Cleaning a Royalex Canoe?

eisman

eisman

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Just picked up a used canoe. Mad River whitewater design. 16" in Royalex. I'ts been hanging in the rafters for 20-25 years. The original yellow color has a heavy coating of dust and the color is more of a mud brown. I'm trying to bring back the yellow. Rubbing compound barely makes a dent. Steel wool is a little better. Best so far is a liquid degreaser with some Flitz and a green scotch pad. I'm wondering if it might not be better just to put some ultrafine paper in the finishing sander and do the boat that way. I'll be pulling the oak gunnels to redo them, so it's not that big a deal. Any ideas on something else to try?
 
First off, do you understand what Royalex is? It is a sandwich lamination with heat molded and expanded core. An outer layer of vinyl and hard acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastic (ABS) with expanded foam core. The color is in the outer vinyl layer. In, not on. And the vinyl layer is relatively thin.I suggest you stop scratching it. Clean it very well with Mean Green cleaner. Rinse well and dry. Then put on a very light application of 303 Aerospace Protectant. Once clean and well coated (wipe dry between applications). whatever discoloration remains is due to fadeing of the pigments in the vinyl. You won't likely improve it by abrading the surface, only open the surface to the accumulation of more oil, dirt and grime.
 
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Thanks. Got it. Will try your method.

Understand, I have not gone thru the vinyl, am working test spots trying to get the 1/8" hard layer of 20+ years of debris off the thing. It's not smooth, and until I can break up most of that its not going to be any fun trying to use it the water.
 
Mean Green is a good cleaner. IIRC it has a mild acid in it like phosphoric. I use it to clean old and new white vinyl and vinyl clad swimming pool stairs. My next step if that doesn't work, in the case of calcium or other mineral buildup, is CLR (Calcium, Lime & Rust). I get it at Ace Hardware. It helps loosen mineral deposits. You can use abrasive scrub pads by 3M, just be sure they are softer then the vinyl.

ETA: If it is crusty you might start out at a manual car wash after a presoak in Mean Green.
 
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A little over a year ago, I bought a beat up ugly Dagger Impulse for $100. It was originally aqua blue until a previous owner got the idea to paint it green with a rattle can. So, the boat that I bought was a scratched up mess of aqua blue and hunter green. It was truly an ugly canoe (but certainly still worth $100!)
What I did to fix things was to do my own rattle can paint job back to its original aqua blue. Since then it has seen several dozens of trips on Class II and III water and it still looks great. Scratches show the original blue vinyl which matches my blue paint job.

I would definitely take Codgers advice on how to proceed but if you're still not satisfied with the results, paint does work.
 
There are some vinyl restorers for jeep fenders out there, they could work. My old pack canoe just needs a blow torch
 
eisman said:
Just picked up a used canoe. Mad River whitewater design. 16" in Royalex. I'ts been hanging in the rafters for 20-25 years. The original yellow color has a heavy coating of dust and the color is more of a mud brown. I'm trying to bring back the yellow. Rubbing compound barely makes a dent. Steel wool is a little better. Best so far is a liquid degreaser with some Flitz and a green scotch pad. I'm wondering if it might not be better just to put some ultrafine paper in the finishing sander and do the boat that way. I'll be pulling the oak gunnels to redo them, so it's not that big a deal. Any ideas on something else to try?
Click to expand...
How about an update friend? Do you have before and after pictures you can post?
 
Well, let me start by saying this is more of a project than expected. Softened up the junk (bird/dust/whatever) and got that off. Then I found out why it was so hard. Called the guy up and asked him what the heck? Turns out somebody once thought they could get rid of the dings and dents by sanding. Must have used 220 grit. OK.

So I rubbed everything fairly smooth and then went to town on this big chunk of plastic. It's smooth and actually semi reflective after 20+ hours of slow polishing. I'm going to have to add some reinforcing on the bow & stern due to the rocks on our "beaches" here, but that can wait. The thwart was straight, so I have a "modern" yoke I'll be adding, and the cane seats just gave way when poked with a finger so those get replaced too. Got a couple other minor things to do, but the worst is that I've been working a lot so there's no real time to work on this.

I'll post some pics of the "banana boat" when I get a minute and think to take some.
 
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