Vinyl Coated Canvas...

[knehdn]

Seeing as I'll be recanvassing a mid 40's Chestnut this spring, I started sourcing materials and came across a vinyl coated canvas. Has anyone heard of this, or better yet, tried it? Works out to just over $200 for a 16', but seems it could probably save quite a bit compared to regular canvas, and filler, and paint, and who knows how many hours.
Just curious to hear some reviews on this.

 

[MikeCav]

Question: Will it stretch and bend without cracking and keeping the wet side on the wet side and dry side on the dry side?

 

[merk]

I've seen it on a chestnut. I think you WD40 it to shine it up and "protect" it.
I didn't care for the look or the feel.

I used heat shrink dacron on my 37 Old Town 50lber to lighten it up from 65ish to 47lbs, and so far I like it. Looks ok, seems to take the hit pretty well from stix and the occassional rock. We'll see how it holds up.


Merk

 

[Dan Miller]

Search the forums for "verolite" for more information.

 

[knehdn]

Talked with a techie at Noah's who distributes the stuff. He says it stretches just fine. Apparently it's supposed to hold up pretty good against abrasions and such, but does say you need to get the wrinkles out right away or else they're there for life. He says the vinyl is impregnated into the canvas. Oh yea. Then there's the Henry Ford thing. It comes in any colour you want as long as it's green.

I've seen it on a chestnut. I think you WD40 it to shine it up and "protect" it.
I didn't care for the look or the feel.

I used heat shrink dacron on my 37 Old Town 50lber to lighten it up from 65ish to 47lbs, and so far I like it.

Looks ok, seems to take the hit pretty well from stix and the occassional rock. We'll see how it holds up.
Merk

I guess it must make the canoe look a little too plastic-like.


How well did the dacron take paint?
Unless the hull has been faired to perfection, didn't heat shrinking show up all the imperfections?
Did you put on a keel?

Gonna do a bit more thinking of how I'm going to re-finish it.
Thanks for the input Guys.

 

[Douglas Ingram]

I didn't realize that Verolite was available again.

It last quite awhile. Tremblay pretty much always used it.

I've recanvassed a number of canoes using it. It is tricky to get on right, on some canoes, its actually a real PITA. It stretches, but only along one axis at a time. It doesn't like tumblehome, which is why Tremblay canoes had flared sides.

 

[merk]

How well did the dacron take paint?
Unless the hull has been faired to perfection, didn't heat shrinking show up all the imperfections? Did you put on a keel?.

It takes paint no problem. The primer I used was an industrial based latex....not bad...the finish paint was also lbenjamin moore latex enamel...I'll probably use a real boat paint next coat. BTW the dacron was so incredibly easy to install, I was amazed after canvassing a few boats. You double face tape it to the hull, I was amazed how easy it went on. Neat stuff.

I worked the hull for perfection, you got that right. No hammer dimples, not a tack head showing...no seams....it was tough to do. I pert near replaced all the planking too! I did put the keel back on...I like the keel on this boat. I adds a little protection and it tracks very nice. It is so nice to carry, I can't tell you. It's a real 50lber again

Next winter I will strip my 17' HW of it's glass, not sure if I will dacron that one, the hull would take too much to clean up that nice and I cannot replace all the planking. The 50lber used thinner planking and it warranted replacing along with major stem splicing, the HW hopefully won't need all that. That was a ton of work...I rescued the HW from a pair of Brown Swiss cows that liked to rub their horns on it! I patched her up just to have one boat water ready, while fixing the 50lber. Time to rebuild the HW. Thing weighs aton. I'll weight the hull after the glass is off and then decide what to cover it with.