Well, the mystery $275 Wenonah turns out to be a Sundowner. It has some finish issues and a couple of bends in the aluminum gunwales that look like they can be straightened. The owner believes it is mostly a kevlar layup. It seems to weigh in the mid 50’s but I’ll get it on a scale tomorrow.
I’m thinking of straightening the gunwales with 2x4 blocks and a pipe clamp. Has anyone done this?
The owner patched the hull in a few places where the exuberance of youth overpowered the aramid and then he painted the entire hull with a closely matching green enamel. It might be nice to get back to the gel coat, that could be a wish best not asked for though.
I worked aluminum gunwales for a Sawyer Cruiser back into shape using an old swing set. That was with the gunwales off of the hull. basically leverage with a properly located fulcrum.
I just finished a $25 Mohawk royalex, tandem (throw away) canoe that didn’t survive hurricane Irma. It had a four foot long crack on the bottom side, another three foot one in the center of the hull that joined the four foot one, another foot long one in the center of the bow hull, another two foot long one in the hull under the stern seat. The curve of the stern bottom was ground in at least an inch deep and six inches long, and the center thwart was broken with one half missing.
Along with all that, there were a dozen or more inch or two deep cuts and abrasions on the sides and bottom and the gunnels were full of sand and grit.
The only things that were in good shape were the seats.
I used lots of fibergass, fiberglass tape and G-flex epoxy, and bunch of sanding and finished the whole thing with Krylon paint.
The canoe looks like new. We had sea trials the other day and the only complaint we had were with our new $15 K-mart paddles ! I have $105 into it counting the K-mart paddles
The seats in this Sundowner are wood bench seats that the owner re-caned. I’d like to get the seats out to refinish them. They appear to be attached to the L-brackets with rivets from below. Should I just grind those off with a Dremmel tool and then come back with machine screws?
Good job on straightening out those gunnels. I’ll bet you were holding your breath as you tightened the clamp.
On the seats I would replace the rivits with stainless screw head bolts and captive nuts
Good job and you got out that bend that would make bow seat removal difficult ( or worse re inserting!). It is a good idea to take them out sand and don’t forget to varnish the end grain… It hardly ever gets that from the factory though the prior owner might have done so…still refresh.
That clamp and block setup seemed pretty controlled which was confidence inspiring. I could stop part way, disassemble it, sight down the gunwale and then reassemble and pull the bend out a little further as needed. It went really quick.
@RobF said:
The seats in this Sundowner are wood bench seats that the owner re-caned. I’d like to get the seats out to refinish them. They appear to be attached to the L-brackets with rivets from below. Should I just grind those off with a Dremmel tool and then come back with machine screws?
I have seen some crazy repairs over the years, but have never seen anyone rivet in wood seats from below. Not only do you have to grind off the rivet heads from underneath the aluminum brackets, but then try and get out the rest of the rivet from a blind hole in the wood seat (the pics do not show a through hole). It will be a challenge to get them out, especially if they start to spin when drilling out the remaining rivet.
Out of Line, the set up puzzled me. I wasn’t sure if it was done by the previous owner or maybe a dealer.
I tried to use a hacksaw briefly since my Dremmel tool’s battery seems to be on its last gasp. My spinal column lost its sense of humor over the last few years. Contortions are less fun. That taken with the poor condition of the seats on the underside where it appears an animal
has been chewing on them, has brought the decision to just replace the seats if it looks like we’ll keep the canoe. Hopefully, we can get it out to the lake next weekend so my nephew and his wife can try it out.
@RobF said:
Out of Line, the set up puzzled me. I wasn’t sure if it was done by the previous owner or maybe a dealer.
I tried to use a hacksaw briefly since my Dremmel tool’s battery seems to be on its last gasp. My spinal column lost its sense of humor over the last few years. Contortions are less fun. That taken with the poor condition of the seats on the underside where it appears an animal
has been chewing on them, has brought the decision to just replace the seats if it looks like we’ll keep the canoe. Hopefully, we can get it out to the lake next weekend so my nephew and his wife can try it out.
In was wrong, RobF. I looked at a Wenonah Fisherman this week that had the same set up as yours. All of the Wenonahs I have had or seen came with webbed seats (or buckets), not cane, and were typically through bolted to the brackets. As much as I love the Wenonah brand, I’m not sure what they were thinking on this one.
