delaminating cloth??

[Steve in Kazoo]

I just finished a 20' Gilpatrick guide and I had some trouble putting it on the roof of my van. I think I over cranked the bow and stern ropes and now I notice that some of the glass on the inside where the hull curves (right in the middle of the canoe) is delaminating. It's spotty, sometimes just a few white spots and in other places it's a line that runs where two strips meet. In places I can feel the weave if I run my finger down it. In one of the spots I drilled two tiny holes and injected resin in one hole and it came out the other but it remained white. Any ideas???

Thanks so much!!
Steve

[Todd Bradshaw]

The white is actually where the cloth was fractured or stretched and though related to the delam, it is really a separate thing. There is nothing that I am aware of which will turn such areas back to their formerly clear state. You just can't get resin to soak into every tiny fiber-to-fiber gap and completely cover up the problem. The only way I know of for fixing fractured fiberglass is to remove the damaged area (by either cutting or sanding) and then apply a small patch of new fabric, covering the area and overlapping onto the edge of the remaining good glass.

[Pete in the Deep South]

I'm facing that task right now. My Vaux Jr. developed those white spots on the outerstems only. I guess you could call it "Canoe Acne". It took over a year to develope. I have resigned myself to the fact that I will have to sand down to bare wood and epoxy on a bias strip. :(

[Rod Tait]

What you describe is common and possibly caused by heat while your canoe is on the roof of your car for a long time. Since the line you describe follows a glue line I would suggest that there may be expansion from moisture in the joint or the glue itself. I have had this happen on older boats of mine over time in which the glass prints through to the surface. It isn't really a bubble to which one can inject resin into to make it go away.

I have heard of good results by heating up the area with a heat gun until the tiny dots disappear, but timing is everything. Having never tried it though, I can not give any more help than to suggest the idea.

On boats of mine, I simply sanded throught the glass, being careful not to hit bare wood, and patched.