URGENT! Fine white dust coming off vintage canoe... LEAD? PLEASE HELP

[jgriffnyc]

Hi guys,
I'm feeling my way through the restoration of a 1968 Old Town canoe. When I acquired it, the majority of its original dark green outer paint was off, the rest of the canvas was a dull white, and even bumping into the side of the boat left a fine white powder on anything that touched it. I've since lightly sanded the canvas as part of the restoration-- and the powder is everywhere.
Now, I discover that old-school canvas filler could have contained LEAD.
Is that what the white powder is?
I'm doing this restoration in my garage and I have small children at home-- and obviously I'm extremely worried.
Any information would be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[pklonowski]

At a hardware store, you can pick up a home lead test, in the paint department. Read the instructions & use it.

 

[jgriffnyc]

Thank you for that advice-- I took it, and unfortunately it appears I have a POSITIVE result on the canvas.
"When lead is detected, 3M™ LeadCheck™ Swabs and/or the surface being tested turns pink or red depending on the concentration of lead present."
That surface is definitely pink.
Stopping down on this restoration project and getting it out of my garage for now.
I always considered re-canvasing beyond my skillset, but MAYBE it's not...?
Thoughts / encouragement, anybody?
Thanks, all!

 

[Grizzle]

I managed it first time out Buy THE book, (Stelmok, Thurlow) read, 're-read.



Do it.

http://canoe-at-little-log-cabin.blogspot.com/2016/02/canvas.html

 

[Dave Wermuth]

Recanvasing is about the easiest part of the process. Trust me, it really is.

 

[Benson Gray]

This is an interesting result since the information at http://forums.wcha.org/knowledgebase/BuildRestore:Canvas+Fillers indicates that the filler formula used by the Old Town Canoe Company was changed in 1964 to eliminate the use of white lead. I believe that this update was required by a government regulation but I haven't been able to locate the actual legislation. The lead on your 1968 canoe may be from the paint and not from the original filler. I'm sure that you can figure out how to recanvas it. Good luck,

Benson

 

[Gil Cramer]

The lead is from the paint. Once Old Town quit using white lead based filler, chalk was substituted. The chalk, of course, chalked off leaving white residue all over the canoe, to which paint would not adhere. It seems to have started somewhere around the 160,000 serial number. On the wall above my phone is a note to ME which reads "OT 160,000+ bad filler recanvas". ( I only use punctuation when my English Prof wife can see it.)

It is next to "If you haven't seen it, it is junk".