On a trip late in the season, I slipped and jarred the Bass Canoe loose from the hitch mount. Bang! Slam! I watched in horror as it richocheted off the truck and slammed into the pavement. A quick survey of the damage revealed a huge and nasty looking dent in the front. My fear is that, given the crease shown to the right, this would open up and I would be faced with the loss of all my bass gear as the canoe slowly sank in the middle of some lake. Even worse, I would get “the look” from the BassWife as we ditched into the water. Horrors!
This is a cheapo Pelican International plastic canoe, so there had to be a cheap solution to the problem. After a close examination of the wound and drawing on my extensive experience with the wonders of Bondo to fill any kind of hole, my first stop was Lowe’s to see if they had any type of filler. Turns out they have a bunch. I selected a Marine Epoxy Putty that seemed to fit the requirement – waterproof, cheap, and idiot proof to apply.
However, I did read the directions on the back of the package and they said that you should not use this on Polysomething type of plastic. Hmm. More research required. I sent a note to Pelican and got a fairly quick response that pointed me to a web site that sold fillers compatible for their plastic.The web site seemed to focus on fillers for urethane – leading me to conclude that urethane was a key component of what Pelican called their “RAM” material (top secret mixture). Since urethane was not on the list of things the putty would dissolve, I felt save going ahead with the repair.
It was really simple. All I had to do was take a chunk of the putty out, massage it until it was all one color, and then jam it into the crack. I could even sand it smooth when it hardened – but this is the Bass Canoe, so why bother with that?
Bottom line: It was cheap, but is it effective? I have not had the canoe in the water since the repair. I’ll find out next season when we launch in search of new water with massive bass.
Close up of the dent filled in.
Here’s what the kit looks like – just this bottle of stuff you knead and stuff into the hole
Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore