Yes, I used Rustoleum Marine Topside Coatings white primer with the Rustoleum Marine Coatings topside paint. Very happy with the product as I have used it on Wood Canvas canoe, Royalex canoes and cedar strip canoes. I have had no delamination of paint on any of the canoe types I have mentioned. I suspect that the Mad River Eclipse will need touch ups in a few years due to the flex of a Royalex hull but it sure is easy enough to sand and place another coat of paint on the hull. Glad you had luck with your canoe as well using the Rustoleum Formica paint product. We all can learn about different product options available to all of us and I appreciate you sharing this particular products success. I will look into it. Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. Appreciate it!

G-Flex, widening of the gap and a little heat (not too much) will fix those cracks. Some will paint the gflex repairs and others are ok with the canoe once again being cold crack free and unpainted, however I also believe that aesthetics are just as important. Thank you for watching and I wish you the best of luck with your repairs to your dads hard work!

The dremel is a great tool to use for this application. Since you have a dremel you already know how aggressive the tool can be especially with soft material. Slow and steady is the trick but the results are well worth it. Good luck with your repairs! Thanks for watching and I am happy to know that you found the video helpful. Have a great day!

Ok good point,a dremel can be aggressive, I’ll go easy. I think I may have sanded a bit much also. I have the Royalex primer paint and hopefully it fills in the little sanding marks.

@adamsons2890 I typically use the Rustoleum Marine Topside primer and finish coat. The downside of the color of the primer coat is that it is white and scratches will happen overtime showing the white through the topcoat. All in all a few touchups make it look all better again. The Rustoleum primer and topcoat will hide those sanding marks without issue. Not sure what paint you be using but I am simply only stating my preference.

Thank you Joe! It’s rewarding to see this old canoes come back to life! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. Very much appreciated.

Thank you! I haven’t had an opportunity to use it yet but I hope to at some point in the Fall. Lots of family things going on with the loss of my father. Canoeing may not be possible for quite some time. Thanks for watching and I am pleased to hear that you found the video helpful! Have a great day!

@@mainetripper my condolences for your loss. I know the feeling. Hang in there and be well.

Best of luck with your project. G-Flex is an amazing product. Ensure that the hull cracks are cleaned and beveled to accept the g-flex. The most important thing to get a solid result is to use either a torch or heat gun to lightly oxidize the area that the g-flex will be applied to. This will create a much stronger bond. Avoid heating too much…..just enough heat to oxidize the surface area. Have a great day!

@@mainetripper Appreciate the info. It will be a task.

Great canoe choice. The MR explorer is a great canoe to suit several different conditions. I hope to find one myself someday. Best of luck with your project. I found a great sense of satisfaction painting the canoe. It truly made me feel like the project was complete. I’ll be Interested in what you make for a final decision!

The dremel bit worked fantastic. I kept the tool on a lower speed so that it wasn’t too aggressive. Highly recommend the 194 bit by Dremel

Thanks for the comment Justin! Definitely apply a primer coat. Rustoleum Marine Topside Coatings is incredible paint and I have had great success using the product. The primer is a little pricey at around $50/quart but worth it. The paint comes in at around half the cost of the primer. Giving new life to canoes is rewarding. Thanks again man!

I would install the skid plates before primer and paint.

You are very welcome! Glad you enjoyed the video. Fir is a decent option to use for your gunwale replacement. Decent rot resistance. Glad to hear you could salvage some original parts with the use of West Systems. Good stuff for sure! In regard to the spider cracking on your Kevlar canoe I would have to believe that the spider cracking is mostly on the gel coat. I have not personally worked on a Kevlar canoe but I am sure there is plenty of advice out there. I personally would probably assess whether the spider cracking is more severe and has potentially affected the other. Look for soft spots. If there are no soft spots than the spider cracking will most likely be aesthetic and not structural. Possibly grinding out the cracks and reapplying a color match gel coat could be a decent solution, however I would engage with others that have done these repairs in the past as I have no experience with Kevlar. I am always looking for a Kevlar restoration project but have come up empty. Best of luck and thank you for watching and commenting! Very much appreciated!

