I just bought a Old Town Penobscot Royalex canoe and need to patch a scuff in the bow (It was a blemished unit). The stuff is not deep but is through the red layer. I would not call it a crack or cut or gouge. It looks like it was dragged on pavement or something. The spot is 3/4 inch by 1.5 inch. I searched the arcives but can’t find a clear answer to my questions.
The old town website mentions epoxy putty as one option. Two questions:
Will the epoxy putty work?
Is the Old Town putty any different than the “Plumbers” epoxy putty I buy at Home Depot?
I have purchased the “marine” epoxy putty and also the “plumbers” epoxy putty. Both had an outer core and an inner core that you mixed together, and hardened to a waterproof, sandable, paintable surface. I currently have a piece of the “plumbers” putty in my emergency repair kit. Did not see much difference except that the “marine” putty was $3 more.
Repair Putty I used Old Town’s repair putty on my kayak last week. Its a two part adhesive that sets up quickly. You only have about 1 minute to work with it and get it smoothed out. Read the repair instructions in your owner’s manual before hand. So far it looks fine but only time will tell.
PC 7 is my personal favorite of the PC’s. It works just as well under water as 11. I used to have a car back in MD that was basically made out of the stuff. Leaky gas tank, leaky power steering pump, body rust, holes in aluminum or plastic boats? no job’s too big for PC7
brittleness I tried PC-7 (in 2 cans, black putty) for some cracked Royalex and found it was much too brittle - the repair was on a flexible part of a ww canoe and was not supported by a patch, but it re-cracked right away.
I went back to using 3M 2-part adhesive and am also trying PC-11, which seems pretty good for Royalex repair, I may stick with PC-11 now.
Not surprised PC 7 cures very hard. In 1981 I bought a blem Mad River Explorer in Rx. Had a couple of small bubbles in the interior, behind the stern seat. I sliced them open and shoved PC 7 in, and it is still there today. But a thick repair in a flexy area probably wopuld not last.
support In fairness, if I had supported the PC-7 repair job with a glass or ABS patch, maybe it wouldn’t have re-cracked, but since I hadn’t used it before, I wanted to see how it held up.
When I worked at Mohawk we used Loc-tite 5 min epoxy (waterproof brand) when it was just a small compromise in the vinyl. We would have matching colored pigments that we mixed in the epoxy while we combined part1 and part 2. That was mainly to prevent UV’s reaching the substrate. Anything bigger, we would us west systen epoxy with 10 oz cloth, last coat having the colored pigment added.