Removing foam from canoe...How to?

[JB2012]

I have a Kevlar canoe that is not set up for me. I want to remove the knee pads--they are cups and they make it uncomfortable. Anything I should do or not do in removing my obsatacles? Thanks,

Jim

[Al Donaldson]

Jim:

Assuming that the knee pads were attached with contact cement, I'm familiar with two basic methods of removal:

1) Heat

Use a heat gun at low settings (carefully) or a hair dryer to heat up one corner of a pad and slide a dull but flexible putty knife under that corner to lift the pad very slightly. As the cement softens, the corner may be pulled up VERY slowly. As the pad is pulled off, keep heating the junction between the hull and the pad and breaking the seal very gently with the putty knife. If you try to do this quickly, the pad will tear and leave large gobs of foam on the hull. This method, you will notice, requires three hands.

2) Brute force

Use the same putty knife and perform the same operation, using a moderate amount of force on the knife to break the cement seal. This method will leave more material on the hull, but it takes only two hands.

Once the pads are removed, you'll have to decide how much "gunk" you want to leave on the hull, as some of the cement and possibly some bits of foam will remain.

If the pads were installed with contact cement, you can use either contact cement solvent or acetone (and some elbow grease along with coarse steel wool) to clean up the mess.

If the pads were installed with some other cement, you may have to sand or otherwise abrade the stuff off.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

al

[Dave Thomas]

scrape it off as much as you can and then use Goof-off to clean off the contact cement. Goof-off shouldnt attack the hull at all.

[Gary Rowland]

This worked quite well for me:
First, pull & scrape as much foam as you can.
Using a coarse cloth apply mineral spirits to the remaining foam & glue. Let it soak, then scrape with a plastic putty knife. (plasitc won't gouge your boat) This will have to be done several times, because you can only remove layers the mineral spirits have been working on.
After about 20 minutes you notice that it really starts working as a solvent.
Keep the putty knife and cloth clean. Alternate the mineral spirits soaked cloth, putty knife, and another clean coarse cloth, until you remove all foam & glue residue.
When finished, rinse with water. (which stops any chemical reaction of the mineral spirits)
If you have any doubts about this, or any other method, try a small area first.
GR

[JB2012]

Thanks, Gents. I figured that it would be a mess. I'll let you know how it turns out.
JB