Well.....wish me luck, my fellow enthusiasts. I'm going to begin refinishing my canoe tonight. I plan on sanding tonight and the applying the epoxy on Saturday.

This will be my first time trying this.

I'm using the process recommended on the Killarney Outfitters website.

Any last minute tips or things to bear in mind from when you did it?

Cheers!

The harder you work at sanding and prepping the boat, the better your epoxy finish will come out. Be ready to work fast once you mix your epoxy. You don't have to be frantic, but have a plan of attack for laying it down and stick to it.

Have a heat gun ready and go over the epoxy with it when you are done. This will pop any air bubbles in the epoxy.

To those offering advice, he forgot to mention it’s a Kevlar canoe

Best of luck, hope it turns out great.

Wishing you luck. Move anything you could possibly trip over or get snagged on prior to mixing epoxy. :D

Was the canoe manufactured with Epoxy or with Vinylester? My understanding is that ideally you match that.

Pick a drier, less humid day to avoid the milky, blushing that can show up in your epoxy coat. Keep it thin on the side walls and do a lot of rolling to avoid thicker spots that will sag. After dry if you have a lot of quills and orange peel look,, light sand and recoat. I like to thin the 2nd coat of epoxy with about a 15% volume of denatured alcohol.....mix well. It goes on a lot smoother and has less weight.

sns: "Was the canoe manufactured with Epoxy or with Vinylester? My understanding is that ideally you match that. "

I've read that too but refinished a Mn2 (vinyl ester) with West system epoxy and it turned out great and has held up fine.

If you use cheap roller covers or foam brushes you will need about 10 times more than planned on when they fall apart. Stopping mid way through to go buy more increases the pucker factor, at least that's what I heard.

Good luck!

Got the sanding done last night. I can't really glean an indication of how it will turn out at this point just because the sanding skewed how it looks.

Tomorrow I will rub it down with acetone and begin phase two with the epoxy and see how it turns out.

Either way its a good learning experience and in the end it will still float and take my family on the water whether it looks bad or not!

lyontyl: "Got the sanding done last night. I can't really glean an indication of how it will turn out at this point just because the sanding skewed how it looks.


Tomorrow I will rub it down with acetone and begin phase two with the epoxy and see how it turns out.


Either way its a good learning experience and in the end it will still float and take my family on the water whether it looks bad or not!"

One other tip that occurs to me, is to have a helper. If you can have someone else handy to mix up small batches of epoxy, hand you new rollers etc... it can help you keep working before the resin sets up.

I have done two.

Isn't that hard unless you want a prefect like factory finish.

Then it takes a lot of fussing.

If one is willing to have a decent use able finish maybe with a few minor imperfections

It is not hard.

I like these threads. Makes me glad I've stuck with Epifanes.

Epoxy is on and only with a few issues all of which can be fixed or remedied.

Looks better than it did but there are a lot of spots I can see where it's not smooth and really rough. I believe this to be the epoxy hardening roughed up canoe fibers?

Either way I have some spots to touch up and it will be ready to take on the wilderness on July 1st!

I'm seeing lots of mixed answers online and here about putting a coat of UV varnish on top of the epoxy and it just doesn't seem like anyone can agree to doing this.

So what are your thoughts on finishing my project with coat of high quality spar varnish so I have the UV protection?

Should I do any sort of surface prep to the epoxy (like a light sanding) or just put the varnish straight on?

Thanks guy! My canoe is already looking better than it did when purchased!

I'd like to see a picture of your finished product. I need some inspiration to start sanding. :-)
Two years ago, I lightly sanded my UL Prism/kevlar and applied a quality marine varnish. It looked good for a quickie cosmetic touch-up--with a slight amber hue. It wasn't perfectly done either. Had some blushing from humidity which I didn't like but it wasn't much. I lived with it. I will pay attention to the humidity level next time.

The epoxy is a much tougher finish.

mjmkjun: " The epoxy is a much tougher finish. "

Is that a double entendre? :)

sns: "Was the canoe manufactured with Epoxy or with Vinylester? My understanding is that ideally you match that. "

I've always understood that epoxy can readily be applied over either epoxy or vinylester., but vinylester cannot be applied over epoxy.

