My canoe re-finish came out fairly well. Recoated a nearly bare kevlar hull with vinyl ester resin. But there is definitely some minor orange-peel texture in a lot of places. And it got a little heavy in places and I had a few runs and sags. I am not going to do a second coat any time soon, so any further steps would need to be sand/buff/polish only.

For those of you that have refinished/recoated a kevlar canoe with epoxy resin or vinyl ester resin (as in my case), did you wet sand afterward? If so what did you use and how did it turn out?

Did you use rubbing and/or cutting compounds as well?

I am planning on doing this by hand (not using any kind of orbital sander or buffer).

It's all cosmetic at this point, I'm sure. And it's just going to get scratches right away, which is fine by me. But if I can smooth it out and take out that orange peel I might as well (not if sure wet-sanding and polishing alone can do that). And I'll probably take a shot at scraping/sanding out the runs if a quick test shows that I can sand/buff/polish it back into a finish comparable with the rest of the surface.

Just curious how well this worked for anyone else and if you have any tips.

Thanks!

Both epoxy and vinyl ester resin are degraded by UV light and need a coating that will protect it from UV. Most all marine varnishes offer that protection these days. I would scape your drips and runs and sand the hull and put on a coat of varnish. I wet sand with 150, varnish, wet sand with 220 for the finial coat. Its not a fancy wooden boat, so cheaper varnish is fine as long as it has a uv blocker.

Thanks, I was planning on using a rub-on UV protectant. I had been steered away (by Wenonah) from using varnish at all and they recommend rubbing on SPF-50 Boat Guard by Maxiglide for a UV protectant. I don't feel like I have to follow their advice but I'd rather avoid another roll-on coating with adhesion and curing requirements. I definitely hear you that varnish would be an easy top-coat after a sand-down, but I imagine it could be prone to peeling and need to be maintained.

My question is more focused on finishing the resin surface by wet sanding and polishing with a rubbing compound (as an example wet sanding with 1000, 1500, 2000 grit sandpaper and then finishing with something like 3M Super Duty and 3M Perfect-It). But maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree. Interested to hear if anyone has experience with that approach.

Oh boy, don’t go with anything higher than 220 grit. It won’t make things any smoother.
Grits over 800 are for automotive finishes.

I’ve never wet sanded a canoe but I’ve sanded hundreds. Wet sanding might keep the dust down.
Tom

Thanks, I was planning on hitting rough parts with tougher grit. The super-high grits would just be to bring back the gloss/clarity. Has anyone done that? How did it work?

Anyone have experience with scraping/sanding out runs and sags and bringing it back to a decent finish *without* applying a re-coat of any kind?

Speaking as an auto detailer, if you want a super smooth finish, you're going to want to wet sand it with a nice, firm sanding block starting rough and working your way to *at least* 1500 grit. At that point you'll be compounding and polishing, and I really urge you to pick-up a Griot's Garage G9 or Porter Cable 7424XP--they're effective, safe, cheap, and your arms will thank you. Following that, any quality polymer sealant or ceramic coating will provide the UV protection you need and be many many worlds better than the ol' "wipe some 303 onto the hull." Maxi-glide's product looks like no more than an average AIO (all-in-one) polymer sealant+polish.

There is no practical benefit to all that sanding and polishing, and unless you very specifically just really want a super smooth look for cosmetic reasons, I'd advise you to just skip straight to the sealant/coating.

Thanks, mschi772 . That's exactly the kind of info and experience I'm hunting for. I think it's really just the runs and sags from my sloppy work at the stern that I want to see gone, but yes, totally just cosmetic. It's ready to paddle now...maybe I should skip it and fix the runs when and if this needs an actual recoat (probably never) :-P

Following that, any quality polymer sealant or ceramic coating will provide the UV protection you need and be many many worlds better than the ol' "wipe some 303 onto the hull." Maxi-glide's product looks like no more than an average AIO (all-in-one) polymer sealant+polish.

Interesting! What polymer or ceramic coating have you used on a canoe before?

apk: "Thanks, mschi772 . That's exactly the kind of info and experience I'm hunting for. I think it's really just the runs and sags from my sloppy work at the stern that I want to see gone, but yes, totally just cosmetic. It's ready to paddle now...maybe I should skip it and fix the runs when and if this needs an actual recoat (probably never) :-P

Following that, any quality polymer sealant or ceramic coating will provide the UV protection you need and be many many worlds better than the ol' "wipe some 303 onto the hull." Maxi-glide's product looks like no more than an average AIO (all-in-one) polymer sealant+polish.

Interesting! What polymer or ceramic coating have you used on a canoe before?"

