Canoe Ponderings by Red Rock Wilderness Store

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Woven Color Souris River Canoe Repair

Q.I have a green woven Quetico 17 canoe which needs a patch. While I was using your procedures for repairing the scratches on the bottom, the sander went thru the outer layer and now I can see the woven area underneath. It is only about 1" square. Is the West System 6 pack of Epoxy that you sell what I would need to repiar it? Let me know. Thanks.

A. Hi-
You'd could put a dab of  epoxy on that area and tape a piece of plastic wrap over it, squeeze out the air bubbles with your finger.  For such a small area like that, you can use West System 6 pack  or in a pinch, the two part resin you mix from tubes from the hardware store will also do the job nicely.  Get the longer cure-time resin, not the 5 minute stuff.  Mix up two equal parts, dab on to canoe, cover area with plastic stretched taut using scotch or masking tape.  Squeeze out air bubbles caught under the plastic with your finger  while not squeezing resin all over the place - some will move around, but not all.  Allow to cure.  Peel off plastic next day.  Varnish canoe.

Or, if the woven color is NOT fuzzed up or only a little fuzzed up, forget about it entirely and varnish over it and the rest of  the canoe. Won't hurt a thing and will have no effect on the canoe.  Using an orbital palm sander and 80 grit or less is pretty hard to screw up canoe really badly.  Now using a rotating sander or something that spins, increases the chances of more less-than-perfect finishes.

Hope this helps.

Joe
Red Rock