Restoring wooden canoe advice

[Steve Gowler]

Any advice welcome.

I've purchased a ply canoe I believe to be about 1950's that has many coats of paint & varnish. I'm stripping back to timber and going to re-cover outer joints with new fibreglass fabric. Any advice on what fibreglass/epoxy, how many layers of fabric and which varnish would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Steve

 

[Hacker]

I’d use biaxial tape and epoxy. Would probably also epoxy the rest of the hull to seal it.

 

[Steve Gowler]

Thanks for the info hacker. Would one sheet of biaxial for the joints be sufficient?

 

[Hacker]

That really depends on how good the structure is. If you are just taping the joints then I’d use 5cm tape (not sheets). If you can get to all the joints then I’d probably do one layer inside and out. Other option would to to sheath the whole of the outside hull using a sheet of biaxial (but I’d probably tape the joints first)

 

[Andibs]

Go to the Song of the Paddle web site (free) and ask there. Group is for canoeists, really friendly and a wealth of information

Andy

 

[Steve Gowler]

Thanks for your help, greatly appreciated

 

[JFowler]

It’s likely to have been made in 1960’s. Originally the joints would have been sealed on the outside with 1 layer of 50mm fibreglass tape impregnated with polyester resin. I doubt you need anything more.

 

[Steve Gowler]

It’s likely to have been made in 1960’s. Originally the joints would have been sealed on the outside with 1 layer of 50mm fibreglass tape impregnated with polyester resin. I doubt you need anything more.

Thanks for the info, much appreciated

 

[lw395]

It’s likely to have been made in 1960’s. Originally the joints would have been sealed on the outside with 1 layer of 50mm fibreglass tape impregnated with polyester resin. I doubt you need anything more.

Or it could have been traditional ply construction any time post war, and bodged by taping over with grp later.
A lot of wooden boats were ruined by GRP sheathing.
You could coat or sheath the whole thing inside and out, but it's a mistake to add too much weight .

For coating and gluing ply or wood, epoxy is far superior to polyester.