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Fixing the cracks in the outer hull of my Mad River Freedom |
| I've had my Mad River Freedom for nearly twenty years, and I've worn the stern and stem down through the red, then the blue, then the white layers to the last bit of mesh. I installed skid plates at stem and stern last spring, and had great hopes this repair would last a few years. They were a Kevlar fabric attached to the hull by two-glue epoxy, the kind where you mix white and black, and paint the epoxy onto the cloth on the boat itself. |  |
| Alas, it was not to be. I only went on three or four trips, and the skid plates cracked and rotted. They did not adhere to the outer hull, and turned an ugly slimy color. Dirt and mildew collected underneath them. |  |
| Soon the very cracks I was trying to cover over were once again exposed. I decided to find some sort of glue I could fill the cracks with and then reinforce the hull. |  |
| First I had to remove the useless skid plates. I thought first I might leave some remnants of them on, but when I saw how rotten they were, I decided they both had to come off. I was careful not to gouge the hull with the tip of my screwdriver as I pried the skid plates off. |  |
| Here's a look at the type of damage on my hull, after I removed the skid plate and the dirt and epoxy around it. The hole is nearly all the way through the floor from the outside to the inside of my boat. |  |
| I was going to pulverize some ABS pipe I had, and mix it with Acetone to make an ABS paint. But I couldn't find a way to pulverize the pipe without long hours of hard work. Then I spoke to my wise uncle Bob, who suggested Weldbond. It's a white glue that dries to a hard clear finish. |  |
| I just opened the jug and poured the glue along the cracks on the bottom of my hull. Then I immediately took a Popsicle stick and smoothed out the glue lengthwise. You only get one good chance. Once the glue gets tacky, it will not spread smoothly. Smooth it sweetly at the start, and don't touch it again. Don't use plastic wrap over the glue, it's too runny and makes air bubbles. I tried it, what a mess. |
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| The glue goes on white and turns clear as it dries and hardens. I was discouraged when I saw the the first coat of glue didn't fill in the cracks. By the way, it was mid-November, and it took a couple of days or more for the glue to dry to a clear finish. Be sure your wife lets you use the garage and leave the car out in the weather. |  |
| Thankfully, a second coat did fill in and cover the crack. Give this another day, and the white will disappear, leaving a clear hard shell. You will still see the cracks under the glue, they don't go away. But the cracks should be tight and hold up against the rocks for a reasonable number of seasons, right? I hope so. |  |
| I poured more and more Weldbond into the widest and deepest crack at the stern. The crack drank it up several times, and I filled it repeatedly until it was full. As the glue in the crack got tacky, I pushed it deeper into the crack with my Popsicle stick, and poured yet more glue in on top. |  |
| As the glue hardened at the crack and inside the hull where I kept pouring it in, water seeped out. It came from the hardening glue and also from water that had previously found its way into the hull. I used a cloth to wipe up the drip. Looks messy, but it is hardening slowly and nicely. |  |
| I used a hairdryer as the glue dried and turned clear. The white bit, where it hadn't quite hardened yet, got softer as it got warmer. I could then smooth it out with a gentle rub of my finger so it could dry flat. There is still a small dimple above the deep crack, but the whole area is rock-hard, with no flex at all to the skin of the hull around the crack site. |  |
| Unfortunately, the weather dropped below freezing the day I finished applying the last coat of glue, so it didn't get warm enough for all of the glue to dry to a clear finish. I am confident the glue will cure once we get a warm day so I can set my boat out in the sunlight. I may have to wait a long time, it's the end of November in New Brunswick now. Go figure. |  |
So I set my canoe back under the deck, under a tarp for its long winter's nap. The hull appears repaired, the cracks are filled and a hard multi-layered coat of glue has reinforced it. There are still a few flecks of white where the glue will harden more over time. The acid test whether this repair works will likely be next spring. I'll let you know.
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No! The glue got soft in water, and peeled off again, exposing the cracks anew. My buddy Jamie says he can get Kevlar to stick to my hull. I'll give him a call. |
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| So I got in touch with my buddy from the NB Paddlers Message Board who restores canoes as a hobby, and he applied higher-grade fabric plates on both ends of my boat over a beer in his garage. He let it cure for one night, then painted it red the next night. I came and picked it up on the third night. Here's what it looks like now. |  |
So the moral of the story is, don't waste your time with epoxy unless it dries totally hard and sticks to your hull material.
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