Freedom gets a face lift

[tx river rat]

The Freedom was my first kayak and it is a Cadillac ,but I made some mistakes on it, and Matt made some improvements.
Hatches were way to small ,had high pointed decks so the wind efected it to much.
Today I cut the top deck of did some sawing and sanding reshaping the bulkheads
Tomorrow I will start striping the decks.
Ron

 

[tx river rat]

She use to look like this

Have the front deck striped and 3/4 done on the back deck.

Sure is going to look like a different boat
Ron

 

[tx river rat]

I am a little slow on this. I think the voodoo lady from Louisiana came by, First I crashed and then 3 days later my puter crashed.
We are both up and running now so it is back to work on the Freedom.
Decks are stripped and first coat of cloth and epoxy is applied. I flipped her over and sanded the bottom and sides, rustoleum paint is tough worse than sanding epoxy.
Patched some places that I had worn through the cloth then put on the external stems. got my first coat of epoxy on the bottom.
Now I need to reload my camera soft ware and post some pics.
Ron

 

[Kayak Jack]

Welcome back, Ronnie. A revamped Freedom will be interesting.

 

[john the pom]

Am impressed with your stems Ron. Next time I gots to re-do a bit of under the water-line fixing up I'm gonna make some meself. I might be a bit kinder on the ends of me boat than you as most of me re-do's are scrapes on the bottom in fairly random areas, and a number on the chine. But stems 'tectors make lots of sense.
Cheers John.

 

[tx river rat]

I put them on the T-V and they have really worked well.
Ron

 

[tx river rat]

Got the bottom and half the sides covered with graphite ,Graphite will be will cover everything but the decks.

Decks are stripped ,I still like the sides of the cockpit.Sure is going to change the looks of this boat.
Ron

 

[Kayak Jack]

Why the graphite above the water line? What's your thinking there, Ron?

 

[tx river rat]

Jack
There are a lot of yaks built in this area that way,makes a slick smooth shiny finish also a little extra protection on the sides. It also covers the splices on the sides of the boat.
Ron

 

[oldsparkey]

My guess is that it is for ricocheting off of rocks.

 

[tx river rat]

That too Chuck :lol:
Ron

 

[Kayak Jack]

Thanks, Ron. I was curious.