I bought this ‘92 Easy Rider canoe, took it out on my first trip with it and got some scuffing on the side. It appears the “paint” or vinyl has rubbed off. Any thoughts on repainting this thing? I want to keep it in good shape but the outer layer seems pretty soft and easily wears. I was thinking of repainting and then epoxying the whole thing after adding skid plates.
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Another Royalex Repair question
- Thread starter B_northwest
- Start date
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The pictures of the abraded area look odd to me. If this is a Royalex canoe, it would have had a vinyl outside layer from the factory. It takes quite a bit of wear, usually over years, to wear away the vinyl and expose the ABS layers underneath. I don't recall ever seeing blue ABS layers, but then I've never seen an Easy Rider canoe.
I suspect this canoe may have been painted yellow over the original vinyl layer. All paint, or repaints, will wear away fairly quickly when scraped along rocks or otherwise abraded. I'm not familiar with putting epoxy over a repaint on a canoe. Maybe it would slightly deter paint abrasion, but I'm not sure.
You could repaint the entire canoe or just touch up the one damaged area or just put some tape over it. It all depends on how much time and money and extra weight you want to put into a used canoe. Personally, I'd use it for a season to see if more abrasions happen to the yellow paint, if it is paint. Others may have different viewpoints or suggestions.
The pictures of the abraded area look odd to me. If this is a Royalex canoe, it would have had a vinyl outside layer from the factory. It takes quite a bit of wear, usually over years, to wear away the vinyl and expose the ABS layers underneath. I don't recall ever seeing blue ABS layers, but then I've never seen an Easy Rider canoe.
I suspect this canoe may have been painted yellow over the original vinyl layer. All paint, or repaints, will wear away fairly quickly when scraped along rocks or otherwise abraded. I'm not familiar with putting epoxy over a repaint on a canoe. Maybe it would slightly deter paint abrasion, but I'm not sure.
You could repaint the entire canoe or just touch up the one damaged area or just put some tape over it. It all depends on how much time and money and extra weight you want to put into a used canoe. Personally, I'd use it for a season to see if more abrasions happen to the yellow paint, if it is paint. Others may have different viewpoints or suggestions.
Thanks for the welcome and input on my question. I think I am going to go for it and repaint this old canoe. It’s an easy rider ouzel 15-8. The decal on it says Royalex ABS. I think the teal part is the actual royalex and it was painted from the manufacturer yellow. I may also just need to put it in the water and go! I am loving this site and forum.
Royalex canoes are not painted by the manufacturer, they just use whatever color of Royalex they want. I'd guess that there are a couple layers of paint.
You can certainly try repainting it but you can see from the previous coats how well that worked for others.
Alan
The natural colour for Royalex is white(ish), the raw Royalex is then covered by a vinyl skin which can be any colour. Your boat might have had a vinyl layer that was teal, then repainted yellow (or vice versa).
Its hard to tell exactly what is going on with your particular canoe but I would have to agree with the others that the original vinyl layer was painted over for aesthetic reasons. I have restored multiple royalex canoes with cold cracks up the ying-yang and used g-flex epoxy to repair those damaged areas. If in fact the ABS or royalex foam core has been exposed then repair is paramount. UV damage to the core will cause even greater damage. I would recommend sanding down the entire hull without removing too much of the vinyl layering with 220 grit sandpaper (light sanding). Remove as much of the paint in the damaged area as possible (again without removing any additional vinyl) and apply a smooth layer of g-flex over the damaged sections. The G-flex can be sanded smooth. I have had to paint the royalex canoes that I have restored because it was either that or send them to the dump. Rustoleum Marine Topside Coatings has been my preferred paint for royalex restoration. Yes the paint will chip over time when the canoe comes in contact with rocks and landings however all it will need is another coat of paint just like any other canoe during appropriate maintenance. Many will scoff at painting a royalex canoe but sometimes it just has to be done. Rustoleum Marine Topside Coatings excels in this arena in my opinion. I have a few restoration videos of a badly damaged Mad River Voyager (Restored for my uncle) and a Mad River Eclipse restoration on my Youtube channel if you would like to see the process of how I went about the repairs and painting.
