I recently purchased a used canoe and need to make a few repairs but I have NO idea what material was used in the construction. (Is it Royalex?)
I am hoping someone can help me out!
This canoe was a rental from the Shenandoah River Company and in the past they would build their own canoes so it is not a standard manufacturer.
Questions are:
Based on the cross section of the material in the pictures, can you tell what material it is built from?
Are the gouges deep enough to worry about as some appear to reach the second level of material?
What are the different repair methods I could utilize (heat / Urethane compound / Wax)
As you can see, I need to replace the decks. What would be my best option? (Build / purchase a few and try to fit them)
I’m not sure of the material but you can use some West G-flex epoxy and a little 6oz cloth to make skid plates and cover the worn through places. I wouldn’t worry about the gouges.
Yes. I just installed these plates onto an Old Town Pack that had worn through to the core. I put a small patch over the hole then covered that with a larger strip to make it a skid plate.
First you rough up the area with 80 grit sand paper. Clean it up with acetone. Tape it off. Cut the patch on a bias. I cut the skid plate material square but it won’t frazzle as much if you cut it on a bias. Mix up the resin and apply a thin cote to hold the cloth in place. Apply the cloth. Add just enough resin to saturate the cloth. Let harden to touch. Remove tape.
Sand area for skid plate. Clean and tape off. Apply thin coat of resin to hold skid plate. Locate skid plate. Apply just enough to wet out cloth. Let cure until sticky to touch. Apply more resin to fill up holes in weave of cloth.
Once the weave is level and every thing is smooth you can paint it as it will be clear. I tried to mix graphite into the resin to color it but I didn’t use enough. I went to an auto body shop that mixes it’s own paint and got some color pigmentation and mixed it in with some epoxy to give it color. I wanted the color to not scrape off during use. I did rattle can it when I got through.
