Need Help!!

[olcrash]

I found this canoe at a tag sale this past weekend. I was so impressed with the wood inside, I just had to have it. I just have no Idea what it is? Its 20 feet long and about 39 inches wide. Does anyone have any idea what this could be. I cant find a serial number anywhere. Also, Is it worth trying to restore? It has fiberglass that has cracked into spiderwebs on the outside. It has one puncture hole that goes through the wood (about the size of a half dollar). I can only find one busted rib. Please help.
Greg

 

[Mark Adams]

ALL wooden canoes are worth trying to restore! Seriously though, yours is an ideal candidate for restoration. At 20' it is a big beast though. As far as what it is, I don't know. It does have the Old Town style diamond head bolts, but the decks don't look right to my somewhat untrained eye. Hopefully others will chime in with more informed opinions. The fiberglass sounds like it was done with polyester resin which usually peels off quite easily. Don't try and re-glass it. There is nothing like canvas! It also looks like it needs new outside gunnels.

 

[olcrash]

So its possible to take the glass off?????? How??? It looks like the glass is pretty well adheared to the wood.

 

[Mark Adams]

There are a couple of ways to get glass off. It usually just peels right off the cedar with the help of a putty knife. I say usually because this only works if it is polyester resin. the Polyester doesn't adhere to cedar very well. Modern epoxy is much more tenacious, and if it is modern, it will remain glassed til the end of it's life. The way to check is pull off a gunnell and start at an edge with a putty knife. Having a heat gun or blow torch helps with the more stubborn spots. The blowtorch approach should be used with EXTREME caution though. People have sunk glassed canoes for a week or so, and the moisture helps with removal especially when heat is applied.

The canoes I have removed glass from have all been easy. The glass simply peeled off in long strips. One last note, prepare to ITCH! wear long sleeves and a mask. The little glass fibers are not good things to breathe!

HTH

 

[olcrash]

Seems to be working. Im not getting nice long strips, more like chunks. Does this seem to be the best method? see pic

 

[Tom Heys]

De-glassing W/C canoe

From my minimal experience, it looks like you are getting good results. It might not come off in big sheets, but it'll come off. Good luck, Tom

 

[Kathryn Klos]

The Famous Video...

Have to leap in here and plug the famous 'Glass Removal Via Heat Gun video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXILZU6Jm-s&feature=channel_page

Your canoe is definitely worth restoring. You might want to poke through the canoe-possibilities at the Dragonfly Canoe ID site:

http://www.dragonflycanoe.com/id/

Your canoe doesn't appear to be an Old Town (wrong deck, as Mark said)... someone who worked on it used OT diamond-head bolts... if you discover what your canoe really is and want to replace those bolts, there are folks looking for them to use on Old Towns, who'd pay you for them.

I'll look through some of the canoe catalogs later and see if anything hits me... the deck style is similar to some used by Thompson and Shell Lake, but the half-ribs and other stuff seems wrong... and Penn Yan had a curved deck, but with less upward-curve (methinks!). Someone here may take one look and know exactly what you have! Or it may be from a smaller company and we'll all learn something new.

By the time you get that glass off, you and the canoe will know each other pretty well! Keep taking pictures and sharing them.

Kathy

 

[Mark Adams]

Yep, good results peeling the glass. It looks like it is coming off very well, with no planking damage.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Look at the Rehbein canoe on the Dragonfly site... also, use the "search" function above and plug in "Rehbein". Not saying it's your canoe, but the deck appears similar. The seats are distinctive and would be a giveaway.