Canoe Update
Jul. 22nd, 2011 10:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catsittingstillI have successfully glued on seat rail extensions to the backs of the seat rails. They are a lighter color, but that will probably change somewhat over time. The join, which is not particularly neat, will be mostly hidden by the caning of the seat, and removing about three inches of each front rail went better than I dared hope, though not perfectly.
I used an exacto knife to cut across the rail, and a chisel to pare back to the cut, repeatedly, until I was paring the last paper-thin shavings of wood off the dookieschmutz below. In this process I slipped at one point, and gouged the fiberglass. I will have a picture later, if it came out.
The gouge had to be repaired, but repairing fiberglass is pretty straightforward. You sand it all off to the bare wood, cut a fiberglass patch that overlaps the remaining fiberglass by an inch all the way around, epoxy it down, sand the edges so they aren't bumpy anymore, put a second coat of epoxy on, and then to the varnish when the epoxy is cured. Happily, it turns out that I don't have to wait for a full chemical cure with this epoxy-varnish combination; 24 hours seems to be good enough.
I also had to sand the dookieschmutz off the hull, which went better than I had dared hope. I got pretty much all of it off. The paring and sanding took about five hours, which was less than I'd feared. Varnishing the sanded bits was straightforward enough, and I coated the seat rail extensions and the back thwart first with epoxy and then with two coats of varnish.
This morning I drilled the holes and screwed seat and back thwart in place. I am very happy with how the back thwart came out; I think it has a much more graceful curve than the old one, and I think the way I carved the part that contacts the paddler's back will be much more comfortable than the plain roundover I used on the old one. We shall see tomorrow morning, because Vonda will be coming at 7:30am to help me put the boats on the car so we can go paddling.
Wish me luck :-)
I used an exacto knife to cut across the rail, and a chisel to pare back to the cut, repeatedly, until I was paring the last paper-thin shavings of wood off the dookieschmutz below. In this process I slipped at one point, and gouged the fiberglass. I will have a picture later, if it came out.
The gouge had to be repaired, but repairing fiberglass is pretty straightforward. You sand it all off to the bare wood, cut a fiberglass patch that overlaps the remaining fiberglass by an inch all the way around, epoxy it down, sand the edges so they aren't bumpy anymore, put a second coat of epoxy on, and then to the varnish when the epoxy is cured. Happily, it turns out that I don't have to wait for a full chemical cure with this epoxy-varnish combination; 24 hours seems to be good enough.
I also had to sand the dookieschmutz off the hull, which went better than I had dared hope. I got pretty much all of it off. The paring and sanding took about five hours, which was less than I'd feared. Varnishing the sanded bits was straightforward enough, and I coated the seat rail extensions and the back thwart first with epoxy and then with two coats of varnish.
This morning I drilled the holes and screwed seat and back thwart in place. I am very happy with how the back thwart came out; I think it has a much more graceful curve than the old one, and I think the way I carved the part that contacts the paddler's back will be much more comfortable than the plain roundover I used on the old one. We shall see tomorrow morning, because Vonda will be coming at 7:30am to help me put the boats on the car so we can go paddling.
Wish me luck :-)
