serial number info

[vttroutman]

Hi, I have a wooden canoe I am trying to restore that is in rough shape, but I am trying to figure out what kind of canoe it is. It must have been canvas on the outside, but someone took that off and fiber glassed right to the wood. My guess is that will never come off, but I am curious all the same what make and model it is. The serial number is 1731 1814.

 

[Graham]

1814 is a Peterborough Mermaid 14' pleasure canoe. A great solo boat (I have a couple). Yours is closer in serial number to the earlier one, should be early 50's. The later ones (Chestnut built post '55 I believe) sometimes didn't have the model number. I thought they were all Chestnut built, but the characteristics are very different on the later ones, more typically Chestnut. Hopefully the fiberglass job is an old one and the resins aren't that good. Good luck with it!

 

[pklonowski]

Getting 'glass of isn't terribly difficult, but it's tedious. As Graham indicated, the older polyester resins come off more easily than the epoxy resins, so hopefully you've got the older material.

A heat gun, worked slowly across the surface, and a putty knife with the corners rounded off, are the key tools. Work slowly, so you don't pull wood off with the resin. The smell isn't very nice, so a well-ventilated work space is a good idea.

There are several discussions about this in this forum, so if you do a search for fiberglass, you should find some more detailed descriptions.

Good luck! And work slowly....

 

[vttroutman]

thanks for the prompt replies! I will do some more research.