Red Cedar Canoe: Complete Hull Tear Down, Fiberglass and Varnish

This video is the compete process of repairing a clients canoe that was built for her by her father in the 1980s-1990s, and this canoe was needing new fiberglass and varnish for its maiden voyage. This canoe has a very nice shape, but the polyester resin applied is very dark and cloudy. The client was beginning to use polyester resin for new repairs when she called our @timberboatworks shop for advice on the repair. It was decided that the canoe should be stripped, fiberglassed and varnished. The video shows the contrast of using polyester resin and epoxy resin in its clarity, durability and smooth finish. This video is a complete tutorial on how to traditionally repair and refinish a cedar canoe using marine grade epoxy and marine z-spar varnish for long lasting and clear finishes.

This video is the first part of a two part series on the Red Cedar Canoe: Fiberglass the Hull Interior, where we reinforce and fiberglass the hull interior and apply varnish.

@EntropyResins is the epoxy used for the fiberglassing, which is a high bio content, clear with UV inhibitors epoxy that we prefer to use for clear cedar finishing. The varnish is @PettitPaint 2015 Flagship Varnish applied with a HVLP sprayer, this varnish is a high durability, high build, semi-gloss polyurethane varnish that can be submerged under water without softening.

0:00- Introduction
0:10- Assessment on Arrival
0:57- Finish Stripping the Old Fiberglass
1:16- Finals Preparation for Fiberglass
2:11- Importance Advice on Epoxy
2:27- Saturating the Fiberglass
3:27- Sanding and Applying the Second Layer
4:01- Important Advice for Varnishing
5:07- Final Result