How to Repair a Gouge or Gash in a Royalex Canoe using G Flex 650 Epoxy System by West System - DIY
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- Опубліковано 11 лип 2021
- In this video, my good friend Joe walks us through his repair of his 35 year old vintage canoe, which was gouged by a rock in a river trip he made over the weekend. Joe chose to use the G Flex 650 toughened epoxy system to repair this large gash and we were happy to document his experiences. The cost was around $25 from the local canoe shop for the G Flex, who recommended the product. The Krylon spray paint and sandpaper were obtained from a local Lowe's. The cost to repair this multi-thousand dollar canoe was minimal and constitutes status as a "budget repair".
The West System G/flex 650 toughened epoxy is advertised for tough, permanent, waterproof repairs, which is exactly what we need in this situation. Joe called an audible and added some additional fiberglass to fill in some of the gaps and provide some additional structure to the repair. - Навчання та стиль
First the good stuff: Cool to see an old Tananah canoe being given some more opportunities on the river. I think they were made in Jonesboro back in the day. The model month/year should the last 3 or 4 digits in the serial number. The re-railing of the boat looks good too. Most folks would have gone up to Gary Gordon at Buffalo Canoe and bought some of the rivet-on black vinyl gunwales for less maintenance issues, but bravo for that!
Improvements for your next repair( I realize that you weren't looking for a professional job here)
1. G Flex was a decent choice for this repair as most West System products aren't the cheapest, but buy the best and only cry once. In my 30 years + of repairing canoes, I've found that the Royalex boats respond very well to the West Systems 105 resin and (depending on ambient air temperature) either 205, 206 or 209 hardener. You can buy pumps ( to measure it at the required 5: 1 ratio and not waste epoxy) for a quart sized can of this stuff and do a lot of repairs for the dame money as you spent on the G flex, or certainly comparably priced. Certainly cheaper ounce for ounce and the 105/205 combo has many other household uses gluing wood and composite materials for instance.
2. Royalex boats do NOT need the blue flame passed over the damage area, that is for Polyethylene boats like the newer Mad Rivers and Old town Discovery lines. The Hyper expensive 2 part urethane based grunch pad kits OT sells now are much harder to work with, but they do need the flame. It certainly appeared that you didn't get the "inner" blue blame to briefly touch the bonding surface. The outer flame doesn't do any polarizing of the plastic which is why you do that for the Poly boats.
3. Using the glass fibers cut up was a good idea and you did a good job of saturating them before the resin to to its "B"stage. I would have gone to Michael's or hobby lobby and bought a small jar of their dark hunter green ceramics resin colorant and mixed it in with the epoxy rather than dong the spray paint thing, but after all, you were just following directions. The paint/ resin colorant is more to protect the epoxy from UV damage than it is cosmetic. West has a 207 hardener that does have some UV block built into it if you really get anal about it in the future.
4. The easiest way to smooth out that repair is to use the lime green #m masking tape and make an oval pattern around. the repair and use enough widths to allow the excess resin to be rolled off to the tape. Then take a piece of Saran or Glad wrap in your case about 11"x11" and lay it over the repair well before it starts setting up. Then take the masking tape (3/4" stuff is the most versatile for these repairs) and set 4 pieces of the masking tape at 12, 6, 9, and 3 O clock and have slight tension on the plastic wrap You'll have wrinkles, but you'll eliminate them by making more tape "pulls" at the other 8 positions of the "clock" There will be some trapped air in the plastic and you will next take some sort of hard rubber or wood roller( not a paint roller) maybe 2-4" in width and from the center, start rolling the excess resin out on to the masking tape work out the air bubbles first and worry about cosmetics later. You'll hear the crackling sound of the air leaving the repair and ending up on the tape. As you groom the repair to look nice and smooth try to work the excess resin down to the parting line closest to the repair and have minimal thickness there so the tape will pull up easily and minimize sanding it down to be flush with the boat. Further smoothing can be done by hand using baby powder or flour or corn starch to reduce friction and avoid damaging the plastic wrap.
5. Believe it or not, the plastic wrap won't stick to the repair if you wait until the epoxy has fully cured. Check your resin mixing cup to determine that. When you're sure it's set up, pull the plastic off by releasing the 12 pieces of tape that were radially pulling on the plastic wrap and then begin removing the masking tape with all the excess resin on it from the outside width to the inside layer. with some caution, you should get a near perfect parting line and if the repair is too shiny, dull the shine with either the burgundy or gray #M Scotchbrite pads.
6. Acetone will clean way better that alcohol and using a 1 or 1 1/2" throwaway bristle brush will work much better than that stick. Foam brushes can be effective as well as long as you aare using epoxy. Polyester resins will melt the foam
7. There's a cheaper and better wearing fabric now that makes great repairs for grunch pads and hull damage.
It's called Dynel. Davey Hearn's Whitewater Composites sells it and it's a fraction of the cost of kevlar and much easier to cut and shape.
I guess I should post a video on all this and save the typing and proofreading. Maybe some day......
I really appreciate you taking the time to document your knowledge for us as well as others attempting this repair in the future! Thank you!
