A Spiritual Rebuild

[yakfever]

I am a youth pastor who is using one very abused Adirondack Stripper to teach my youth a spiritual lesson over the next year +. Most people who have seen the boat think I am insane for even trying, telling me I should make it into book shelves. The boat has been hacked into four pieces with a chainsaw by a previous owner. The gunwales are gone, some of the planking is separated and the ribs have "opened up". To my knowledge, the boat has no pedegree. I love canoeing and have always wanted a wood strip boat, but I have never worked on in any way shape or form. I figure I can't make the boat any worse than it is; most people think I should put it in the trash. But that's the point, it wasn't intended to be trash when it was built, so I want to redeem it.

I think my first step will be to strip the boat down to original wood and start from there. The problem is that it has been fiberglassed at some point. Can anyone give me advice about how to get the fiberglass off?

I have the canvas and wood canoe book which has some repair information in it and the repair book I bought off this site. Are there any other really good resources that a novice who has a big project on his hands should read? Preferably something that is fairly comprehensive, but not insanely technical.

Thanks for any help you can provide. I'm attaching pictures of "Redemption"; that's her name.

 

[victorw]

Aw nothing a little bondo putty couldn't fix.

Seriously though, most of the ribs seem to be ok. Although I'm pretty green to this myself, I would suggest:

1. Strip boat of all canvas and varnish
2. Scarf all those segments of inwale together and begin from there.
3. replace any planking and ribs that are broken
4. bend new outwales
5. Recarve and replace floor boards.
6. recanvas, refill, and repaint.
7. replace those awful seats Or if they are original, remove that blue lawn chair stuff and recane.

Good luck!

 

[Dave Osborn]

Your spiritual mission may be easier to attain by restoring that near-mint travel trailer behind the canoe. I'm sure that it can be used as a spititual restoration example, too. Good luck! I'm praying for you!
Cheers!
Dave

PS: On a serious note.....The restorers "bible" is called "The Wood and Canvas Canoe", by Rollin Thurlow and Jerry Stelmok. It will give you the best overall restoration process info that I know of.

 

[Glen Smith]

Fiberglass removal

One way to remove old fiberglass is to warm it with a hot-air gun. Lift an edge and pull on it with pliers as you continually heat the area ahead of where you are working. Proceed slowly so you don't pull off too much wood with the fibeglass. The remaining epoxy or polyester will need to be sanded off. Do this work outdoors if possible or in a well ventilated work space and wear a respirator mask with protective cartridges.

Another method is to sand it all off, much dustier! The same safety precautions apply.

Glen.

 

[Dave Wermuth]

yakfever-

It is do-able. I put one back together that was in three pieces. You can browse around the site and find lots of info.

Some of the guys of my church are making a new canoe for a door prize at our wild game dinner, so I can relate.

Search the wood/canvas forum. I suppose a beat up canoe in not quite such bad shape would be a better starting point but ya gotta go with what ya got go with. You'll find tons of help.