Just purchased a used Pamlico 100 that has deformed from being stored long-term on two 2x4’s. Any hope on restoring it’s shape? Or should we just enjoy it until we’re ready to upgrade next year?
Turn it updide down
and put it in the sun for a couple of hours. With luck it’ll come back to shape.
Will give it a try -
Next sunny day I’ll give it a try - If that doesn’t work, what’s next?
An added step along with sun heat
would be to cut some foam and wedge it in to push the dents back close to the original shape. I dented a poly Necky touring kayak on my racks, and by wedging foam in it and leaving it in the sun, the dent went away. If you don’t have slabs of foam, maybe you can stuff something else in there to do the job.
Might take all summer
You are pretty far up north but any sunny days above 85 will help it and foam blocks or anything else you can use to help pust it up from the inside will help too.
Some greeat ideas
The foam block idea sounds very good! I’m setting up my storage rack in the garage to utilize straps right from the start. Has anybody tried (cautiously) using infrared heat lamps?
all of the above but also a hair dryer
speed the process especially on a cool day. Heat guns work well but can cause hot spots from getting too close or staying in one spot too long
Cautious is the word. Check boat
surface with hand periodically. Sun will work better in that the heat coverage will be more even.
After looking at it a while -
I have it setting on the (carpeted)floor with a bag of concrete mix (about 80#) on each of the dents, fore anf aft, where the boat sat on the previous owners storage rack. We’ll see how it looks tonight. We’re still plenty cool up here.
It Worked!
My wifes’ idea - Setting the weight inside the hull, worked after about 48-72 hours. There is still some minor deformation but not enough to swear by. What we did, was to set the boat on the carpeted garage floor, riase the bow and stern about 2", and prop the hull near the chines to keep it trom tipping. I had two 80# sacks of concrete mix setting in the corner, which went over the deformed areas. After 2-3 days (and it’s pretty cool up here NW of Chicago yet-) the it’s pretty much disapeared. My wifes’ idea worked well !
Sissors jack
I had a deformation and put the boat on sawhorses then put the appropriate sized pieces of wood at the deformation and used a sissors jack to slowly push it to it’s original shape. Left it for a week and its been fine since, Plastic has memory and you have to give it time to get a new memory. If it’s stretched though it may not work.
Molecular Memory
Don’t be surprised if the dents reappear.
Good news is for a boat like that it’s not going to be very noticeable in performance. So don’t sweat it.
All good advice…
In addition, if it seems as though the deformity may lead to your boat “oilcanning”, or bending in the middle, you can stiffen it up by adding a foam bulkhead under the dent/deformed area.
If the bend is where your feet need to be, a longitudinal (aligned front-to-rear) bulkhead can be installed, otherwise, a transverse (side-side) bulkhead can be used.
To install, first follow everyone else’s advice and let the boat sit in the sun until it heats up and pops as closely as possible back to its original shape.
Then, cut your stiff foam to shape (expect several trial fittings), and then apply a bead of silicon caulk along each edge of the bulkhead to hold it in place. I had to do this when I oilcanned my 13.5 Current Designs Breeze on a botched boof off a ledge - its been fine for the 4 years since.