Revarnishing with the canvas already on

[Howie]

I have a friend who plans to buy a nice looking 1964 13' OT. I haven't seen it myself - nor has he - but from the pics it looks like the canvas is brand new. The only problem I see it that the rails look like they need new varnish. Don't know why anybody would put on new canvas without restoring the inside wood, but hey, it wasn't me.

So ok, sanding the rails and adding new varnish is easy. But what about revarnishing the rest of the canoe? Obviously the varnish will ooze onto the inside of the canvas and cause it to stick to the planking, and this will cause problems down the road when this canvas needs replacing - but this can't be worse than removing fiberglass. Would it cause other problems too?

Has anyone ever varnished with the canvas on? What problems have you run into?

 

[Craig Johnson]

People regularly put a new coat of varnish on the inside of canoes and depending on the planking job I assume some of it gets through to the canvas. I don't think that would cause any problems. When you say it has new canvas has it already been filled and painted? I wouldn't want to varnish one with just raw canvas, I would think that varnish soaking through from the inside and penetrating the raw canvas would cause adhesion problems for the filler. Likewise I wouldnt' want to use stripper on the inside after new canvas.

 

[MGC]

I've done that...no problem...it's the same as refreshing the varnish.
That said, how bad is it? If it needs to be stripped to be done properly that's not ideal. The one time I did that I ended up doing an unbelievable amount of sanding.

 

[Howie]

Yup - the canvas was filled & painted. Well, I assume it was filled - definitely painted.

 

[Howie]

I don't know, Mike. Interior isn't too visible from the one pic I saw. We'll see...

 

[David Satter]

OK, I varnish the interior after the canvas is on and filled. It gives me something to do while the filler is drying. Very little gets through and no problems if it dose. I've sanded and varnished many interiors with the old canvas on, works fine. Though I would never use stripper on the interior with good canvas on. That probably wouldn't be good to have that weep through.

 

[Benson Gray]

A careful examination of the "Filled" and "Varnished" dates on the Old Town and Carleton build records indicates that they typically varnished canoes after the canvas was filled. I agree with the others that you shouldn't have any problems if you are careful.

Benson

 

[Howie]

Thank you all.