Follow up question for you, my boat has two cracks that run all the way from the gun hole almost to the bottom of the boat. Would you recommend the epoxy resin to bridge the cracks? Or just use the epoxy straight. I have some G Flex 650 from another project and was planning on using that
I came here to ask every question that you've already answered in great detail, thanks!
If you just come over and patch this hole in my royalex canoe - I will film you and edit it and upload it ! I will make you banana bread ❤
Ha! Sounds good!
Diamond Bear! Great Beer!!
My Royal X Winona has two cracks that run all the way from the rivets in the gunnel down towards the bottom of the canoe. Would you try to bridge those cracks with some epoxy resin? Or just use the epoxy by itself?
Hopefully, someone more knowledgable than me will chime in. If you read the other comments, there is a quite knowledgable gentleman who posted on the video. You might consider responding to his post with your own question.
The cracks you describe are most likely "cold crack" This happens most often with Royalex canoes with wooden gunnels. When exposed to freezing temperatures the Royalex material and the wooden gunnels do not contract and expand at the same rate resulting in cracks originating at the points the wood is secured to the Royalex. The repair method for these cracks is more complicated. Search for how to videos on repairing cold cracks on Royalex canoes.
First, I would decide as to whether you want to continue to use the wood gunwales after the repairs. IF you choose to stick with the wood, MAKE SURE you have a climate controlled storage space for your Wenonah and if that's not possible MAKE SURE YOU LOOSEN THE WOOD SCREWS ONCE YOU STORE IT FOR THE WINTER. They don't need to be removed, just 2-4 full revolutions to remove the stress of the cold. Don't forget to tighten them back once warm weather returns......lol. If you live in Waukon Iowa, I'm down in Cedar Falls. Chances are you have already done your repair, but if not, I could eventually work you in my busy schedule.
The keys to fixing cold cracks on a Royalex boat depend largely on where the cracks are on the boat and how long the crack is. The first thing you wanna do is get out your electric or battery drill and drill a 1/8-3/16" hole at the point where the crack has ended. This will stop the crack from advancing any further. next I would sand both the interior and the exterior. There is some evidence that making a small chamfer ( ie "V" groove) is beneficial for getting the epoxy fully down into the foam core and if you choose to do that, it might be better to do that on the interior of the boat crack. Regardless of whether you choose to use Kevlar seam tape or simply use the Dynel and cut it in strips, I would make sure that your external repair be about an inch wider than your internal repair so as not to create a stress riser. Then decide if you'd like to run a piece of cloth over the area where the crack began. I'd use some thin Kevlar there, especially if you choose to retain the wood gunwales. se the contact bagging technique I described in my other post here and you should end up with repairs that should last for a long time.
Tempra powdered paint( found in hobby stores) also works well as a substitute for spray paint as a UV inhibitor. The Kevlar and Dynel and resin colorants can be acquired from sweetcomposites.com. They have a slightly cheaper Aramid fiber seam tape from Germany that is pretty much the same as Kevlar. The bound edges of the seam tape make for a much cleaner looking repair and Sweet also has a biaxial seam tape in 2" width that deals with curve and convolutions much better that normally woven cloth. Another option is to cut cloth diagonally and you will get the dame flexibility, but the fabric will move around on you . Pulling on the ends will narrow it substantially so be careful with it when brushing resin into bias-cut pieces.
How has the G Flex held up? I have a gouge in my Royalex Mad River Legend similar to the gouge in your boat that is next to the spot you repaired, but deeper (the foam core is visible). I had been looking at and considering G Flex for the repair, but bought a product from Northwest Canoe called 'Canoezilla' instead. I have not repaired my boat yet, and if you are extremely satisfied with the G Flex, I might grab some of that for my repair instead. Thanks!
Per Uncle Joe: Ive only had it put once since the repair, and it looks solid and the paint has held up well. Fopks swear by the G flex, but one trip is all I can vouch for.
@@budgetprojectsbydavid5263 Thanks, I appreciate the reply!
I cn't honestly say how the G Flex does with UV degradation and it might take years of sun exposure to really answer the question. I do know that the 105 resin does have a 207 hardener available but it is mixed at a 3:1 ratio instead of 5:1, so it has it's own special pump. The 105 pump is the same for all 4 hardeners. I primarily use the GFlex for plastic repairs like fiixing gunwales that have cracked. I haven't compared cost of the two different styles of resin on an ounce for ounce bsis, but should you invest in a quart of the 105/205 system with the proper pumps, youll find many other non boating repairs you cann use it for around the house and shop. IT was originally formulated for bonding wood together, but seems to work very wiell with vinyl styrofoam, as well as wood. IT won't bond to Polyethylene at all and I recommend using a two part urethane adhesive and the blue cone flame for those repairs. The West System 105 resin has a shelf life over over 20 yearss and the hardeners are almost that long. The urethane resin has a much shorter shelf life once the cans have been opened. and it's much mre viscous making theit harder to totally wet out the cloth and the set up time is much shorter especially in the summer or when working in sunny conditions.
Thanks for belly laugh with crackhouse and nail polish joke. My kind of humor.
Thanks. I got cracked up when Daniel said that we got this technology from the aliens. 🤣