction. That is not to say you can’t make it lake-worthy (probably) and use it. I just wouldn’t sweat the details too much.
If you want to invest a bit of money, get a small quantity of epoxy and some plain weave fiberglass cloth (E 'glass) in 6 ounce/sq. yard weight. You will also need sandpaper, denatured alcohol, disposable gloves, masking tape, epoxy mixing cups and application tools, paper towels, etc. And a couple of cans of spray paint if you want to paint the exterior.
I would start by giving the boat a decent cleaning using something like Simple Green or Dawn dishwashing detergent and go over the entire hull inside and out. In doing so, you will likely find some defects like small holes and maybe loose edges of fiberglass patches, If any existing patches are not well bonded, you need to pull them out, or at least the parts that are loose. Rinse the boat well and find all the leaks and mark them. Plan to cover all the leaks on the interior of the hull with simple patches of E 'glass bonded on with two part epoxy. Prepare the areas you need to repair by sanding until you have exposed the fibers of the underlying fiberglass. I would probably start with 60 grit paper for this and finish up with 100 grit or 120 grit. Clean the areas to be patched well with denatured alcohol. You can also apply epoxy to any existing fiberglass patches that are rough. Filling the weave will smooth them.
I would use any type of spray paint you like to paint the hull exterior but it will add at least several pounds to the boat’s weight.
If the above sounds like too much expense or trouble, just find and mark the leaks. Clean those areas up well and apply a strip of Gorilla tape to the interior and exterior of the hull at all points that leak. Then go paddle. Replace tape as needed.
How much does that sucker weigh? Are those fiberglass console seats? My back hurts just looking at it. The other thing is you want to press firmly with a wood dowel or screwdriver handle along those dark areas inside the hull, if it’s mushy or brittle, it’s probably not worth fixing. It looks like it stood with snow melt water in it for a many a season. Fiberglass is pretty durable but the resins won’t tolerate prolonged exposure to the sun, they will break down and the boat will become spongy, yellowed and brittle.
Thanks for the advice. I’ll go ahead and clean it up and repaint. I have three kids, three ponds and live a few miles from the lake so this will make a good canoe to take them out and not worry about them tearing it up. Should i glue a pool noodle across the center and lay glass over it to reduce the oil canning?
I haven’t weighed it but it’s light enough i could haul it if it were not so big. I’ll check the dark spots but i thinks it’s mostly dirty. I dint think it was stored inner hull up but it has many years of use and then left as the old owner had health issues. Either way ill see what life i can stretch out of it cheaply before full retirement.
@MD said:
Thanks for the advice. I’ll go ahead and clean it up and repaint. I have three kids, three ponds and live a few miles from the lake so this will make a good canoe to take them out and not worry about them tearing it up. Should i glue a pool noodle across the center and lay glass over it to reduce the oil canning?
The keel is definitely hogged and it will affect performance somewhat, but perhaps not as much as you might expect. I don’t think applying some type of fiberglassed rib is going to do anything to reduce the current degree of hogging or prevent more. If you really wanted to do something about that I think you would need to fashion some type of rigid keelson to sit in the central channel of the hull using aluminum conduit or something like, then run a vertical strut riser from it to the underside of a central thwart or yoke to keep the hull bottom pressed out.
But again, I think that would be investing more time and money than the boat is worth.