Anyone ever remove a skid plate from a Royalex canoe? If so, how did you go about doing it?
danger Will Robinson…
– Last Updated: Mar-21-05 10:22 AM EST –
If they're Kevlar (yellow), you're probably stuck with them. If they're fiberglass (not as common, though they're out there), you could get a disc sander or belt sander and carefully grind them down (don't bother grinding Kevlar unless you have a few months to go at the process and an unlimited budget for sanding disks).
The epoxy that's used for putting on the skid plates is usually a two-part epoxy that's got a fierce grip. If whoever installed the plates did so with NO surface prep (the vinyl skin is usually roughed up to provide 'teeth' for the epoxy to grip), it might be possible to pull them off slowly, but Royalex is NOT a very firm material to begin with, and can be pretty easily damaged in the process. In short, unless you have a really compelling reason to take 'em off, I'd let the sleeping skid plate lie...
“Skid Plate Removal”
Look at this recent thread: Skid Plate Removal
http://www.paddling.net/message/showThread.html?fid=advice&tid=290745