: No time limit that I have seen. After years of neglect (sitting in the sun
: and snow, with no varnishing, or upkeep) the outside of my canoe was
: pretty ugly. I made it in 1994)

Paul, how long have you been building?...was this one of your first boats?...Thirteen years old...this canoe, good long time to be building. Figure ten thousand hours of practice to gain expertise in "anything"...and judging by your suggestions on the KBB....you've got some good stuff to share!

I peeled the glass off last year
: (12-year-old glass job) and it is waiting for me to put on a layer of
: Dynel instead. Figured I'd try that.

What's Dynel?

: Gunwales of varnished red oak rotted. and will be replaced with pine or
: cedar, sealed in epoxy.

Did you use screws to put those gunwhales on? I epoxied mine...thinking to cut down on weight...and hoping I wouldn't have to replace them.

: What surprised me the most was how thick the glass on the bottom of the hull
: (2 layers of 6 ounce cloth) really was.

A testament to how effective the heat gun thing is...effective enough to get two six ounce layers of cloth (plus epoxy weave fill) off of the hull...

I won't go that thick again. The
: river by my house is shallow with lots of sharp-edged rocks. Scrapes and
: dings affected the varnish and resin on top of the glass. Nothing
: significant went through the outer layer of glass, much less penetrating
: both layers.

I've got a couple of very good scratches that went through to the wood on our canoe...basic layer of cloth and fill on her, so maybe those two layers of six ounce cloth did what you intended them to do...

I got leaks from areas where the glass was not well coated
: with resin. Water that got in those pinholes caused more damage during
: storage than I encountered during paddling.

Well then, inside storage is a good idea for a standard operating proceedure.

Bill Cruz