Advice please? 1962 16' Old Town Guide

[white cedar]

Hi: I am currently restoring a 1962 16' Old Town Guide. The vast majority of the rib ends have splits or cracks where the fasteners (ring nail or canvas tack) have gone through the rib into the inwale. A few are so bad I am going to cut them off and scarf a new rib end in position. I'm trying to determine an acceptable course of action for the rib ends that have a small crack. Is it acceptable to carefully pry the crack open and insert epoxy to glue the rib back together? Or, should I use the scarf method more liberally?

My next question is concerning decks, the decks are in pretty tough shape (one quarter to half rotted away), and I'm considering using them as a template and building new decks. My thoughts are that the new decks will hold fasteners better and look better on the finished canoe.



Thank you for your input, I am grateful.

 

[Rod Tait (Orca Boats)]

Your thoughts sound good to me. I little epoxy filler on the rib tops will hardly be noticeable. I have some videos on the whole restoration process on my You Tube channel. They can be accessed easily in order on my blog page. https://orcaboats.wordpress.com/building-videos/cedar-canvas-canoe-repairs/

 

[MGC]

Rods videos are pretty useful for someone that is slogging through their first boat or even someone with experience who encounters a new challenge. He also introduces some interesting tricks such as mastic filler.
A dirty little secret about repairing canoes...they say there are many ways to skin a cat. Not having tried it and with no plans to, I'll take that at face value and extend it to many canoe repairs. There are many way to fix a problem or perform a repair, at least as many as ways to skin that cat.
If you are really worried about rib tops you can do them all. It's tedious and time consuming though...as you seem to have concluded already.
Epoxy is a proven way to deal with the splits..and you may slather it over the top of the rib or do as I prefer and inject it into the cracks with a syringe. I pry the crack/split open a bit and shoot a gob of epoxy in. I use West Systems GFlex because it has a very long cure time...that let's me get around the boat at a sluggards pace with the syringe as well as clean up any excess. I try to keep it off of the rib tops (that cat).
But as I noted, there are many ways to approach these issues and for this one doing nothing is also an option. If the ring nail didn't blast a chunk of rib out (do a rib top in this case or you'll wish you had later on) and if the crack/cracks are not too severe you can leave them as is as long as you have room to drive in your tacks later when you canvas. There are no rules for where the tacks need to go as long as you hold the stretch of the canvas (a nice pucker) and the tacks hold tight in the rib. Once your canvas is filled and hardened you can literally remove the tacks and the canvas will hold it's form...not suggesting that but you can try it when you get there and see for yourself.
So, on those ribs where the cracks are small, it is perfectly OK to leave them as they are without any (major) concern about problems later on.
To convince yourself try driving some tacks into a rib with cracks..(not in the cracks). Do they hold? Does the wood split again?
You'll figure it out as you go.
One final thing, epoxy will turn the head on a canvas tack..it doesn't take much to damage those delicate tips.
That is a reason (also ease of use) that many folks now use stainless staples and a staple gun.
Good luck and report back on your progress..

 

[WoodFloats]

Rod...let's keep in touch. I have similar issues with my first restoration, a '63 OT 15-footer. som photos of your progress would b

 

[WoodFloats]

Sorry, previous post was meant for "White Cedar"...