How to Polish Your Canoe

Every Kevlar canoe will eventually get a bit dull from being outdoors in Winter or Summer. Here's what I do to return the shine to near-new without damaging the surface, or adding any product at all (other than water).
#canoeing #canoe #polish canoe #canoe polish #polish Kevlar #Kevlar canoe #canoe trip #canoe maintenance #polishing #car polisher
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[@DuncanFraser-g4d]

Some interesting info: the grit number refers to the number of abrasive particles per square inch. I.e. a 80 grit sandpaper has 80 abrasive particles per square inch. Also, if you really want to buff up your gel coat use XXXX steel wool as a buffing “cloth”

[@ruggedoutdoorsguide9904]

Thanks Duncan; Good info! cheers,

[@puzzling7785]

Good job on the instructional videos. Keep up the good work.

[@ruggedoutdoorsguide9904]

Thanks 👍

[@Semi-C-Samurai]

I'm in the process of fixing some minor damage to my Magic canoe and I wish I had found your video earlier. May I suggest that you rename this video "How to Polish Your Canoe (NorthStar Magic)" . I understand that your methods are not specific to the Magic, but some (like myself) often look for canoe specific information because we have no repair experience and actually seeing videos about our boats really help give us more confidence when we make a repair attempt. This canoe, with the beautiful carbon fiber exterior is not something I wanted to make my first attempt at epoxy repair, but it came down to fixing it myself or just keeping it in storage. NorthStar really needs to "flesh-out" their instructional videos. Thank you very much for this video!

[@ruggedoutdoorsguide9904]

Great info and thanks for the positive feedback.

[@bestfishing6338]

First !!!! Love this guy

[@ruggedoutdoorsguide9904]

You're a good man my friend :)

[@n057828]

For future purposes soak the sand paper in a bucket of water. Then when sanding use whole hand palm not a corner on the sand paper and little water

[@ruggedoutdoorsguide9904]

awesome!

[@Up_north_with_Mike]

Is this good for polishing gel coats on my Nova Craft??

[@ruggedoutdoorsguide9904]

Hey Mike; I haven't tried it on every surface so I don't want you to hold me responsible. Having said that, here's what I can tell you for sure; I've tried 2000 and 3000 grit paper on many surfaces including Tremclad paint, vehicle headlights and kevlar gel coat. In all cases, the sandpaper is so soft that it actually polishes rather than scuffs the surface. In the interest of full disclosure however, I will say that using 3000 grit paper on scratched sunglasses did not help and might have even made it a tiny bit foggy (hard to tell). If I were you I'd test a small part of your Nova Craft (is it TuffStuff or fiberglass?) to see if it helps or hurts!

[@MrDoucet2You]

I recently had to repair a huge 2.5" scuff that was about twenty feet long on the hull of a lobster boat at our shop. They keep making the hulls wider than the doorway😅. Anyway, I started with a 400 grit paper on an orbital sander and then went to 600 grit then 800 grit then 1200 and then finished it off with some polishing compound.
I wish I could post the photos on here so that you could see the result but suffice to say you can barely see where the scuff has been. This was on a Gelcoat finish on a fiberglass hull.

[@ahearnarts]

You don't mention the finish where marks from underwater debris rubs against the canoe.

[@ruggedoutdoorsguide9904]

Not sure what you mean. Pretty much every scratch is from underwater debris (some from rocks on shore too) and they all get treated the same way. Cheers,

[@lundysden6781]

nice!! you can use wax while you polish

[@ruggedoutdoorsguide9904]

Yes you can!

[@maxwellhouse1902]

Sure looks like carbon fiber to me.......

[@ruggedoutdoorsguide9904]

Hey Max! Nice observation. The canoe is a Bell Magic Solo Black Gold model. It certainly does not carry the price tag of an actual carbon model (I paid about US $2K for it new). It does have some carbon in it, and it's clearly enough to make it look like a carbon canoe. In fact, when I bought it, I was told it's a kevlar canoe with a bit of infused carbon for rigidity. But, more to the point, the technique I used is good for just about any smooth surface.

[@tuckercameron7536]

@@ruggedoutdoorsguide9904 😆