Repairing polyester canoe bottom

[Carl Simmons]

My Cedar Strip canoe build in 1999 has a small (6" x 3") patch of cloth that has lifted on the bottom. I was think I could just cut out the loose cloth and re-apply a fiberglass patch. Can I use regular epoxy or do I sill need to use polyester? Also, is there anything else I need to do before applying the patch?

Except for this on problem area the rest of the bottom is holding up nicely.

Carl.

[Todd Bradshaw]

Epoxy will actually stick better to old polyester resin (if that's what was used on your boat) than more polyester will, so you should be fine.

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

It's not clear to me what the original resin was. If it was polyester you may suffer more delamination than you have to date. Keep an eye on things. Any water penetrating below the glass will loosen polyester's bond in short order.
Epoxy sticks to everything even polyester. That's why it has been the resin of choice for strip building and for many types of repairs.
Charlie

[Carl Simmons]

Polyester resin is what was used before and
wanted to use epoxy to fix the one spot that has lifted. It sounds like it should be a fairly simple procedure to replace the bad spot with
an epoxy patch.

Carl.

[Bruce Hooke]

Yes, it should be a fairly simple repair. Just check carefully around the area to make sure the adjacent stuff is still stuck down well. Polyester resin has kind of a bad reputation on this count.