Also UV varnish is recommended as I've seen.

billconner: "

mjmkjun: " The epoxy is a much tougher finish. "

Is that a double entendre? :)"

"Mayhap it is and mayhap it ain't." --Mother Abagail, THE STAND.
;-)

lyontyl: "...So what are your thoughts on finishing my project with coat of high quality spar varnish so I have the UV protection?..."

I think you've answered your own question. There is no benefit to UV light degradation, but there is a big benefit if it is avoided.

Give the epoxy a light sanding (which helps with mechanical bonding), thoroughly clean off the dust, then apply the spar varnish. Low humidity conditions are best for applying the varnish.

Varnish with UV protection is a good idea. This isn't a piece of fine furniture, or even a pretty woodstrip, so I wouldn't spend too much on high end finishes. Just get one with UV protection.

Also, epoxy takes about a week to fully cure. Seems hard and you can even sand it before that, but some varnishes will not cure properly over less-than-cured epoxy. The result is really messy. Let it sit for a week before prepping for varnish.

Wash the hull with warm water to get off any waxy stuff that surfaces with some epoxies, it will mess with your varnish, too. Wash before sanding so the sanding doesn't just stir the wax into the surface.

sedges: "Varnish with UV protection is a good idea. This isn't a piece of fine furniture, or even a pretty woodstrip, so I wouldn't spend too much on high end finishes. Just get one with UV protection.


Also, epoxy takes about a week to fully cure. Seems hard and you can even sand it before that, but some varnishes will not cure properly over less-than-cured epoxy. The result is really messy. Let it sit for a week before prepping for varnish.


Wash the hull with warm water to get off any waxy stuff that surfaces with some epoxies, it will mess with your varnish, too. Wash before sanding so the sanding doesn't just stir the wax into the surface."

Thanks for all the advice!!

Good luck! Send pictures!

So I'm done for the time being.

Overall I thought for my first try it turned out pretty good from where the condition was when I got it. I ended up doing a second coat of epoxy although I was torn whether I should do it just because I didn't want to add to much extra weight. My rationale for the 2nd coat was that there were a couple spots I wasn't happy with the turn out when I applied it and there were some fuzzy spots from where I or the previous owners had sanded it down or worn it down to the fiberglass outer coating. I wanted to try and put a thicker coat of epoxy on to cover this up. Plus with my 2nd I was a little bit better prepared for how to do it.

The scratches from previous owner and such are still visible but now there is a nice shiny durable protection on it.

My plan was to add a coat of spar varnish but those plans are on hold since we are heading to BWCA on Thursday and I want to absolutely be sure the epoxy is completely cured prior to application of varnish. We also have really high humidity right now in Iowa. So I may wait and apply in the fall when we get some lower consistent humidity.

I keep my canoe in the garage so I don't see risk at this point of immediate UV degradation of the epoxy.

So I slapped on some new stickers and she looks pretty good!

Thanks for all the help everyone. It was fun to work on this project!

Before epoxy with sanding being done


And finished project

Thanks for the pictures. Yep, them scratches will always bleed through, unfortunately. It will look sharp on the water. For a quick, but excellent UV protection, 303 protectant is fantastic. Pricey at $15 per16oz, but a little bit goes a long way. I apply it to my kevlar canoe and camper rubber roof before my trek from Ohio. Whatever you do, don't apply it to canoe's inside flooring.

Edited for correction: 303 is a great UV protectant but since it's water-soluble it's not recommended for below water level contact. Likely would dissolve in the water. I don't want to encourage any contaminates to the pristine waters of the BWCA. Thanks, Banksiana, for pointing that out.

Thanks for the tips!

For what its worth 303 is water soluble. It only offers protection until you put your boat in the water- effectively applying 303 to the lakes. After all we tote our biodegradable soap-tainted water a hundred yards from the shore to dispose of it.

Nice work. Shiny!
I guess some of us are ok with a tad bit of patina.







Or some fresh paint.

scat: " Nice work. Shiny!
I guess some of us are ok with a tad bit of patina.




Or some fresh paint.

"

I dig it Scat! Character counts!

Banksiana: "For what its worth 303 is water soluble. It only offers protection until you put your boat in the water- effectively applying 303 to the lakes. After all we tote our biodegradable soap-tainted water a hundred yards from the shore to dispose of it."

That info is worth much. Pity. It's such great hull protection against UV rays. Will amend my previous post and start prepping the Prism for a fresh coat of marine varnish, then.