View topic - Nice outer coat with colour on beater FG canoe

Hey folks, I have finally convinced my wife to let me build a shelter over the cooking area in the back yard which includes my big green egg.

In principle she has agreed to let me do a traditional voyageur layout with a canoe in the air where the canoe is tipped on its side and there is a tarp laying over it to sleep under. This would be a 16 ft canoe mounted on 4x4 cedar posts about 12 feet long taking into account how far into the ground t hey need to be planted.

I want to sand down the canoe and put a quick, cheap layer of some type of epoxy with either a red or yellow colour that really stood out. It is my wife's old family canoe from 30 years ago when she was a teen so has sentimental value, and so I want to restore the outder colour as best possible for mounting as a part of the patio roof system.

What's the best way to get a nice vibrant outer shell colour and weather durability for the smallest cost given that it will not actually be used

I understand the sentimental value. I still have our old 15 foot fibreglass beater we bought for $300 in the late 80s. It got me down the Missinaibi once, with just one hole punched in the bow. You can still see where it was eventually repaired. I still use it from time to time... Sentimental value is not to be undervalued.

It's not going to be used on the water again, so I would suggest a good thick layer of epoxy with some form of UV protectant, after you've painted it. Probably sand it down a bit so it's not... shiny, in the sun.

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If you ate today, thank a farmer.

Cheapest and quickest way after sanding and smoothing might be to use spray cans of Rustoleum... comes in various reds and yellows for a close color match. The automotive spray is about $15 while regular about $10 IIRC. Maybe three spray cans needed. Also available in regular cans for roller or brush.

Hot damn, on clearance at Lowes in cherry red, $6.49...

https://www.lowes.ca/product/spray-pain ... aint-57025

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Cool I like that rustoleum idea especially if I can get a few cans at the sale price!

Spray paint blows (aerosol pun intended).

You will need two or, more likely three cans ($6.50 x 3) of spray paint to SINGLE COAT spray paint a 16’ canoe. You don’t want to spray it in the shop, or you’ll be stupid stoned and everything, walls, floors and you included, will be cherry red from the drifting aerosolized overspray. If you wear Croc’s while doing so you will have red Polka Dot feet (don’t ask how I know).

If you attempt to spray the hull outside and follow the instructions “Hold can upright 10 – 16 inches from surface” and there is ANY breeze whatsoever half of the spray paint will blow away. If you hold the can breeze-proof closer you will inevitably have drips and sags.

Buy a quart can of red Rustoleum enamel, a 4” foam roller, a foam brush and a narrow roller pan. Roll the decorative “Voyageur Layout” canoe with a coat of paint, half the boat at a time, center keel line down to gunwale, and then tip it out with the foam brush. Roll/tip out repeat on the other side.

PA261301 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Apply additional rolled/tipped coats as you wish; the first coat of rolled/tipped enamel may not hide everything, but even a single coat rolled and tipped covers better than micron-thin spray paint. A quart of paint will cover a 16’ canoe 3+ times.

If this is a canoe you will actually paddle I would use something better quality than Rustoleum Enamel, maybe 2X the cost Rustoleum Marine “Topside” paint.

https://www.rustoleum.com/product-catal ... side-paint

Oh look, Rustoleum Topside comes in red.

I have used Tremclad with a roller and I have used expensive epoxy and could not tell much diff. No paint will stand up to being scraped on rocks. Did not fade in the sun---stored indoors in the winter.

BTW, all that Lowes stuff is sold out anywhere near me.


I used a foam roller as MM said.

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

I have previously used Rustoleum Enamel (I believe “Tremclad” in Canada) on several boats. Five in fact; either entire hulls or just scuff line bottoms.

While no paint coat will stand up to scraping rocks the Rustoleum Enamel didn’t fare well in outdoor storage UV exposure. It looked good for a few years, and then lost any gloss and became chalky. The chalky-ness made it a dirt magnet for pollen. All were white or white bottomed boats, so the grime was fugly.

The pricier “topside” paints seem to hold up under UV exposure better, staying glossy slick un-dirt magnet. I am about to roll/tip the (white) bottoms of two decked canoes with Rustoleum Topside. Both were painted not that many years ago with plain Rustoleum Enamel and have gone chalky.

FWIW neither of those decked canoes sees many rock scrapes, but both see considerable contact with sandy bottoms and beaches. I may have only single coated them with enamel and the paint coat is worn completely through at the stems.

I am going with (at least) three coats this time, using the topside paint. I have triple coated several hulls with EZ-Poxy topside paint (3x as expensive as Rustoleum Topside) and those have held up very well, both in UV exposure and in sandy abrasion resistance.

The Rustoleum Topside is a bit of an experiment, but 90% of the time and effort in painting a hull is the prep work, sanding, washing and taping; the actual rolling and tipping is fast and easy. With all that prep work effort it now seems penny foolish to use a cheap paint and have to repaint them a few years later.

Rustoleum Topside vs EZ-Poxy Topside results in a few years.

"While no paint coat will stand up to scraping rocks the Rustoleum Enamel didn’t fare well in outdoor storage UV exposure. It looked good for a few years, and then lost any gloss and became chalky."

Mine fared much better---no chalkiness.Maybe because mine is mostly in the shade by the side of the house. I am again touching up some bottom repairs and will paint with the same stuff. Somehow the resin that I used a few years back cracked just last year after several good years, so I had to tear/chip it off and refill with resin and Bondo

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

My outside boats are in as much shade as our lawn allows. I wish it were more, and I may someday rebuild the whole damn 12 slot rack in a shadier spot.

I just finished rolling and tipping the two decked canoes with Rustoleum Topside. Sometimes it is the little things that help a lot.

I had previously been staging platforms for the paint pan, roller and foam brush station at either end of the canoe, to eliminate walking back and forth 16 feed to load the roller, and moving everything from one end to the other once I got half way along.

This time – duh – I put the pan and roller in a wheeled cart, and pulled the cart along with me as I rolled 18” lengths of the hull at a time, which first-coat was all the roller would allow before re-loading with paint. Roll a foot and a half, creep forward, roll a foot and a half, creep forward.

Push the cart away and tip out one side, stem to stem. Repeat on the other side of the hull, and again on the second boat. Two decked boat bottoms, 30 minutes to roll and tip (plus, of course, 2 days of prep work and taping).

Good Lord that simple wheeled cart saved time, and, moreover, helped keep me focused on where I started and stopped with the roller (white on white, kinda hard to see even in good light).

My wheeled dust collection cart now has some paint drips and flecks on the top deck. Don’t care, that was so much easier.

P3170024 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

FWIW I really like that cyclonic dust extractor attached between various sanders and a shop vac, and with everything on the bottom shelf I have the empty top platform available as a painting platform.

https://www.canoetripping.net/forums/fo ... -shop-dust