Last night I applied one coat of epoxy on my Wenonah Whisper that had lost most it’s shine, polyester covering. Now I would like to put a clear coat for UV protection on the boat.
Lots of info out there on varnishes etc. Can I just spray on some automotive clear coat and be done with it. All I want to do is protect the epoxy. A show boat it is not. thanks
Brian
This may help
Varnish is used for protection of the epoxy on stitch & glue and strip built boats, so it ought to work in your situation.
Jim
http://redrockstore.com/canoerepair/touchup/varnish/index.htm
Epoxy on for protection ???
– Last Updated: Apr-09-10 4:11 PM EST –
A little late now but could you have sprayed the clear instead of the epoxy if all you needed was shine ? ... Or maybe even westanded / buffed.
If you can spray clear and the surface is prepped well, its gonna come out real nice as epoxy makes for a near perfect 'primer'.
Automotive clear-coat should work.
I’ve read of people doing it on the KBBS.
some work needed
– Last Updated: Apr-09-10 4:22 PM EST –
The boat needed some work in the skid plate area and a few gouges filled. 80-90% of the shine, polyester resin?, was gone from the boat. No gel coat. At least the kevlar fabric was not fuzzy or torn. My goal is to protect the outer hull and give it some shine. The boat is 20yrs old.
Brian
hey Jim
Wow, the timing on this is just great. The link you posted might answer my questions, but if you don’t ;mind I have a few more.
I have a 6 in slit in my bell(kevlight). I was preparing to fiberglass patch the inside. The link you posted shows the patch being used on the outside. Do you think I can put it on the inside??
Unrelated, 2nd canoe. I have a White Stillwater made of glass that is badly faded. It appeared to be baby or light blue. I would like to change or at least wake up the color and return the shine.
Can I change color and if so, how, using what.??
and if not, I assume I can sand and varnish the original color. Any details you might be able to provide would be wonderful.
Steve
steves@eddyline.com
Epoxy?
The chance of the epoxy adhering to the polyester resin is a questionable! Only time will tell!
Yep
I called Wenonah and they said there wasn’t much I could do. But like I said earlier there is very little of the Polyester left. I took a large scotch brite to the whole boat and 100grit to the still shiny spots. No kevlar was fuzzed. I did the whole boat in epoxy and then I’ll put a couple coats of varnish over it. If my effort fails I’m only out $50 at most and some time. This boat is my wife’s boat and it will probably last forever due to lack of use.
Brian
Epoxy will stick just FINE to polyester
or vinylester, as long as surface prep is appropriate. I’ve patched polyester boats with epoxy and the results were excellent.
What you DON’T want to do is to patch an epoxy boat using polyester resin. Vinylester resin might stick, but why risk it?
Epoxy is the best patching resin.
Sure, you can patch it outside, but I
assumed you would want to patch inside to keep outside appearance as near to original as possible.
If you get it fixed up nice enough,
I might buy it back from you 
Just kidding. I hope that you get a lot of miles of pleasure out of the Whisper. You’ve got a lot more ambition when it comes to boat repair/reconditioning.
second that
g2d is right.
I use epoxy over polyester or vinylester all the time.
It stick very well.
So far has not failed me yet.
Third that
Epoxy is the basis for a whole range of structural adhesives.
3 boats I’m working on
Beside the Whisper I’m working on that baby blue WWC1 you saw at Canoecopia Yanoer and I picked up a Royalex Spirit II tandem for $350. I have not spent over $500 on a boat before so most of what I purchase needs a little TLC. Right now I have 7 canoes and the kid kayak. Everyone in my family (6) has a solo canoe to call their own
The Baby blue WWC1 received polishing compound to take away the oxidation. A new sliding bucket was installed and new Sglass/epoxy skid plates.
The spirit II received polyester felt/epoxy skid plates and sglass/epoxy patches where the outer skin was worn.
I’m hoping to be done in the next week with the boats. The popup camper trailer now 6 place canoe trailer needs more work. Lights need to be hooked up and I’m using 30 gal blue barrels for storage. I have to figure out a way to attach them to the tailer for quick on and off. May 1st is the start of the family boating season.
I’ll get some pics when I’m done with the Whisper.
Brian
Inside vs inside & outside patches
Smaller holes, slices and tears can be patched using inside patches only to maintain appearance. But larger areas of damage require in & out patches. At least if you want to make them semi-permanant.
Jim
If you’re using S-glass and epoxy,
you should ditch Kevlar felt skid plates and put on proper bias cut concentric 4 layer S-glass skid plates. Thinner than K-felt, smoother, very hard wearing, better compression strength.
Not Kevlar
On the spirit II I used polyester felt from Walmart’s fabric store section. Just plain old white felt. A local strip boat builder told me to give it a try.
I need to add a few more layers of glass for the skids. I only used one.
Brian
epoxy and polyester
Epoxy sticks just fine to polyester as well as to most everything else. Polyester doesn’t stick all that well to epoxy.
Bill H.