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| Once the resin is thoroughly slopped onto the canoe wetting out the entire region of the hole, I stick down the first patch. I pat it into the resin and then also gently smear resin around if with my fingers. I want to make sure that it is completely wet and there are no airbubbles trapped underneath it. Note the use of a glove. Remember: No glove - no glue! Note: the saying is actually different, but this is a family website. |
Next I add a little more resin to the completely wetted out first patch and add this nice final patch with snazzy, rounded corners. No real need to round the corners but it does help out with the raveling that you will experience at the edges of the patch. Carefully lift out the ravels and stick them to the sawhorse or anything else worth very little to get them off your fingers. Do not wipe them on your pants! |
Presto! The patch is in place. At this point, you could carefully wipe up the excess resin around the patch, or you could say "The heck with it - it's an old junker of a canoe." In search of effectively stopping the leak, I chose option number two. |
Remember when I said that I put plastic over the already prepared hole on the outside of the canoe? Well, this is what it looked like after I fixed the inside of the canoe first. Had this plastic NOT been in place, it would have been nearly impossible to put the patch because epoxy resin would have been squeezed through the kevlar patch from the inside and dripping on the ground. This is cured resin under plastic and because of the plastic, it is relatively smooth and resulted in a complete seal-up of the hole. |
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| At the location of the hole, there is a small ridge that formed in the epoxy. Since the epoxy has not yet reached full-hardness cure after sitting in the sun at about 92 deg F, I peeled off the plastic and used my knife to shave off the ridge while I still could. It cuts like a hard cheese. |
In this picture, you still see my left hand (right handed camera) with my thumb pointing to a 3" X 3/4" wide by 3/8" deep gouge into the foam from the outside in. This has to be filled and it's not a good idea to just pour in resin. It ends up getting really hot in the curing process and can crack if not supported by kevlar fibers. |
Here is where I prepare to fill the massive gouge in the crappy foam. I first put down some scraps of kevlar cloth and then top it off with some cut-to-fit kevlar felt. My theory is that this fill moderates the epoxy's curing and reinforces the hardened epoxy reducing cracking that may occur due to a thck amount of epoxy filling in the hole. |
OK- Now I called in reinforcements for taking pictures. Annette took this photo because it was really hot out and as a result I had to work a little quicker with the thicker resin amount going in the gouge. I just dunk my stirring stick in resin and let it dribble into the felt/hole and gently pack it into the hole and kevlar. |
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| This is a closeup of the big fat gouge when it's filled with cloth and resin. I've also begun to use the very high-tech method of smearing goo around with my hand. I'm sure there's like a proper tool and some fancy pants guy out there who knows this, but I kinda like using my fingers. I'm and epoxy maverick... |
Continued smearage of resin results in all the scratches disappearing. It's a miracle. |
Then, after the area that I sanded (way back in the beginning) is covered with resin, I stick down the patch that I cut well before I began the resin application process (AKA: smearing goo) The goal here is to completely wet out the kevlar patch which goes from a lighter gold to a darker gold color when wet. |
After wetting out the patch completely, I dump a little more resin in the now completely wet patch and then cover it up with plastic food film. Using tape, I pull the plastic taut and secure it from all directions, much like stretching a beaver hide. Unlike a beaver hide, I don't need to wait a week and then trim off the fat around the leg holes. |
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| Like Pheasant Under Glass, we now have Patch Under Plastic. The resin is still wet an next comes an important step if you truely care aboutdoing a nice job. |
Rolling air bubbles is easy and required. Like taking a fingerprint (if you have a criminal record, you'll know this maneuver), roll your finger behind the bubbles forcing them all out of the resin to the edge of the plastic. Bubbles be gone both from under the kevlar patch and on top of the patch, (under the plastic, of course). Look closely for those sneaky little ones that like to cling to the weave pattern of the kevlar cloth. If you miss an airbubble, it's absolutely NO BIG DEAL because you've completely soaked the cloth with kevlar in the previous picture. You just won't end up with a perfectly flawless patch on a worn out Wenonah Canoe, but it will still work just fine. |
Here's the patch after all the bubbles have been rolled out. I was also careful to use my finger to squeegee a bit more resin to perimeter of the patch. The goal here is make a tiny ramp of resin from the surface of the canoe to the top of the patch. Maintains a really smooth entry and exit as the patch goes thru the water, unlike the rest of this lumpy, bumpy junker. |
Here's the final patch with plastic removed. Notice there's a crease in the patch I put in place which is because the kevlar I used has been folded. No biggy, but you'd think creases would just flatten out when wet and under plastic. I'm only pointing this out for those who are building Ferrari cowlings in their garages. And, unlike those epoxy detracters who claim immense toxicity in the resin, cured epoxy is inert. You could eat an egg off of this patch (or celery if you're a vegan).
Here's what I started with. It wasn't pretty and now it's patched and STILL pretty ugly, but it doesn't leak and it doesn't drag in the water. And, it's probably one of the strongest spots on the whole canoe. |
