pan test

The wreck

I found a wrecked kayak in the river Trent.

I gave 'it' safe passage back home and had to decide what to do with it.

Here 'she' is. June 15th 2011.

Yes she looks like the cross between a turd an a cigar but she will grace the water once again but next time it will be in style.

Here's what I'm up against. These 'repairs' made from body filler will take some recifying and investigative work to find out why they were made in the first place AND why so badly!  This is going to be like Time Team and Pimp My Ride combined.

So far I've spent 3 hours exploring the possibilities as to the way forward with this vessel.  One option was to release it back to it's watery grave but after close inspection I'll revive her.  Some of the damage is bad, some of the damage is VERY bad.  That brown paint who's make up I can't work out yet is removable with pure acetone and a good scrape but as of yet I can't work out what it is or why it's there.

Why am I doing this project?  Because I can really.  I'm a grp professional (although not in boats any more) and it's just a question of the application of skills I was trained with and using specific materials towards an area that as a hobby I am massively interested in.  There is no monetary value involved.  As of June 2011 the boat is worth all of 0 pence and when it is finished it wll never be sold because I can't put a price on my time to get this boat to how I enviage it to be.


We are potentially looking at a light aircraft grey hull and deck, red seam and keel strip, new outfitting seat, footrests and something yet undecided to really personalise it for Lucy.

The FeelFree, 161 and the wreck.  My fleet is being amassed as we speak :)

17th June and a little progress.

Scraping that brown crud off is a thankless task.  From the feint smell I think it's a bituminous material.  Either way I get bored of scraping it off and flit between other jobs such as finding more damage and a giving it a blast with the sander.  Oh I stabbed a scraper straight through the deck during an exploratory impact test. Ooops!

The worst find so far is wet fibreglass in the rear deck.  Having had a little thought maybe the way forward here is to bore a hole, introduce some gentle steady heat in the hope this drieds out?  This hole may then be filled with 2 part PU foam and also add some bouyancy?

The seat was removed swiftly with a diamond tipped disc cutter, enjoyed that part I did.  Underneath the seat is the most horrible birds nest of glass that was intended to hold the seat to the hull.

Time spent today 4 or 5 hours, mostly scraping the brown gunk off.

Saturday 18th June.

Got myself back into the zone this morning to attack the brown gunk. It's too soft a material to sand back and I've found only a pure acetone soaked cloth laid over it for ten minutes softens it to point where it can be scraped off, a thankless, awful task that has to be done.

The rear deck is completely stripped and sanded.  The sanding is an efficient method to reveal pinholes in the gel but worryingly they are leaching water.  The could cause major problems to any new filler used to fill them in so I am going to have to dry the entire boat out as previously thought.  My unit down the road is the only place I can use and it certainly isn't coming in the house.

The progress is being hampered by heavy showers.

The river Trent in the background from whence the vessel came and where once again she will grace the waters.

An hours input Sunday morning.
19/6/11.

Rear of coming cut out to allow skirt to fit true.

 Saturdays repairs sanded.  I know it isn't ideal to leave filler exposed outside overnight but this is all I have for now.  This project could be abandoned at any time so she's not going to the unit yet.  Plus it's convenient to work at home.

 Child bearing hips :)

 

3/4 of the brown gunk removed! 22nd June 2011

Next task was to cut a hole in the deck and to remove the polystyrene I found inside it.  Once done I also found two 5 litre bottles!  These had boiling water poured over them to soften them and they were teased out of the fibreglass tomb not having been seen by human eyes since they day they were put in there!

Portage handle!

Today (23rd) leaves one side of the boat left with brown gunk on it.  If I can grab a window between the showers I'll do some filling and sanding then she'll be off to a dry environment to allow her to dry out ready for final prep before spraying.

Cockpit experiment 24/6/11. Simple addition of flowcoat to the coming. Maybe wet and dry this bown with a buff?  If it doesn't work it'll be sprayed red to match the seam.

Rain stopped play.  Really need to get this heap of junk indoors.

All of the laminating faults that would shred ones hands and waterproof clothing have to be removed before reglassing the inside.  Not a nice job grinding that lot down....

More progress 10/7/11

Signal red for the deck.

 The deck has been fibreglassed with a layer of surface tissue with the resin tinted using the signal red.  No need for a layer of 300 or 450g glass as this would not be required for waterproofing and would add too much weight when carrying the boat.

 Seam masked off, hull glassed with surface tissue and resdy for the dark battleship grey flowcoat.

 Flowcoat.

 Bit late to be sanding the deck down so will leave it until tomorrow to work on her some more.  Once it is sanded thoroughly  it will have a layer of flowcoat in signal red applied leaving a gap for the black seam to be applied later.  Once the flowcoat is fully cured there will be even more sanding right down to 1200 grade paper, Farecla G3 and G6 compounds to give a mirror like finish as if has been made from a mould.