I have a MR Freedom and the tent garage I was storing it in collapsed due to snow load couple of winters ago. Side of the canoe was pushed in and left a crinkle that on one fold ruptured the outer plastic coating. The other spot of concern is a 1/4 tent support bolt punched a hole(just over 1/4 inch) clean through the hull. Figure the hole can be filled with thickened epoxy- should I add fiberglass patch as well inside and out or just outside? For the breached crinkle add some glass tape? Fill the folds or just leave it? I’m not concerned about aesthetics just want to get the canoe back in use. One other piece of damage the wood gunwales popped off I assume the screw threads stripped is wood filler strong enough to hold em back on? All the wood needs refinishing as well but that seems straightforward. Any suggestions/tips as to the proper repair appreciated.
Thanks
Gregg
If you are adding a fibreglass patch
do it on the inside.
use West Systems G-flex epoxy. then when that is hard use more to fill in the hole from the outside.
You can also use the epoxy rather than a wood filler on those gunnel screw holes.
Call up West Systems and ask them to send you their User manual.
-lots of good tips in there.
Jack L
Disagree. Glass patching does the
most outside. Kevlar or polyester are most effective inside. But if only glass is handy, just make sure it does not become a scratch-and-itch problem inside the boat.
What do you mean in the following:
"…on one fold ruptured the outer plastic coating."
The outermost plastic coating is vinyl, and is structurally fairly inconsequential. But the next layer in, the transluscent kind-of-sea-green layer is ABS, and is one of the two ABS structural layers.
If the vinyl is “ruptured,” just paint it. If the ABS is “ruptured,” then you may want to strip off the vinyl for a ways around and put on a glass patch. (Patching on the vinyl is less effective, because the vinyl-to-ABS bond is weaker than either material on its own.) Another possibility is daggermatt’s dissolved ABS painting approach.
It may be worth trying to use a heat gun to reduce some of that fold.
Pictures are worth a thousand words.
I don’t use kevlar patches
I made that mistake once, and never again, unless you come and cut it for me.
I also made the mistake of putting a glass patch on the outside. It does not look good.
Ever since, I put them on the inside, unless it is a monstrous hole in which case I’ll use a double. One on the inside and another on the outside.
Just me, and others might differ
jack L
I forgot that I am one of the few who
can cut Kevlar efficiently with ordinary scissors.
As for outside patching, one has the best chance of making a low-visibility patch with glass. And the edges are easy to sand smooth. I just don’t expect patches to be invisible. In order to make them invisible, one usually has to compromise the structural effectiveness of the patch.
details
The green vinyl covering is split on one of the folds and you can see the white core underneath. I don’t recall looking that closely but it didn’t seem anymore compromised then gouges that go through to the white(I always fixed those with JB weld.) I don’t have pics canoe is at the cabin, planning this for spring. If someone in the family is over there I’ll try and have them get some pics. I think the plan now is to get some gflex epoxy, kevlar, and a heatgun. Would thickened gflex be sufficient for closing the split or would an ABS melt be better? MR suggests patches on the inside probably go with that.
Thanks everyone.
I think thickened G-flex would be OK.
If you haven’t already, go to the West Epoxy site and read the articles on Royalex repair. You don’t need to ape them in every way, but it may give you some ideas.
so
It sounds like you have a split in the outer ABS solid substrate layer with exposed foam core.
Personally, I would fill in the void with thickened G-flex making sure that the foam core is completely covered and then cover the area of the repair with a fiberglass patch, preferably with the fibers aligned on the bias.
I have used G-flex to repair the bottoms of some whitewater boats wearing through into the foam. It works pretty well and adheres better than anything else I have tried, but it can chip off so I am now re-repairing one such boat and will cover the bottom with at least one sheet of glass.
Of course, your boat might not be getting the kind of abuse that a whitewater boat does on rocky creeks, but if you don’t object to being able to see an external patch, I think that would be more secure.
The through and through hole isn’t that big and I would just fill it with thickened G-flex without any cloth patch. In the past, I have used 3M 2 part urethane structural adhesive to do this and it has worked well.
After feathering the edges of the glass patch, I would spray it with whatever color of Krylon Fusion spray paint best matches your boat. Any spray paint will work, but the Krylon Fusion seems to bond to plastic the best.
If you don’t have one, you might want to get an inexpensive propane torch. West System recommends flaming the surface of the ABS before applying G-flex (although this is much less important for ABS than for polyethylene).
G Flex
I’ve heard G flex is better, but I have used 105 resin for patching lots of Royalex with success. Like Eric says - it doesn’t have to be bomb proof, and a few layers of glass will fix just about anything (I patched a hole that went right through the bottom of a WW boat with 4 layers and it lasted for years of thrashing).
The 105/205 West does wet out cloth
more easily than G-flex. Flaming the surface may help with the older epoxies just as it does with G-flex. I have not had adherence issues with 105/205 and Royalex, even without flaming.
Both will work
although I have seen patches delaminate off of Royalex when done with WEST 105/205-206.
If the OP already has 105/205-206 I would use it, but if not the G-flex will be more convenient. G-flex can be mixed by sight in a one-to-one ratio requiring no metering pumps and has some theoretical benefits (per WEST) such as a higher modulus of elasticity (better match with Royalex) and better bonding to plastics.
It is thicker and takes a little longer to wet out cloth, but it does so just fine, and for the size patch involved it won’t be an issue.
repair
goto this link for the repair i used
http://www.paddling.net/message/showThread.html?fid=advice&tid=1106564