Epoxy Finish to traditional wood and canvas canoe

[slk]

Ok guys I will be applying a clear epoxy finish to my canoe. When planking it all the planking joints were pretty tight. Since it has been sitting in my shop now those joints have become a little opened up. I can't do any epoxy work until springs gets here. My big question is since I will be epoxying it with fiberglass cloth will I have to fill those joints before I start or will the epoxy be thick enough not to drip through those joints. I am sure they will swell back up some when we get some decent weather. I keep my shop at 45* for the most part. The red cedar planking was very dry when I started this project, as it was from a wall from 1954.

Steve

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

No, it will not fill gaps between planks, or even small dents where there are tack heads. In fact, unless you have these spaces plugged up and faired flush with the surface before glassing, you will get sort of a screen-wire-like problem going on where the fiberglass weave bridges the recess or crack, but won't fill and close up the spaces between the yarns. It literally looks like screen wire spanning the little gaps after the stuff hardens. Trying to properly fill those spots after the fact is extremely tedious and difficult.

Unlike glassing a stripper hull, where the surface is solid and continuous, fiberglassing a rib and plank boat is a lot more difficult job. I use a microballoon/epoxy fairing filler mixture to close all gaps between planks and fill any tack head dents flush (followed by a light sanding to fair them with the surface) before glassing, and as far as I have seen, the wood on mine has always been quite dimensionally stable after glassing. This boat is 47 years old and has been fiberglassed for about 45 of those years.

For a clear finish, you would need some sort of clear gap filler, and I don't know what the best answer would be, or what the few companies that have offered clear fiberglass finishes were using. In some ways, the entire fiberglassing-at-home process and its potential pitfalls just makes traditional canvasing look even more attractive and practical. Combine that with the rather strange planking patterns used only on canoes (which don't really resemble plank layouts on planked wooden boats) and the idea of keeping the beautiful wood finish inside and complimenting it with a nice paint job of some sort on the outside may start to make more and more sense.