Here's an update on my efforts to refurbish and reskin a kayak that my dad made around 1959 from plans in Popular Science magazine. I am posting this because I think that it is possible that my experience so far may be of some use or interest to others, and because I need advice on what to do next.

The frame is made of what Dad called "airplane grade" spruce for the stringers, & plywood cutouts to support them, connected with brass screws. I don't know what species of spruce, but I assume that "airplane grade" meant few to no knots in the wood (I'm thinking of Howard Hughes' "Spruce Goose"). In any case, I remember him sawing each stringer from a spruce board at my grandfather's house up the hill from ours in Overland Park, Kansas. I would have been ten years old then.

Our first trip was on the Caw (Kansas) river, a trip I will never forget. Then we abruptly moved to Cumberland, Maryland, and from 1960 to 1964 we had many adventures on the rivers and streams of western Maryland and West Virginia. In 1964 we moved back to the Midwest. We brought the kayak, but by then the cotton duck skin was rotting, and it had a broken rib (transverse fracture port bow stringer where it was screwed on to the plywood). Dad took off the skin, and suspended the frame from the ceiling of the garage. There it hung from 1964 to 2002 when Dad died. My three brothers were either too dense to appreciate it, or were kind enough to let me take it. I haven't exactly figured out which.

After reading George Dyson's book, and Robert Morris' book, I splinted the broken stringer with strips of aluminum secured with stainless steel screws, and then put paste wax on all the outside surfaces of the frame. My plan was to put on a skin painted with water-based polyurethane that would be free to move over the waxed frame, as Morris had described. I then decided that it would be a good idea to apply oil to the wood, also as described by Morris, to help preserve it for future generations. So I went over the whole frame, inside and out, with "Teak Oil". The wood loved the oil. I lightly sanded all the external surfaces with 220 then 400 grit paper before putting the oil on, and then rubbed them down with rags afterward.

I had decided on George Dyson's 16 oz polyester for the skin because !) I plan on occasionally running into rocks in rivers, 2) I wanted to use a water based polyurethane, and 3) I could shrink it with an iron or a heat gun.
So I put the skin on the bottom and secured it with stainless steel staples. I first tried to shrink it with an iron at the "polyester" setting. After going over the whole thing, there wasn't much shrinkage (although it was on pretty taught at the outset). Then I turned the iron up to max and tried it on a scrap piece of fabric pinned over a frame. It shrank with no sign of heat damage. So I went over the whole skin with the iron on max, and the skin shrank nicely, with no apparent problem. Then, emboldened, I decided to try the hot air gun. I went over the whole thing again with no problem, but there was no apparent further shrinkage. In the future, I would just use the hot air gun from the beginning because it is quicker and can be applied more evenly. But I would recommend caution because if you linger too long, you can ignite wood.

Here is the problem. After I applied the first coat of waterbased polyurethane, there were several whitish splotches where the frame contacted the fabric. I now assume this is where oil/wax had leached into the hot fabric while I was shrinking it. With perhaps too much optimism, I put on two more coats. Although the polyurethane over the white splotches appears to be adhereing to the fabric, I am wondering if it will peel off promptly when it gets wet, or first rubs something harder than water.

So here is my question: should I

1) Leave the fabric on and apply remaining (and expensive) coats of waterbased polyurethane,

2) rip off the fabric, try to remove excess oil/wax from the wood by heating with hot air gun, rubbing with rags, and then try the waterbased polyurethane again with new fabric, or

3) Same as 2), but use solventbased polyurethane instead of the waterbased.

4) Other?

Any help will be greatly appreciated,
mike