What the title says. Fill? Paint? Ignore?
You can see a white layer showing under the red outer. T-Formex. MRC Explorer. New.
Unknown cause. I think it happened when the shop employees put it in and out of the water sideways off a dock, during our demo paddle.
Thanks for the opinions!
I’m have no experience with T-Formex, but I would tend to ignore the scratches. I kayak coastal marshes full of oysters, and paddle rocky rivers in canoes. All my boats have bottom scratches. Frist scratches on new boats seem to bother us the most.
Agreed, just ignore them. You will acquire more, they become part of the story
Ignore it - look at the scratches on these - every one a good memory…
Yep. There will (hopefully) be more as you go on adventures. We live in AR and paddle the Buffalo National River. If you catch it a little low you may do some dragging on rocks. I said to my wife one time that we could take our own kayaks (which I preferred to do) or we could rent and spare our boats some wear. She said she’d rather paddle where and when we want and maybe have to replace a worn out boat one day then not paddle bc we were afraid to use our boats. That’s one of my favorite things she’s ever said to me😁. Paddle on!
The main reason I have never bought a new canoe.
They are made to be used.
I agree with the others battle scars or beauty marks these boats are intended to be used. I bought a used canoe about a year ago to get back into paddling and it came with some that eased the pain of worrying about it and I added to it over the summer. Has no effect on performance and will take a long time before repair or replace time comes along.
I started using Fluid-Film on the hull mid way thru the summer. It is a wool wax product that IMO is pretty safe on the environment. It does nothing to repair the scrapes and is mostly cosmetic, but I feel it adds a little protection and makes the boat look good. It holds up pretty good and is easy to wipe on and polish off. We have been using the boats a lot and it seemed to be good for a month or so. I did it right before winter as the boats are stored outside hull up.
They sell a few products that are similar made just for boats.
Before and after.
A lil Mineral oil will hide a lot of scratches on most hull materials
Leave them be. I have never owned a T-formex canoe but I have talked to several people who have who had previously owned Royalex canoes. I have been told a couple of times the T-formex seems to be more susceptible to surface scratches although it seems to have equivalent structural strength.
Abrasion is what eventually kills or killed many Royalex canoes.
Thanks all.
I am the sort who is OK with using their stuff, so it’s less of a cosmetic worry, than a structural one.
I’ve read the ABS layer under the outer (color) layer of Royalex (and I assume T Formex) is susceptible to rapid UV damage, once exposed.
That said, it’s such a small exposure. As advised, I will let it be or maybe hit it with a red sharpie paint pen at most.
And here she sits in the shade anyway. On another note, the tires work so well in supporting the boat that I may not need to make sawhorses or a rack. Hillbilly storage solution seems fine…?
Just as easy to used an old milk carton and rub on with an iron. Done this for years and works well regardless of the size.
A wax coated milk carton. Great fire starter.
Hope you are smarter than your response. Use a plastic polypropylene or polyethylene milk carton.
The discussion was about structural repair. Milk jugs are not any part of a structural repair, besides not mixing with the base material, they suck at UV. I haven’t seen anything that needed structural repair…did I miss something? I thought all anyone had was a few scratches. and scratches on a hull are basically cosmetic. I assume that I must of missed something…guess I’ll go re-read.
BUT…
Milk jugs are a no go tho.
Went back and looked …just a scuff Forget it and go paddling.
If you use a milk jug for anything … use it for drinking water … then recycle.
Or for bailing water!
And peeing in!!
Rub some mineral oil into the scratch and forget about it
Not that this boat needs these repairs, but I remember from my X-country skiing days we used to have these P-Tex rods/candles we would light and drip the plastic into a gouge and fill it, then use a scraper and sandpaper to make it smooth.
Is there anything like this for poly or other hulls?
T-formex is not polyethylene. The major component of T-formex is ABS just as was the case for Royalex. But T-formex does not have a vinyl inner and outer coating like Royalex.
Esquif has been very close-mouthed about exactly what the inner and outer color layer of T-formex is but I am pretty certain that it does not contain polyethylene.
Yes, for repair of polyethylene hulls thermal welding can work well and PE “welding rod” is available. I would not advise anyone to try using it on T-formex.
That’s what prompted me to write this question in the 1st place, the layers.
On my boat, the outer red layer was gouged enough to show the next white layer down (small as it is). Was thinking that’s the point where one would consider filling it in, unlike surfaces scratches that never penetrate the outer red layer.
So, is that white layer the ABS?
