I'm in the process of recovering an old kayak frame that my uncle made 50 years ago. I'm using canvas. Do you put the cnavas on dry and then wet it to allow it to shrink to the frame,or do you wet the canvas first and stretch it to the frame. What type of paint do you use to paint the canvas? We want to surprise him,so we don't want to ask my uncle. He used old army duffle bag material and painted it with something he had in the garage. It lasted at least 25 yrs. before it dry rotted. Thanks for any help you can give me.

Marianna