Epoxy repair coat needed?

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keithbehrend
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 3:01 pm
Location: Madison, WI

Epoxy repair coat needed?

Post by keithbehrend »

I have a seven year old woodstrip that has a lot of wear and tear on the bottom of the hull. It has a lot of scratches from going over logs and gravel. I revarnished the outside of the hull about three years ago, but am now thinking about sanding down the varnish and putting one or two coats of epoxy on to better protect the hull and cover the scratches.

Has anyone done this before? I know I'm looking at a fair amount of work to sand, epoxy, sand, and then varnish again, but I want to make sure that my canoe lasts as long as I do.

Any thoughts/comments are appreciated.
Rick
Posts: 727
Joined: Thu May 27, 2004 9:23 am
Location: Bancroft, Ontario

Post by Rick »

If the abrasion has gone far enough to expose a lot of fiberglass cloth, maybe it is better to seal it with epoxy and make repairs where necessary. If the hull is very rough, allowing varnish to soak cloth and cedar might mean epoxy bonding problems later on since epoxy will not bond well to varnish.

OTOH, if the scratching doesn't go very deep and most of the bottom is still the original epoxy fill coats and varnish (with a few thin scratches here and there), maybe varnishing is all it needs, especially if the hull is still strong and mostly intact.

It depends on the extent of abrasion and without seeing the wear on the hull, hard to tell. Maybe some photos would help.
keithbehrend
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Jan 23, 2005 3:01 pm
Location: Madison, WI

Post by keithbehrend »

I've pasted a link to a couple of photos showing the scratches on the bottom of the hull.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1127792889 ... Prospector#
sedges
Posts: 325
Joined: Fri Jul 09, 2004 5:37 pm
Location: georgia

my take

Post by sedges »

It is obvious from the pictures that you use your boat hard. That is wonderful, I beat my boats pretty hard and it always amazes me what they can take. Some things to consider.

1. If you don't sand all the way down to the surface of the glass before recoating you will be adding weight to your boat. That may be OK. The extra thickness of epoxy if you don't sand it all off, is good protection for your boat.

2. It is real dicey to sand it all off without getting INTO the glass, which would weaken it.

3. Here is my refinish schedule. Sand off the varnish layer below the waterline. Fill the gouges with epoxy using a squeegee to smooth it off. Sand with 80 grit and coat the whole bottom with epoxy. Wet sand whole boat with 150. Varnish coat on bottom. wet sand whole boat with 220. final varnish whole boat. The varnish on the sides stays on through the whole process, just gets cleaned up with a new finish coat at the end.

This would not be an adequate schedule for for someone wanting a serious furniture finish boat. For those of us who use our boats hard it keeps them well protected and pretty nice looking.
Rick
Posts: 727
Joined: Thu May 27, 2004 9:23 am
Location: Bancroft, Ontario

Post by Rick »

Keith, some of those scratches look deep enough to go into the fiberglass. My stripper gets some damage, I've filled in deep scratches as they occur, with epoxy using an artist's brush, sanded to remove gloss and then spot-varnished for UV protection. The main thing here is to keep varnish from penetrating into the fiberglass layer and possibly into the wood underneath.

The extent of the scratching might make this too much work on yours, so sanding off the varnish and then applying another epoxy fill coat might be the best.... more than one fill coat might necessary depending on the depth of the scratches and the runny characteristics of the epoxy.

Good to see your stripper's standing up to some wear and tear!
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