Refinishing your Souris River Canoe

Here's a way to make your scratched-up Souris River Canoe look really quite nice again AND apply a UV protectorant at the same time.  You can do this to any Souris River Canoe. Le Tigre, Carbon Tecs, Woven Color, plaine kevlar and Duralite. It works really well if your canoe has experienced chalking. Just sand off the chalk and scratches following the steps below.

NOTE: Souris River Canoes are what you would call "skin coat" canoes. There is no added gel coat to the outside surface of the canoe. Gel Coat (can be clear or colored) is what holds the color and makes a really smooth, flaw-covering layer on everything from your showerstall to your Corvette, to your sailboat and your Brand X kevlar canoes. It adds weight and cracks off in chunks. That's why nobody drives their Corvette in the winter time. It cracks off even better when it's cold out. Souris River Canoes come with a thin layer of fiberglass on the outside which means they CAN be sanded without screwing them all up. Brand X skin coat canoes have nothing but plain old kevlar on the outside. Sanding just the Kevlar can turn into a fuzzy mess if you aren't careful. You can't sand kevlar to cut it - it needs to be sheared to be cut successfully. My advice is to proceed with caution while sanding a Brand X canoe. Once you fuzz up the kevlar, you'll have a real problem because that sleek kevlar racing "boat(?)" will feel like dragging-a-deer-backwards-in-the-woods once all those rough little fuzzies are firmed up with varnish. So go ahead and your Brand X skin coat, but don't oversand it to the point of fuzziness. Also, this procedure has no effect on colored, gelcoated canoes. Gotta hole in your Brand X? Here's how to fix it.

After your canoe is pretty scratched up (that would be after one season with an outfitter or after 3-5 years with private owner), you can apply a premium quality varnish to your hull.  It will drastically reduce the appearance of the scratches plus it's WAY easier to do than re-applying a coat of epoxy resin.  Also, in certain humidity conditions, epoxy resin can "blush" or turn a bit cloudy as it cures.  Varnish does not do this and aside from stirring the can with a stick, there's no mixing two parts or anything else.  Finally, epoxy doesn't offer UV protection and the varnishes we use do.  Need to rebuild your skidplates? Don't replace the whole plate, just the part that needs fixing - Click Here

Here are the steps:

Here is what a really scratched up rental Souris River Canoe looks like. This is one season of rentals and there are about 65 days of scratches on this particular Quetico 17 in Le Tigre Kevlar.	If your canoe has been owned by you since it was new and only has 20 scratches in it, you really don't need to do this procedure. If your Souris River Canoe is all scratched up like this one, you really don't need to do this procedure either. 99.9% of all scratches in a Souris River Canoe are pretty meaningless. We just want it to look pretty again.
Step 1 - Sand with 80 grit sand paper and an orbital palm sander. I wear one of those cheap dust masks becasue this can be a bit dusty.	In this pic, I'm putting just the corner of the sander into a harsher scratch. This knocks the edges off the scratch and will allow for a nicer finish on this canoe.
When you are through sanding down the scratches, this is what your canoe will look like - Omigod! It's ruined! Ruined I tell you!!!
Step 2 - With disposable glove on hand along with a clean rag or (even paper towel of some sort), dump a little puddle of 333 Brushing Liquid on the canoe. You'll see how it instantly becomes beautiful once again.	Wipe down the whole canoe with this stuff. It takes off the dust from sanding and any other crud you might have missed.
This is just a pic to show you what you'll be seeing after you...	...completely wet down your canoe with the 333 Liquid which is a slow drying solvent.
Step 3 - Take your can of marine varnish and, with foam roller ready, dump a puddle on the the canoe. The canoe is your paint tray. Note - this is an incredibly exacting process, so be careful not to drip - don't want to get any on the canoe by accident!	Just kidding! This is neither brain science nor rocket surgery. Pour a little, roll a little, over and over. You'll only need to use about HALF of a pint to coat the whole canoe. Think of the wholesome little girl with pigtails. Be redundant, too. Because of the 333 Liquid, it's a bit hard to see where you've been with the varnish. For complete coverage, don't be afraid to back-track. Won't hurt a thing and you'll get stronger arms.
More exciting paint roller action!	Step 4 - This is called "tipping" in the world of painting. Right after rolling the varnish on the canoe, brush down the whole canoe with a cheap foam brush. This takes out the bubbles and also spreads the varnish around to any places that you may have missed.
Whilst tipping, pay particular attention to where you ended with the roller like on the sides of the canoe closer to the gunwale. If you stopped the roller (and you did) while reversing directions, you left a roller "track". Brush this area out (called feathering) so you can't see where you ended up with the roller. Not the end of the world if you miss these areas, I'm just picky. Also, check for runs and sags and smooth them out with the cheap foam brush.
	Technically, you are done and it's time for you to leave, grasshopper. BUT - for added protection, you could let this canoe dry overnight and the next day, lightly sand it down with 120 grit sand paper (in this step, by hand or with orbital sander is fine). Then wipe it down with a clean rag or even a tack rag - do NOT us 333 Brushing Liquid after sanding! Just varnish and tip the canoe in the exact same way as you've just seen above. You'll end up with a beautiful, tough finish.
This is the finished canoe by Joe. Truly a work of art - and the reason we like Le Tigre kevlar so much. It REALLY refinishes VERY well!

Well, there you have it. It's easy to do, and usually always results in a beautiful job on a Souris River Canoe. Total time for the whole procedure is about 45 minutes unless you need to stop every 10 minutes and answer the phone like we do here at Red Rock.

You can order a Pint 'o Varnish from Red Rock and also the 333 Brushing liquid. Remember to use your Gear Card when you order. You can also order Pettit Captain's varnish and the 333 Brushing Liquid online from our catalog of exciting stuff. OR, just call with a credit card during business hours or stop in at Red Rock to pick some of this stuff up. We're open 9-5 daily and closed on Sundays October to sometime in May. Otherwise we are open 8 to 8, 7 days a week from sometime in May thru August. September is 7 days a week from 9 to 5. 1-800-280-1078

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