: I have an 18'strip canoe that I built in 1974. I have never finished it
: though it is 90% done. There are many reasons why it didn't get finished
: but the primary one is because I was very unhappy with the way the
: fiberglass looked on it. All the seams show extreme amine blush both
: inside and out. I could have painted the canoe, but the red cedar strips
: are a beautiful deep red. As this was the infancy of strip building with
: glass and epoxy, as I understand it, and the long lengths of red cedar
: were still available (each strip is one continuous piece of wood) this was
: not the way I wanted to go. Therefore the project died until now.

: My question is, what do I need to do to get rid of the blush and resurrect
: the potential beauty of this canoe?

: Thank you for your suggestions.

Hi Steve

I am just completing a similar project for fellow who started 20 years ago.
It's a 12 ft. plywood kayak kit from England. He got the hull taped and then it sat until now. The plans called for taping all the seams inside and out. I have taped inside but chosen to cloth the outside of the hull.

The original taping was done with a resin that was a powder mixed with water. It seems to be solid but very visible. I ground off what I could on the outside but left it on the inside.

The old tape supplied with the kit is really neat. It has sewn edges on both sides and wets out very nicely with Epoxy.

This boat should be fine when done, although with a bright finish there may be some colour fading due to the weather exposure.

AS for your canoe, my .02cents, Take off as much of the old stuff as possible and use modern Epoxy and glass to finish.

Congratulations on getting back at it . I'm sure you'll love the boat when its done.

Terry

PS anybody know more about this old tape? Its 1 1/2 " wide and both edges are sewn without that annoying hard edge that happens with modern tape.???