@@mainetripper Thank you for your reply. This craft saw paddled some Maine waters when I was still on the East Coast. The people at West System said I needed to sand all the gel coat off or the cracks would reappear when I epoxied it. Going to try a sample on the bottom. I wish Mad River was still Mad River and I could get some feed back from them. So if there's anyone out there that can pass on some knowledge it would be greatly appreciated.

The cold cracks typically are not a one sided thing and will appear on both the interior and exterior of the canoe. If the repair was solely cosmetic on the exterior than an exterior repair is only required using G-flex. When the crack penetrates the entire hull beveling is required on both sides to make a proper repair and to ensure proper bonding and strength of the g-flex to hull joint repair. Hope this helps.

Well I am sure it won’t be much different than any other canoe that bangs off river rocks. The canoe can always be refinished. The idea of this project was to aesthetically make the visual of the canoe pleasing and then use it like a canoe should be used. I am not worried about scratches and all that. More concerned with wrapping a canoe or puncturing the hull. Scratches and such are just expected.

Thanks for your vidéo. Beautiful job. The Wood job is amazing.

Home Depot and most hardware stores now carry the Rustoleum topside products. If any of those stores do not have what you are looking for then Amazon is usually a good bet. I ordered from Amazon as a time saver I am sure. Good luck with your project and I appreciate you watching and leaving a comment. Have a great day!

The thickened g/flex epoxy does not run or sag which works out really well for these types of repairs.

Went with the regular 650 and yes it kept me busy. Then again I already had it. Used the dremel, I would practise a lot more before I try that again. I figured a good way to bevel is to use a paint scraper with sand paper glued to each side of the blade.. since I wasnt sure how much gflex I would nedd I bought too much. Well enough to install kevlar skid plates. Next on the menu. Now to find some Fusion in a colour that doesnt stand out too much. UV exposure of the inner royalex is an issue and uv may be an issue with the gflex so touch painting will be a thing. Had the canoe out yesterday. River is low so the paddle took a beating in some places. Ya well that paddle is going to get a lick of fiberglass and resin.

@micstica that’s great that the canoe is back on the water. Most epoxy’s need cover up protection from UV so touch ups is not a bad idea. All the best moving forward with your canoe and paddle tinkering. Have a great day!

The packing tape was only used during the application of the Gflex. After the Gflex was cured the packing tape was easily removed which allowed a nice flush repair. 1/8” holes were drilled at the termination point of each crack followed by the crack opened slightly by beveling with a dremel tool. The bevel was obviously created to receive the Gflex and the packing tape kept the product flush which minimized sanding. The hull continues to be strong as ever and has been used multiple times. Quite pleased with the process. I have restored and removed enough patches from canoes knowing that I would rather not put a patch on a canoe. I am very confident in the use of the Gflex product and its effectiveness without the patches.

The canoe cost me $100. The paint $26. If I can get one season out of banging of rocks with this finish then I guess I have more than covered my costs. There have been many reports of successful paint coverings with the Rustoleum brand. This is what I have used as well. Time will tell however this canoe was heading to the dump so at a minimum it will look nice for the few times it will be used. I also have my handbuilt Wabnaki and my restored Chestnut that I also use. I may possibly give an update on how the finish has survived.

@@mainetripper How is the paint and the crack repair holding up? Also, when you did the crack repair, did you use any fiberglass cloth over the top of the crack fill with resin? (In other words, did you do a second layer of repair using epoxy and FG cloth for strength?) If not, how has the resin held up to use?

@sconnyite2104 paint and repairs are holding up great. The Gflex product is a miracle epoxy in my opinion. I trust it enough that I do not use fiberglass patches. I dremel the groove and then pack that groove. I had storage issues this year and had to leave the canoe out all winter. The canoe is still as shiny and crack free since restoration. The couple times I used the canoe there were some minor scratches but the great thing about the Rustoleum topside paint is that it is durable and affordable. A few touch ups is all that is necessary.