Freedom gets a face lift | SouthernPaddler.com

Freedom gets a face lift

tx river rat

Well-Known Member
Feb 23, 2007
3,043
2
Waco Tx
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

Well-Known Member
Feb 23, 2007
3,043
2
Waco Tx
She use to look like this

IM001153.jpg


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

a1035Small.jpg


a1033Small.jpg

Sure is going to look like a different boat
Ron
 

tx river rat

Well-Known Member
Feb 23, 2007
3,043
2
Waco Tx
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
 

john the pom

Well-Known Member
Jul 30, 2007
345
1
Queensland
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

Well-Known Member
Feb 23, 2007
3,043
2
Waco Tx
Got the bottom and half the sides covered with graphite ,Graphite will be will cover everything but the decks.

651004.jpg


651006.jpg


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

tx river rat

Well-Known Member
Feb 23, 2007
3,043
2
Waco Tx
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