11' old town

I picked up my canoe today.its an 11' 50# cs grade.1933 it is in original condition.it has been in a basement for the last 50 years from what i an told. And it looks it. It was shipped to greenwich village, mass. In may of 1933. To a fred doubleday. I looked into greenwich, mass. Because i never heard of it. It turns out greenwich was one of the towns the state took to make the quabbin resevoir in 1938. So it no longer exists except under water. I thought that was some great history. I also got the paddle that came with it. I will post some pics. But i will need some help in doing so. Thanks derek

Congratulations, you mentioned in another message that you also got "a paddle with the old logo." Was this one of the ones shown at http://forums.wcha.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=4095&d=1202406304 or a different one? Have you tried your new canoe in the water yet to see if it leaks?

Benson

its the logo all the way to the right. and it is in excellent condition. also how do i post photos.

SWEETWATER said:

how do i post photos.

Click to expand...

The messages at http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?t=469 have a good description of the process and considerations for posting photos.

Benson

let me try posting photos.

lets try again

cant post pics

i cant post . i get through all thr to browse, i load my pics, then i hit upload. it says its loading, then when its finished nothing happens. how do i shrink my photo size to fit?

If your email program re-sizes pictures for mailing, you could email them to yourself and then save someplace that's easy to find, like "desktop". That's how I used to do it. Then I downloaded a free program that lets me do many different things with pictures, including re-sizing. The program I use is called "irfanview" and is found here: http://www.irfanview.com/

But you may already have a picture program that permits changing the size.

Right click on the picture, choose "resize pictures". I think this presumes you are using a Windows based system.

try again

the uploaded and i cut them by 50%

i did it thank you everybody. i needed the right click. i will post some more soon

Nice! Looks like you can just put it into the water and go!

I have a question about the canvas. Here are a couple closeups. Can i get away with a coat of paint for this year or does it need a new canvas, and the varnish still looks great. Accept for the gunwhales and decks. Can i lightly sand and varnish over whats there or does it need a complete removal? Thanks again for the help

Don't see why not.

I think you can lightly sand the inside and varnish. the outside needs more work. Sand, sand, sand, priime, sand, prime, sand, paint, sand, paint. But that's a bit of overkill. You get the idea. Then you'll get more acquainted with it and maybe new canvas this winter.

Do you mean sand the paint everywhere,spot prime any canvas i see and then paint. Or should i sand the crackled paint right out so it is smooth. Just looking to get the summer and fall out of it.

If I were you, and just wanted the summer/fall season out of it, and if I were not leaving the canoe in the water for extended periods of time, and if I were replacing the canvas over the winter, then I would not worry too much about the appearance of the cracks.

I would sand only enough to smooth any curled edges of cracks, and I would put on a couple of quick coats of paint, making sure the paint is worked into the cracks to seal them. New paint will minimize water leaking or soaking into the canvas through the cracks, and will improve the appearance of the canoe a bit -- trying (probably not very successfully) to make a silk purse out of this sow's ear for one season would seem to me a waste of time, time that can better be used paddling. Save your energy for doing a good job on the new canvas, filler, and paint, where it will really pay off.

yes

I agree with you Greg about getting a coat on it after sanding the loose stuff off. I'd do a bit more and sand it all with random orbital sander and 100 grit. But I'd also consider primer, which fills better and then topcoat with sanding between with 180 or so. And yes do the whole canoe. You can do it either way, depending on your prefernces.

Also consider that the old paint dust may be toxic or at least unpleasant inside your lungs. It may be that the canvas will get through a couple years, who knows?

I will probably use epiphanes epoxy paint, do they also make a primer. There is also a few spots i can see the canvas . They are not very big, do i need to fill them with something or will the primer and paint take care of it. Thanks again for everyones help. I would be lost. And who knows i could have ruined the canoe.

The issue is primarily one of appearances. A couple of coats of paint, or primer and paint, even on bare canvas, will keep water from coming through. Using a high-build primer will give a smoother surface and so a somewhat better look. Since you have bare canvas showing, I think I would at least spot prime those areas after sanding

If this is intended to last only one season, I would think epoxy paint is overkill -- a good gloss oil paint (marine enamel, porch and deck paint, or the like) would look as good as the epoxy and would do as good a job in keeping out water -- and would probably be significantly less costly. If, however, you may end up relying on the paint job for a number of years, the cost issue becomes less significant, and if the canvas is obviously very worn and weak, epoxy paint might add a little bit of strength and durability.

The decision-making here is really in the realm of personal taste and preference. Almost any good paint or filler/paint will serve the utilitarian need of making the canoe usable for a season or two. Extra sanding, extra filling, extra good paint will add little in the way of functionality, but may be worth it to satisfy your aesthetic sensibility.

Keep in mind that, except for the owner/paddler, it is rare for a canoe to be viewed from any closer than 10 or 20 feet away. It is surprising what can't be seen, and how good even crummy, crackly paint can look, from 20 feet away. And people usually look at the canoe -- not at the paint. For example, most people looking at the last picture above of your canoe will see a very nice little canoe, not a worn, chipped paint job.

Using my 15' OT 50 pounder as an example, the first two photos are close-up views of the condition of the paint/canvas when I bought the canoe. This is probably how you are viewing your canoe right now, with the defects painfully plain and ugly. But step back just a few feet, and it's a pretty nice canoe, even with all its flaws (especially if there is something like a cute dog to distract the eye). The next two pictures are after some very minimal hand sanding (not my favorite sport), filling a couple of deep gouges with epoxy, and just two coats of a good semi-gloss porch and deck paint over the original paint -- one photo from less than 10 feet away, and the other from maybe 15 feet away. You just don't see the cracks. And the final photo still has only two coats of new paint, but also the added distraction of a design I tried out with some paint my daughter had left over from an art project.

The canoe needs recovering -- which will be done in a couple of years when I get time to repair the couple of cracked ribs and planks. In the meantime, the quick paint job is more than satisfactory for my purposes -- getting out and paddling now, in a canoe that doesn't leak and looks ok.

I would add that the semi-gloss paint tends to hide defects a bit better than high gloss paint, but is not as easy to keep clean, especially with the very light color that I used.

Thanks so much.i think you answered all my questions. I will paint and prime and sand and hope the original canvas will hold up. Being almost 80 years old.