Scratched a Woven Color Souris River Canoe

Q. I bought a Quetico 16 from you a couple of weeks ago, and took it on a brief solo trip in the Boundary Waters. The canoe was a dream to portage, and handled very well, particularly when my gear was up in the bow. It's every bit as stable as I hoped it would be.

I do have one question, thoiugh, about the woven color. Even though I "wet footed" most of the portages, I got some scratches on the canoe. I know that's inevitable. What surprised me is that the scratches are bright white. I expected the green color to remain even after being scratched.

When I got home, I put some "NuFinish" on the canoe as suggested in the owner's manual. I wondered if the white scratches would rub out with the NuFinish. They didn't. Is there something wrong here? Any suggestions?

A. Glad the canoe is working out for you. Regarding scratches, Woven Color means that the color is dyed into the Flexlite layer below the final fiberglass layer on the outside of the canoe. The shine you see is from actual epoxy resin. The color is under the fiberglass and can't be scratched off like gelcoat or paint. The epoxy resin does scratch white and looks bright white against darker colors.

The actual way to repair the scratches is with a special varnish and a brushing thinner that we sell. Nu-finish will not fix scratches but give the canoe a protective wax coating that offers a lasting shine on areas that are not scratched. Since scratches are unavoidable, we recommend that you let your canoe get scratched up over a couple of years before applying the varnish because otherwise you'd be applying varnish over every little scratch with a cue-tip which would be a bit tedious. After it is more scratched, you can sand it down with 120 grit sand paper, wipe it down with the brushing liquid, and apply the varnish with a roller, followed immediately by a disposable foam brush dragged over the varnish to eliminate micro bubbles left behind by the roller. The whole process takes 40 minutes and your canoe will come out looking very nice because the woven color will re-appear thru the white which disappears at about 95%. The only purpose for covering up scratches is cosmetic appeal. It's not required by any means and after you varnish it, you'll get scratches oon scratches. We do stock the varnish all the time and you can order it when needed by calling us at 1-800-280-1078.

Thanks!

Joe

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