Bell StarFire rebuild. Lots of questions and hopfully a few answers.

[Guest]

Have not ordered any PC-7 for deck cap repairs yet....G Flex on top PC-7 under? The plastic is wanting to tear. Espicialy were the rivets go through it .

You shouldn’t have to order PC-7, I can usually find it at a hardware store or even big box place.

That end cap wear is not what I expected. Most times the wear on end caps or deck plates is at the tip, from abrasion or impact when rolling/resting the canoe upside down. From that description of tearing at the rivets I wonder if perhaps the deck caps were used as carry handles, or somehow exposed to sheer forces.

Pete’s repair suggestion below would work, and would be the materially strongest way to repair & reinforce the old end caps. Getting the cloth to lay flat as it wraps a L edge is a challenge though.

If you are not a glass & epoxy repairer you might try and PC-7 or G/flex for repairing the wanting to tear areas and then installing new pop rivets in locations between the old rivets. I would remove the old end caps first if repairing with G/flex, lest you inadvertently epoxy the end cap to the hull. With an epoxy putty like PC-7 (or JB Weld) you could install the new pop rivets, drill out the old ones and putty the holes/tears with the end caps left in place.

If the deck caps are materially weak, I would drill out the rivets holding them on and reinforce the bottom of the deck plates with a layer of fiberglass cloth which can be wrapped around the inside of the portion that the rivets go through. G Flex epoxy will work for that purpose. I have no experience with PC-7 epoxy and don't know how well it would work for wetting out cloth.

Wetting out cloth with PC-7 epoxy would be impossible; it is a thick paste.