It's Official - my '51 OTCA project

[mmmalmberg]

Overdue for an update...
First, I had half of an original deck decal that I wanted to complete with a decal from the store. Those turned out to be slightly bigger than the original, but I was able to splice four pieces of the new decal together to fit it to the original. I used some orange shellac to match the color (I could tell when I was sanding down to the decal that it had orange shellac on it).

 

[dtdcanoes]

WOW, stepping back for a moment does work, doesn't it. You're good company.
Dave

 

[mmmalmberg]

The funny thing is when I put the orange shellac on it, it began to attack the decal, creating little breaks in it that look much like the worn original! At first I thought I blew it, then I realized it was just the right thing

 

[mmmalmberg]

OK Just getting back to this now that it's warmed up... Main things left are outwale repairs/installation and final coats of paint and varnish.

Question about the tip detail. Should I cut into the outer stem to allow for the top leg of the outwale, or trim back that inner part of the outwale to fit around the stem, or a little of both and it will all be hidden under the stem band anyway?

 

[Dave Osborn]

Yep, cut clearance on your outer stem for the rabbet. Here is a pic of an old one.

 

[Nick Dennis]

Having just done my 1911 Charles River what I ended up doing was planed down the profile gradually over 6” or so from the end so that the tip of the outtake ended up flush with the outside stem. The brass stem band then covered the junction on the top.
Hope this makes sense. See here http://forums.wcha.org/index.php?threads/1911-aa-old-town-charles-river.17254/page-4

nick

 

[mmmalmberg]

Back to it... The last repair (that I now of)... a small crack near the back of the starboard outwale. I held the crack open while driving some epoxy into the crack with a heat gun, then did a backside repair that was pretty easy due to the curve. I used a leftover piece of spruce I'd bent for inwale repairs.

 

[mmmalmberg]

Coming together at the stern...

 

[Dave Wermuth]

Nice work!

 

[mmmalmberg]

Thanks Dave

 

[mmmalmberg]

Is it "correct" to varnish the decks separately and install them after varnishing? Or are the decks varnished across to the inwales? Kind of assuming they stay separate but I could see it either way...

 

[dogbrain]

I varnished after assembly since you may have to sand gunwales to the same level as the decks.

Mark

 

[mmmalmberg]

I varnished after assembly since you may have to sand gunwales to the same level as the decks.

Mark

That's somewhat what I'm finding, I've got one coat to go on the decks and am seeing that I may have to sand down a bit of one or two of the deck edges to not be ever so slightly above the inwale. The curvature of the decks seems to have very slightly strayed from that of the inwales. I actually observed this before I started any work, and I got everything pretty close and could probably live with it but I might split the difference. Varnishing them to each other would also slightly smooth that over...

 

[David Dinger]

Nice project! I hope to follow with mine soon!

 

[mmmalmberg]

Nice project! I hope to follow with mine soon!

Thanks, I hope to wrap this up so we can get it on the water!

Can anyone recommend a green that’s the best possible match to the green of the early 50’s?

 

[Benson Gray]

Can anyone recommend a green that’s the best possible match to the green of the early 50’s?

Many like the Kirby's #12 Bottle Green shown at https://kirbypaint.com/products/kirbys-vintage-color-chart but any good marine enamel in dark green will probably be fine. I always encourage people to pick a shade that you like.

Benson

 

[mmmalmberg]

Thanks. I had George custom mix something trying to match some original paint I had but it came out a bit too blue. The bottle green looks dark on the web page but maybe I can get a sample. If you think of any pics of canoes with this color let me know - thanks again!

 

[Michael Grace]

Here’s a beautiful example:

http://forums.wcha.org/index.php?threads/new-atkinson-traveler.5898/#post-32117

 

[Dave Osborn]

I like Interlux Brightsides Sea Green. I like the color and ease of use right from the can.
I find with some paints, amendment with additives is necessary for my expectations. Not so with Brightsides.

 

[mmmalmberg]

Tips are together, outwales are on and with first three coats of varnish. Somehow or other, the tips ended about 1/4" closer together than they once were, meaning I had that much extra outwale to clean up the ends a bit, which were pretty worn, with a file and using just a bit of epoxy/sawdust filler.

In order to center the outwales along the length I plugged and redrilled all the screw holes into the ribs and inwales. Many of the screws had countersunk too far into the outwales, so I filled all the screw holes in the outwales with gflex/sawdust and re-drilled and countersunk them into the epoxy sawdust, which made a fairly solid new seat for the screwheads.

The screws nearest the tips had been fitted with steel 1/4-20 through-bolts and nuts that had chewed up the outwales substantially so I filled those areas also with g-flex & sawdust, and put in 1-3/4" screws with finish washers which I filled behind with the epoxy sawdust so they'd harden into a solid washer to spread the load over the repaired area.

I had to relieve the backsides of the outwales near the tips to fit over the canvas and planking, which I'd replaced and probably should have tapered down toward the edges. So they're a bit delicate to my eye at the tips and maybe I should make some brass tip guards or something to sturdy things up. But I might just see how they fare as is.

Filled and redrilled countersinks:

Top half of decal is original. Half of the O and most of the bottom half is pieced together from a replacement decal from the store. Those are slightly larger than original so I cut and fitted pieces together, about 7 separate pieces, to fit it to what was left of the original. A bit of amber shellac gave a good color match to the white areas. Epoxy sawdust fill between the outer stem tip and the inwales is the result of trimming the inwale tips to match the inner stem, before the canvas was on. Lesson learned...

Back sides of outwale tips had to be cut back to fit around the planking and canvas. I imagine this could have worked out differently if I knew what I was doing before I was doing it...