Old Town Restoration

[Chet Machamer]

I've recently started restoring a 1916 Old Town 16' HW. This is my first restoration, so I'm a bit of a novice, but I was wondering if anyone had tips on removing the old filler. I took the canvas off the canoe, but it left quite a lot of old filler left on the wood. Is it best to just take some coarse sand paper to the boat, or is there a better method? Attached are a few pictures of what I have now.

 

[mccloud]

I've never seen one that looks like yours. Did the previous re-canvasser use cheesecloth instead of canvas??? Whatever it is, it cannot be smooth, and you have to have a smooth surface when the time comes to stretch canvas, so it has to come off. I'd be inclined to see whether 50 grit paper on a random orbital sander with a GOOD dust catcher takes it off. And wear a dust mask yourself - you don't want to breathe this stuff. Keep your eyes on the tack heads as a guide to how much to sand. If half the heads look shiny, you've sanded far enough or maybe too far. And beware that it is all too easy to sand away the soft old wood, leaving tack heads high, and troughs in the wood, so work 'lightly' with the sander. Tom McCloud

 

[Greg Nolan]

I'm wondering if that is not linseed oil based filler, but perhaps the sort of polyester that was used to fill/glue fiberglass before epoxy came into use? If so, a lot of it might be scraped off after heating with a heat gun, before sanding. It would be unusual to have that much regular canvas filler between the canvas and the hull planking.

 

[Rollin Thurlow]

It looks like the the last person to canvas the canoe had spread either a a layer of bondo or if the boat is older, white lead paste, over the wood hull in an effort to smooth out the surface of the hull. If bondo it can be sanded but not too much or you start sanding into the wood. If its white lead you can soften it with a heat gun and then scrape it off and then do a light sanding but of course then your breathing in lead fumes or lead dust so precautions should be taken!

 

[Dave Osborn]

Some people think the canvas is glued on...
I once dealt with liquid nails as an adhesive to hold canvas on.... not pleasant.

 

[Paul Scheuer]

I'm curious. What did the removed canvas look like ? When I removed the remaining canvas from my Morris, there was nothing stuck to the planking. From what I can see from the pics, the material attached to the wood looks like a smooth surface, where it hasn't flaked off, with no imprint from the canvas. It almost looks like an attempt to seal the boat without canvas.