Canvas held on with stick tape?

[Howie]

Has anyone ever seen canvas (I assume it's canvas) held in place with some type of sticky goo? A fella just brought me a leaky 15' Peterborough 'canvassed' with this stuff. I need to get off so I can canvas it properly, but the goo is sticking to both the canvas and cedar quite well.

There are no wrinkles in the canvas - it appears from the outside like a normal filled canvas. So I'm guessing that the canvas was purchased with the goo already attached, that is was 'stretched' like traditional canvas, and as a last step heat was used to melt the goo to secure it to the hull. Also, I believe the canvas wasn't 'filled' and seems to be rotting away, which no doubt explains why it's leaking.

I'm finding that by using a heat gun with a pair of pliers I'm able to rip off sections, but it's slow going.

Anybody know what this stuff is? And can anyone recommend a better way to remove it?

 

[Dave Osborn]

I’ve never seen anything like your issue Howie.
However similarly, I did have one that had Liquid Nails as an adhesive to reattach a large area of canvas. I think I used paint stripper or a heat gun, or some combination of both to remove it.

 

[Howie]

You win Dave - that sounds awful. Today I reasoned that if a heat gun seemed to loosen the goop then leaving the canoe to bask in the very weak north-western NY November sun for a while while I mowed the grass would help loosen things. It did. Turns out the glue was held more tightly around the rail, stem and keel area and much less elsewhere. I was able to get the old canvas off in an hour or so with no loss of siding. Still have to get the remaining glue goop off if I can...

I still would be interested in learning what the stuff was. I mean, what other use could there be for canvas sold with contact glue on one side?

And interesting: weighed together the old stuff - with 2 layers of paint - weighed 12#. Pretty light I'd say. Bet a mudded canvas for a 15 footer would weigh more than double that.