Repair or repaint deep scratches?

[mccloud]

Several years ago I restored a 12' Huron, which is shown in "Social Media Images", third page, about half way down - the beige-colored canoe.

It was never intended to be a show boat, rather, was used a number of times floating and fishing on the Potomac. It received several deep scratches thru the paint & primer, but not into the filler. It puzzles me that both edges of the scratches are slightly raised so that simply sanding smooth will give a quarter-inch wide white patch. Why are both edges raised? If you were repairing this, how would you do it? Just paint over it, or sand smooth and paint, or seal with epoxy, sand smooth and paint? It's in the shop right now being cleaned plus another coat of varnish, with the intention of bringing this 'solo canoe' to Assembly in July.
Tom McCloud

 

[MGC]

A couple pictures would be interesting to see but the repair seems pretty straight forward if the filler isn't compromised. I'd carefully hand sand to the edges and then paint the exposed areas. Presuming that the canoe has several layers of paint you may need to build the replacement paint up without applying too much. Then carefully sand to blend...wet sanding would be my last step followed by buffing and wax...you should be able to make the repair virtually invisible.
I once lifted paint down to the filler on a boat that I was transporting on my roof. The paint had seemed to be nicely cured but the heat of the sun baking it and the pressure from the rubber bungy cords I was using teamed up and made a horrible mess when I took the bungies off.... I repainted that and it still looks good...you would really have to look hard to find the repairs.
Or.....you could repaint the whole hull...……..sometimes that's easier than trying to blend in a repair.

 

[mccloud]

Attached photo shows some of the scratches this morning, after they were sanded smooth (320 grit).
As you can see, sanding away the ridges on both sides has opened up an upainted gap of 1/4+ inch, showing base layers and primer - perhaps filler. There are other scratches in other locations. Since I have paint, I will most likely give the whole hull another coat after doing a light scuff. TM...

 

[ppine]

I have used epoxy with saw dust as a filler on all kinds of projects.
Alternatively, for shallow scratches like those auto body filler in a tube (not Bondo) would work just fine.

 

[Greg Nolan]

I have used auto-body spot putty with good results -- it is one part, comes in a tube, dries rapidly, sands and fairs easily easily -- Bondo Glazing and Spot Putty, a 3M product -- not the same stuff as Bondo's 2 part dent filler.