This is an old Boreal Design fiberglass kayak, with an old repair that is now cracked and coming apart. What I am considering is sanding away old white gunk and the gel coat in the near area. Then filling the crack with Fiberglass particles and resin. Then covering the whole front end in several layers of fiberglass and resin to strengthen and repair the damaged nose. Then add two eyes and a smiling mouth. OK maybe not the last one. Would you do something different? Any one repaired something like this before and have some advice. Thanks.
Sounds like a good plan. What in Poseidon’s name did they put on there?
I would grind/sand off;( 2" back feathered), sand smoothish, fill in with fiberglass two or three alternating layers. Epoxy layers and fill in weave. Clean with denatured alcohol each layer. Sant to at least 220. Then paint. I don’t do gel coat . (Makes my breathing parts unhappy.)
Generally epoxy sticks to polyester, but not other way.
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Or perhaps sand out, carve a big wood ball, or perhaps head and epoxy that on, paint face🥴… or not.
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First picture kind of looks like the diseased nose of some kind of animal, maybe horse, camel, moose.
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Thanks, that’s basically what I intend to do. Fill the cracks with an epoxy fiberglass mess mix, and then once that is dried, layer over with epoxy, fiberglass cloth until well built up. Once dried solid and sanded will decide if any further finishing is required. Paint, or gelcoat. If I am doing a gel coat though the whole bottom would benefit and not sure I want to do that right now.
Cut away and sand off all of that ugly mess. Use foam to restore the contours of our boat by adding and sanding. Then add several layers of fiberglass and marine epoxy and paint it.
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Uploading: IMG_20240627_143808.jpg…
A lot of the crap sanded away. And what do I find. That tongue like object in the middle is part of the old fix. Foam had been shoved up in behind and this almost rock like substance was loose and able to be moved around. I finally decided to remove it to expose the gaping mouth on my baby.
Now I need to figure out what to do form a backing mold for the new layers of fiberglass. Thinking a ball of some kind would be sufficient. A golf ball is actually to big. May look for a squash ball or something that will squish into the opening.
Anyone have any other suggestions?
This is the opening and the old soft foam cloth on the left and the rock like substance on the right.
I am beginning to believe there was a rather inadequate repair job done previously.
I suppose I could create a ball of wax paper and push that up in there to act as a support or backing for the fiberglass and resin layers.
Thinking of at least four layers. 2 from underside to top, and two from left to right. That should provide a good solid snout. Taking it about 4 inches back from the hole. Would anyone go further than 4 inches?
I would sand and feather it back inside and out. Then make a type of Bondo with West Systems epoxy mixed with adhesive filet they sell. You can make it any consistency you like. Pack it in and shape it back so it looks normal. Possibly put some expanding foam to close the hole up on the inside or wax paper ball as you said.
Possibly cut some glass and push in from the inside with a stick or pole covered in wax paper on the end. Then reshape it on the outside.
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I had a similar problem on a great old Sawyer Charger. Use spray foam in a can and fill the whole void to seal it up. Then use a sharp utility to get the rough contours and sand it to restore the shape of the stem. Then fiberglass cloth and epoxy in multiple layers.
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Could you mill a block of wood to the approximate shape that you want but slightly smaller, cover it with wax, and then push it into the bow from the inside. The top of the nose should stop it approximately where you would want it. It might be even easier to shape a piece of rigid closed cell foam with the thought of leaving it in place afterwards. Then use it as a form to install new glass and epoxy, Marine-Tex, or similar material, building it up to the correct shape. Finish with gelcoat.
You might want to clean up the interior of the hole and install a collar of fiberglass and epoxy to strengthen the seam between between the boat and the repair. Trim as necessary when fashioning the new nose.
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I have been thinking about what I can use as a fill material to provide a backing for glass/resin coats.
I like the idea of wood, however it will add weight to the kayak and require more effort to shape it.
I Pondered balls that can squeeze into shape, food materials- bread, carrot, potato (that would melt away and disappear after), then I thought of foam noodles and cutting a chunk of that to shape. This would add some buoyancy to the tip of the kayak, and only a little weight.
I’m thinking I will try the foam noodle first and if that does not work perhaps some kind of spray foam as ppine suggested.
PaddleDog The inside is fairly hard to work with. It looks like the whole boat is 2 layers of glass and at the tip they started to separate. I can see a layer of glass separating out from the side. The picture shows what I am talking about. I don’t see easily fixing that. I think I am better off rebuilding the outside and leaving the inside minimally impacted. I suppose it would not hurt if I could inject some resin into the gap between the layers, however I can’t easily sand and prep the area, and it may be hard to keep the resin from running. I suppose I could try and do one side at a time and tilt the boat to one side and only try and resin the layer gap on the lower side. Don’t know how well this would work. Any thoughts? Is it worth trying to fill the old glass layers gap?
Thanks all for your time in offering suggestions. I find the group brain storming helps me narrow in on a path forward.
It is just some white epoxy based surface restore material I believe. When I first tried to protect a keel on a fiberglass canoe I used something like that. It lasted for about 2 seasons and then was cracking and chipping off with all the ground scrape contact. I then did a proper fiberglass keel guard. This feels like that type of material, and I am going to do what I hope will be a proper fiberglass repair.
I think I might be inclined to do a so called end pour of epoxy to fill up the hollow end, after sorting out the outside of the end. I would think that would help stabilize things.
Here is what it looks like using a small pool noddle cut in have and squeezed into the end. I think it looks pretty good. Nicely shapes to the nose of the boat.
Now to do some final clean up of the surface around the hole.
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Interesting idea. I will see how the outside finish goes and then decide if some kind of inner work will help.
Another thought. Should I prime the foam surface with something like a wax to prevent a solid integration with the fiberglass/epoxy layers? This in theory would allow me to remove the foam after the glass layers dry and harden. Then I could poor/drizzle/paint some epoxy resin down on the inside end of the nose. What do you think? Is it worth trying to allow for more resin on the inside after the outside is done? Feels like the nose will end up being bullet proof and the strongest part of the boat. Could turn it into a ramming end like a Viking boat. Of course if I do that I will definitely need to put some eyes and a mouth on the end. A mouth with teeth perhaps. 
Sorry, my idea of doing an end pour to create a solid end was only provided in a “brainstorming” context, as I have no experience with doing this type of work. Upon re-reading what I wrote, I make it sound like I know a lot about this type of work when I actually do not. But given your situation, and given that many kayaks do have an end that is solid, and filled with epoxy, it seemed to be a possible approach to consider.
Your foam looks well shaped and fitted. At this point you may want to ignore my suggestion.
What could serve to allow you to remove the foam after the epoxy/fiberglass layer is cured will depend upon what you are using. I have wrapped things with plumbers Teflon tape, for very different projects, and that has worked.
West System Epoxy does not stick to some plastics, indeed they sell plastic stirring dishes and stirring paddles, and the epoxy just pops off after curing. But how well either idea would work, I do not know. If you try it, don’t forget to attach something to the foam to allow you to pull it out later, and even that might not work due to the fragile nature of the foam.
The other way to do this potentially, again from someone without experience doing this, would be to roughly shape something to contain the epoxy pour, leaving the end hollow. Something like the small dishes used to mix the epoxy. You will probably have to fabricate something. Then do the pour. Then shape the protruding epoxy, as you have done with the foam. Then do the fiberglass work over that.
Just brainstorming an interesting problem.
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