Plastic Boat Repair

I bought a used Wilderness Systems Tempest that had been used pretty hard as a guide’s boat. It had obviously encountered a number of barnacles or other sharp objects leaving a lot of “whiskers” on the hull. I thought it would be a good idea to sand these off, which I did. Now the hull has a smoother, but still slightly rough and the hull looks sort of “dusty”. Is there a good way to polish up the hull and make it slicker? I thought about using polishing compound like you would on a car finish, but not sure how it would work on the plastic.

Hot Spoon
Pnetter DVDKitch told me that a heated spoon stroked over the whiskers will do the trick.



I’ve not tried it yet, but makes sense.

I have posted this before
http://www.paddling.net/message/showThread.html?fid=advice&tid=94048#94927

Not worth it. Go paddle the thing.

yep
go paddlin’!





getting the biggies off is all that is necessary. smooth and shiny ain’t gonna happen.



steve

Wait a sec, flat.
Arent you the one that used a power sprayer and posted how much the water deflected and fanned out even from “whiskers” that seemed very tiny to the naked eye?



Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.

yep
I did post that. The spray off’n the powerwasher DID make it apparaent how much resistanse one has…so remove the biggies with a sharp knife and go paddling. To spend time and effort sanding off the bottom of a kayak and attempting to get it shiny and smooth??? I don’t think so.



steve