Repairing a Royalex canoe- Advice and Repair

Hey fellas, I borrowed my wife's uncle's Royalex canoe and it took some damage. He's pretty choked about it and would like it fixed. The hull is pretty scratched and it has some gouges in it. I was wondering if there is any guides or best practices to repair the hull and restore its appearance.



Thanks

What kind of condition was it in when you got it and what damage do you want to fix? How did the damage occur? How perfect do you want it to be and how much time do you want to spend getting it there?

Alan

Hey Alan, we damaged it dragging it over some rocks during a portage. It was floating but it was fully loaded and we didn't lift it high enough. We should have unloaded it and carried it. Doesn't have to be perfect. Would like to maybe fill the gouges and paint it, but doesn't need to be pristine. It wasn't in great shape when we got it but it wasn't scratched and gouged like it is now.

Thanks
Chris

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As you may know, Royalex is a five-layer plastic sandwich. Starting from the outside: vinyl (which has the color, red in your case), a thin layer of ABS (often black or green), Royalex foam (usually whitish), thin ABS, interior vinyl.

If the scratches and gouges are only in the outer vinyl and don't penetrate to the underlying ABS layers, most people just ignore them as normal wear and tear.

If the scratches penetrate to the ABS, which you can usually tell because the color will change from the outside vinyl color, folks will fill the damage with either (1) epoxy, (2) epoxy thickened with some sort of silica, or (3) epoxy plus a fiberglass patch—depending on how deep and extensive the damage is. The details on how to do this can be found in many threads on this site using the search function.

That canoe seems old and I doubt all those scratches accumulated from your one recent trip. There seem to be white areas near the stems, which is common in well-used canoes and indicates damage down to the ABS foam layer. An application of Dynel or S-glass skid plates is the usual fix for this kind of stem damage. There are several threads about applying skid plates here, too.

Painting the entire hull can make it look better after repairs, but paint eventually scratches off. There are threads on this site that discuss painting Royalex.

Other folks hopefully will chime in with more opinions and details.

Awesome. Thanks Glenn. Appreciate the advice

I lent a friend of mine a Royalex Bell canoe. The hull was like new and I could anticipate some scratches on the hull on our proposed route. I finally agreed to rent it to him for about half the price of the rental my other friend brought on the trip. It was a way to maintain our close friendship. I did not mind the scratches so much after getting a check for them. When dealing with family think long range.

I don't think you can really repair the damage. Maybe you should consider paying him something for the way you treated his canoe.

Hey ppine. I've been looking at youtube videos and other forum threads. Can you not just roll the hull with epoxy to fill the cracks? That G-Flex material? Then maybe paint the whole hull? Just wondering where to get started. Thanks

Welcome to the site Chris. I've never repaired Royalex but my understanding is the G-flex will bond well to just about anything "canoe". I would think that you could thicken it with microballoons, roll or squeegee the entire hull, sand it smooth & paint it without any issues. Maybe throw on a couple of skid plates for the stems as a bonus and paint it. You might be able to get away with a less expensive, 2 part epoxy in place of the G-flex if the hull is pretty stiff.

As Glenn speculated, I'd be surprised if all that damage was from one trip but family will be family forever and it's often best to keep the peace. With that in mind, it might not hurt to touch base with the owner to see what his expectations are for repairs and to be sure that he's OK with the game plan.

Best of luck with repairs (both canoe & familial) and it might be helpful to others to post a thread detailing the canoe portion.

If you plan on canoeing in the future maybe offer to buy it from him.

Yeah I could ask. He didn't even tell me about the damage though, his daughter back channeled it to me. Technically I'm not even supposed to know he's pissed. Thanks boys

If I were to buy G-Flex, how much do you guys think I would need based on the picture? Just one container of it or more? Do you guys think I could get away with the 105? My Uncle never uses the canoe, this is a purely aesthetic repair.

Royalex is not easy to repair. Adding epoxy or g-flex would add a lot of weight. Those boats are heavy to begin with.

If he never uses it, I'd tell him how much I liked it and ask if he's willing to sell. Then, maybe, a skid plate or two on the stems & let the rest go.

ppine said:

I don't think you can really repair the damage. Maybe you should consider paying him something for the way you treated his canoe.

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100% agree with this. Royalex can be repaired so the canoe is usable, but it's never going to look like it used to.

Gamma1214 said:

If he never uses it, I'd tell him how much I liked it and ask if he's willing to sell. Then, maybe, a skid plate or two on the stems & let the rest go.

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I think this is good advice on both counts. You can't really restore it, but skid plates might be a good gesture.