I recently bought a 15yr old Royalex Wenonah Fisherman.
It has a warped area on bottom (if canoe is upside down, about 4ft long section bows downward- toward gunwales).
I will try to straighten the warped area first. using heat, plastic bags full of hot water & time.
BUT my problem is: in the area where the bottom is warped…inside the canoe where side meets bottom of canoe, there is a crease- about 12inches long and about 1/8" deep-- outside is perfect.
QUESTION: what is best way to treat this “crease”… I have West Main G/Flex that I have used on a number of scratches… should I just wait until I get the bottom “un-warped” and then just fill the crease with G/Flex? OR is there a better way.
Canoe will be used only on flat water, but I will do some multi-day camping trips so I want it safe & strong.
Probably the incident that caused
the crease also led to the bottom tending to pooch upward.
I would suggest that a minicell foam pillar between the center thwart and the bottom would push the bottom back into place and hold it there. Hot water along the crease might relax it, although it won’t remove it. After that, you could decide whether to fill the somewhat-relaxed crease with G-flex. The pillar will contribute to stiffness and safety of the boat.
It’s hard for me to talk about the utility of filling the crease without seeing it and seeing the overall situation of the bottom. I suspect that actual primary distortion is confined to the creased area, and that the oil-canned bottom is secondary and would disappear if the crease could magically be ironed out. But it can’t be entirely removed.