I could list a ton of excellent sealants including, but not limited to, Jescar Powerlock, Sonax Net Shield, 3D Speed (an AIO actually), Gyeon Wax (more akin to synthetic sealants than actual wax), Gyeon Cure, Carpro Reload, Finish Kare 1000P, McKee's Hi Def, ... , ... , but I don't even bother with those on my canoe anymore as I just always have leftovers of at least an entry-level ceramic coating laying around due to my work. My canoe is currently coated with CarPro Cquartz Lite because I had some on hand left to use this spring.

If I was going out of my way to get something specifically for it, I'd err on the side of a marine coating. Yes, I know we don't subject our canoes to saltwater, but there is also something to be said for marine coatings being developed with long periods of complete contact and submersion in water (full of all sorts of organics and other things) in mind which isn't something generally considered for other products which just have to contend with washes and rain. Whether that actually matters much or not, I don't know for sure, but all other things being equal, that's where I'd lean to be safe. I'd probably go for Gyeon Q2R GelCoat or CarPro Nautik specifically as I know those companies and their methods well and would not hesitate to trust those coatings.

The knowledge of people on this site has always impressed me.

If sanding, allow at least a week for the resin to cure, longer is better. It helps to keep your sand paper from clogging up.
For the runs ? Scrape, instead of sanding. The sooner you scrape the better.
A carbide scrape is the best tool to remove runs. I've used an old pocket knife many times.
Oh and wear a good Canister type mask. 3M makes a good one !

Jim

mschi772: "There is no practical benefit to all that sanding and polishing, and unless you very specifically just really want a super smooth look for cosmetic reasons, I'd advise you to just skip straight to the sealant/coating."

My feelings as well. As noted by others 220 or 300 grit wet is all that's needed.

For runs you can also use a de-nibbing file. I bought one when I refinished my canoe but have used it on dozens of woodworking projects since.

Nib File

Thanks for these great tips.

I blocked off a section and did a quick test this morning and pretty easily removed a portion of a run using a razor blade and this method https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvGZUhIepA8

I'm sure a nib file or carbide scraper would be easier and quicker so I may end up taking that route if I decide to clean up all the runs and sags.

I then sanded the scraped area with 220 grit which very quickly finished leveling the blocked-off area. However as expected it did leave behind a very, very different finish. Dull, cloudy, and scratched to an extent that I'd prefer just to leave the re-coat job untouched if that's the best I can do.

So what I plan to test next is see if wet sanding that blocked-off area with successively finer grades and then hitting it with some rubbing compound will restore the finish after the scraping/sanding is done.

Of course all this is totally unnecessary because the runs and sags and any non-uniformity in the finish are purely a cosmetic concern. But I am enjoying the process and learning some things, so feels like it's worth the trouble.

Thanks again, everyone, for the suggestions and info!

I sanded down my Bell Merlin II since it has a thick gelcoat and I wanted to clean it up a little after 22 years of scratches and a few minor gelcoat repairs. I think I started with 150 and then wet sanded with 220, 320, 400, 600 and 1500. It isn't quite as shiny as it was new but I don't care and I'm sure it's smoother than new. I remember reading an article than said that 320 grit was as fine as you needed to go for performance. It's the black one in the pic.

Thanks for sharing the pics!

Yeah that makes a lot of sense. For performance I'm already there, no sanding needed.

I think I have a plan, though, to tackle the pretty large and unsightly runs and sags without marring the rest of the nice finish I got from my fresh coat of resin. I'll post pics and notes when I'm done.

I was able to scrape the biggest runs down using a razor blade. I then went through a progressive wet sand of 600 through 1000, then jumped to 2000. Then I hand buffed with 3M rubbing compound, which brought things back up to a reasonably glossy finish.

If I really wanted to remove all the orange peel texture created by my resin re-coat job I should have started with 220 or so then worked up. But this canoe was bare kevlar over most of the hull before I recoated and much of the resin seemed to go into penetrating the kevlar rather than leaving a top coating. So I did not want to sand down too much and remove resin in places where it was needed.

It was the better part of a days work and a good arm workout. I enjoyed the labor and I think given the roughness of the finish I achieved with my resin application, worth it.

After wet sanding


After rubbing compound


Applied some Maxiglide Boatguard UV protectant


The finish is definitely not perfect, and it did not need to be. As other helpful comments pointed out, there is no performance benefit from all this buffing and polishing. I did manage to get rid of the most unsightly runs and sags while getting back a uniform finish, which was the main goal. Next time when restoring a canoe I might skip this step, but probably I would still do it (though I would purchase a power buffing tool haha).