First post, so apologies for just jumping in without any other activity here.
We just got done with an 18' 6" stripper. We are now planning on refurbishing a old family built canoe that is in fairly bad shape. The hull is still sound, but realistically all wood consumables need to be replaced.
My biggest concern though is refinishing the hull. I'm fairly certain that my family never used any varnish on the canoe at all. They also applied several new coats of epoxy at some point, so it's a bit of a beast for a 17' canoe.
My current plans are replacing the gunwales, seats, yoke, thwarts, etc... This should all be fairly straight forward. Sheerline still looks good, and from what I can tell, there's no damage or rotting to any of the strips along the sheerline.
As for the hull, I am thinking of sanding down the epoxy considerably, but not enough to compromise the glass on the inner or outer surfaces. Then plan on 2 or 3 light coats of silver tip, and then 4 or 5 coats of varnish. My main concerns, are whether the new epoxy will properly bond to the old and completely unknown epoxy. Anyway, has anyone refurbished a canoe like this, will this plan work, at least in theory? I really don't want to go through the glass if at all possible.
We just got done with an 18' 6" stripper. We are now planning on refurbishing a old family built canoe that is in fairly bad shape. The hull is still sound, but realistically all wood consumables need to be replaced.
My biggest concern though is refinishing the hull. I'm fairly certain that my family never used any varnish on the canoe at all. They also applied several new coats of epoxy at some point, so it's a bit of a beast for a 17' canoe.
My current plans are replacing the gunwales, seats, yoke, thwarts, etc... This should all be fairly straight forward. Sheerline still looks good, and from what I can tell, there's no damage or rotting to any of the strips along the sheerline.
As for the hull, I am thinking of sanding down the epoxy considerably, but not enough to compromise the glass on the inner or outer surfaces. Then plan on 2 or 3 light coats of silver tip, and then 4 or 5 coats of varnish. My main concerns, are whether the new epoxy will properly bond to the old and completely unknown epoxy. Anyway, has anyone refurbished a canoe like this, will this plan work, at least in theory? I really don't want to go through the glass if at all possible.
