Free Canoe Re-build.

I needed a second canoe for a family canoe weekend. (See my other post 4 Days Camping No Cooler)

So I posted online that I was looking for a free canoe.

I have a system I call 'Free99'. Which means I acquire things from others for free and rebuild and use them as my own, or some times I pay it forward and give away the rebuild to people who can use them. I have saved $1000s of dollars acquiring peoples old stuff and bringing them back to life for my own use.
I have acquired a kayak, 3 canoes, a wheelbarrow, beer fridge, tents, and even a .22 rifle and many more things. This is one project of me bringing junk back to life.

This is the journey.

I took a piece of junk and made it into a working water ready canoe.

This project was on a strict budget.

I am not a professional, I am a man with a plan and a tight budget.

But it worked.

This is a canoe that was sitting on a shore for many years just rotting away.
I freed it and brought it back to life.

The canoe was covered in dry algae and dirt.
It was covered inside and out.
Power washing was the only option to clean this old girl.
I also used a cloth and soap and gave it an old fashion scrubbing.

There was a huge crack in the side of this canoe.
This crack was all the way through and almost half a way around the canoe.
There was some cracks on the other side as well.
You could almost fold the canoe in half.

Fiberglass woven and fibres
Fiberglass resin
Hardener
Paint brushes
Small paint rollers
Painters tape
Sandpaper

Patience and luck.

I started by tackling the cracks.
I taped the back side (outside ) of the canoe so I could fill from the inside using gravity as my friend.
Mix your fibreglass as directed on your kit.
Pore the resin directly in the crack and let gravity settle in.
I would use a small paint brush or even a small stick to stir the resin down deep I the cracks.
Let resin cure as directed.

Once I had the first layer of resin cured then I used the fibre fibreglass and resin to make a stronger top layer.
I also placed the fibre and resin mixture over the ends of the ribs and anywhere where I saw a weekness.

Ok so as I was working on the outside of the canoe, I found that if I used resin on the outside it would bring back the original colour.
I was putting layers and layers of just resin over the white patches. Wherever the resin touched the green original colour it came out as bright as a new canoe. This was a fluke, but an awesome fluke.

I made small batches of resin and used a small foam roller and rolled out the outside of the whole canoe. I did multiple coats over the next couple days and weeks. I put more coats over the white patches where the original fibre was thinner.
After each coat I would sand using sandpaper and muscle. A power sander took too much material away.
I did use a mouse sander to sand down where the large crack once was.

Using household cleaners I cleaned the webbing and then let it dry.
I decided to continued to use the resin to seal the wood of the seats and thwart.
I covered the webbing with painters tape to protect from the resin.

Ok so I was pretty happy with the whole feel of this job. The colours were still off. The inside showed the huge patch and the outside still looked like a green Dalmatian.
Here is what I did.
On the inside I matched the colour of original paint with a can of spray paint and lightly sprayed the spots where I patched. This process worked amazing. You can barley tell where the patches were and where the original paint was.

On the outside I tried something crazy.
I wanted to match the outside since most of it was looking amazing. So I found some old outdoor paint in my garage that was forest green. Then I mixed it with the resin and hardener and made a forest green resin. It worked. The colour is not perfect but from afar or while traveling down he highway nobody will notice or care. I was very happy with the result.

To finish it up a did go to the local hardware store and purchase all new hardware. Just looked nicer.

We it's done.

We have also completed our 5 day back country adventure and everyone and everything stayed dry.


FOOTNOTE:
Using fiberglass resin as paint wasn't perfect. Still needed to sand between coats and some coats were tacky and some were not. The end product can still feel tacky on a really hot days. I did get the odd blade of grass or leaf stuck to the outside, but at the end of the t wanted a free canoe to get to point A to point B.

This was a fun project and cost me under $100. i used some materials that I already had and took my time.

The bottom line is... I had fun and was able to get my family outside and I was able to do it with less work out in the wild. With two canoes we were easily able to get my family of four to our island camp in one trip on our 5 day backcountry adventure.

My Free99 systems works if you are not afraid of a little hard work in between.

Made it.
Dry and happy.

What a great trip.