Exposed glass?

[88maybe]

Hi!
I have a 1988 Old Town square stern…thanks again Benson for the identification help! I started the renovation today and noticed my knees and elbows started to get glass fibers from the interior flooring of the boat, which looks like exposed fiberglass weave.

I know I must have to coat the floor, but was looking for advice on what to coat it with? I was thinking topside primer then Marine paint? Or will that make it too heavy?

Gerard

 

[MGC]

I have worked on a lot of the fiberglass Old Towns. They were the rage before the Royalex canoes came along. Of all of the more common faults, failures/repairs, exposed weave on the inside is not one I ever dealt with. That is a really odd problem to encounter. I did see some balsa wood coming through on some heavily damaged boats. Rocks are not very forgiving.
If I were dealing with that, I would probably do a power wash, rough sand, follow with a good blowout and an acetone bath before carefully applying a thin layer of epoxy on the bottom.... That should/would seal it up and hopefully take care of glass fibers that you mention. I would not be using a primer or paint. These weigh a (relative) ton, so a single coat of epoxy applied to the bottom should not make a noticeable difference. You might want to hold off on this until the weather cools a bit. You will want to have a bit of time to level out the coat before it starts to set.

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

Epoxy resin would be good, except for the fact that it has terrible UV resistance, and that part of the boat is going to be subject to UV every time you use it. It would need paint on top of the resin to protect it. Personally, I'd lightly sand off the stickers, clean it well and give it a coat or two of polyurethane floor enamel or something like Home Depot's "epoxy" (not much) concrete floor enamel. This strip canoe has True Value polyurethane floor enamel which is over 50 years old on the inside, and the outside is the Home Depot concrete floor paint. No primer needed.

 

[MGC]

Cannot disagree with that Todd, but I will confess. I have never been at all particular about my fiberglass or Royalex canoe storage and I have never seen any evidence of UV damage. A coat of UV resistant paint is certainly going to make it look better and will offer protection from the sun, but realistically, a properly stored canoe is not going to be sitting open side up and when it's in use, it won't necessarily get enough sunlight to cause damage....my opinion.
Another confession? I have never owned a spray bottle of 303 and I have never put teak oil on the rails or thwarts of any canoe I own, not even my super-duper Swift Kevlar portage destroyer.

 

[88maybe]

Thank you for the feedback!
I attached a photo-not a great photo-to show the interior weave.

 

[MGC]

Interesting. That is not the typical weave I am used to from Old Town. Apparently the boats were done a bit differently than the canoes. I'm going to change my suggestion for how you deal with that based on seeing this.
I would pull the seats and power wash it. I would not sand it. I would also not put resin in there. I would probably use a good two part epoxy paint to try and seal those fibers and then call it a day.you could probably do nothing at all and use it as is as long as you don't roll around or kneel in it.

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

There really isn't anything unusual about the weave being visible on the inside of a fiberglass canoe. It is standard procedure as filling the weave with more resin adds excess weight to the boat as well as brittleness to the fiberglass. It also makes a pretty good non-skid surface. What is unusual in this case is the interior color. Normally, the inside of a fiberglass boat shows the exterior color, as the layup resin is clear. So, the tan color is either pigmented resin for the final layer or painted. I'd just wash it well and paint it.

 

[88maybe]

Thank you both!
Based on the condition of the boat, it’s been sitting for years…i also have exterior hull work and some transom work to do on the square stern… I was surprised at the glass coming off, and I was terrified at the thought of sanding it-figured there would be glass flying everywhere! I pulled the seats and hardware connecting them to the gunwhales. Any specific paint you both might recommend ?

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

I've never seen any reason to go for fancier paint on inside fiberglass than hardware store polyurethane floor enamel. It's made to walk on, so it holds up well, you can often get it in custom colors, and it tends to be much cheaper than the fancy marine enamels, which really don't offer anything more that you need to do the job.