Bell Canoe - buffing out the seam...

When clear gelcoat Bell canoes come off their mould the seam that is created is fairly clean and not too noticeable. However, on the colored gelcoat boats the seam sticks out like a sore thumb. Has anyone out there had Bell clean up the seam on a colored gelcoat canoe. If so, could you please describe how the seam looked after it was buffed out.



Thanks, David

Bell may tell you to buff out your own
seam. It wouldn’t be that hard. I think that clear “gelcoat” is not gelcoat at all, just a thin coat of resin. The “White Gold” layups have gelcoat. The Black Gold and Kevlar Crystal do not have gelcoat.

The seam
is a result of a change to vacuum bagging (read “composites”)Bell changed the molds so they could move to this process. http://www.hpcanoes.bizland.com/articles/equipment/hullmaterials.html Also Bells eplanation http://www.bellcanoe.com/cservice/faq.html#9

The 2004 catalog did sell a wet sand kit that you could use to remove the seam yourself by block sanding it out with finer and finer wet sanding paper. Then just buff it. You can get the stuff yourself at any auto paint store and it’s really an easy job that just takes time and effort to do it right.