Old Town Serial# 170400 17

JSims5282

New Member
I've got what appears to be an Old Town canoe. Unfortunately someone has covered with the outside with glass, and I am debating my restoration options or whether to sell it.

Anyways, more information about it, would be fantastic.

Thanks in advance

Josh
 
Josh,

Hmmm...I wonder if we're related.

Old Town #170400 was a 17-foot Otca built in 1960 and shipped in 1961 to Portland, Oregon. It had a keel, but I can't read the original color on the build record.

The scan of this record is attached below-- click on it to get a larger image. This scan and several hundred thousand others were created with substantial grants from the Wooden Canoe Heritage Association (WCHA) and others. A description of the project to preserve these records is available at http://www.wcha.org/ot_records/ if you want more details. I hope that you and anyone else reading this will join or renew membership in the WCHA so that services like this can continue. See http://www.wcha.org/wcha/ to learn more about the WCHA and http://www.wcha.org/join.php to renew.

If you are selling your canoe and plan to use this build record information as part of an ad, please consider giving the WCHA credit for this information on eBay or craigslist or wherever your canoe is listed.

It is also possible that you could have another number or manufacturer if this description doesn't match your canoe. Feel free to reply here if you have any other questions.

Kathy Klos may be able to give you a link to a video about removing fiberglass from the hull. Most fiberglass jobs are done poorly and a heat gun goes a long way toward removing it.

Norm
 

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Hi Josh,

I'm reading the color as "dark red"--- reading "doctor handwriting" for about thirty years may have helped me decipher this!

The fiberglass-removal video is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXILZU6Jm-s

The fiberglass on the canoe in the video was probably an "average job"-- not so bad that it came off in big sheets, but not so good that we'd regret tackling the project. The fiberglass ruined the long mahogany decks of the canoe in the video, so they have to be re-built... but the canoe is in canvas.

Try using the "search" function (above) to bring up past discussions of the Otca... and feel free to post questions too! If you decide to take-on the restoration of this canoe, Thurlow and Stelmok's book "The Wood and Canvas Canoe" is sometimes referred-to as "the bible of canoe restoration". It's available at the WCHA Store and just about anywhere you find books for sale.

If you have a specific question, post here in Forums--- the "Wood Canvas/ Fiberglass" category would fit. You might also try YouTube... someone has probably made a video of just about everything.

Information on the Old Town Company itself can be found in Sue Audette's book, "Old Town, Our First Hundred Years", which is available from Sue herself at http://www.waterworkscanoe.com/book.html, on eBay, Amazon, and at public libraries.

Best of luck with whatever you decide to do regarding this canoe.

Kathy
 
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