By Ken Glaeser
Picture of the Bow Before Ken "un-modified" it.
I bought Karl's Mr. Clean
because I knew I wanted to have a boat that
would be good for doing
cartwheels in pool this winter and generally
more playful than a Redline.
The bow had been modified by Karl and it
was not the prettiest sight
even though he won the Blowtorch award. I
decided to put the bow back
to normal and add some small foot bumps for
my size twelve foot.
I first started on putting
the bow back to normal. I removed all foam
and the grab loop. I replaced
the grab loop with a small piece of wood
to prevent that area from
getting deformed.
I used a heat gun on the
high setting and went around the perimeter of the bump
that was in the middle of
the bow were it was normally an indent. I had
trouble getting the plastic
at the right temperature. I got one spot too
hot and it bulged up a bit
because the plastic expands when it gets too
hot. I eventually got the
plastic around the bump to the right
temperature consistently
to where I could push on the wood were the grab
loop was a get the bow to
some what normal. The trick is to watch the
plastic at just the right
angle in the light so you can see when the
surface becomes glossy as
you are heating it. When the plastic becomes
glossy it looses it memory
and can be reshaped.
I had to take the boat for
a paddle after all that work but it still
looked kinda warped with
some small bulges and my feet were not
comfortable at all. I took
a second crack at the bow and learned another
trick in heating the plastic.
The plastic does not take its final shape
until it cools all the way.
I wanted to smooth the small
bulges without loosing the shape that I
returned the bow to. I heated
directly on the bulge until the plastic
got to the glossy point
and then waited for it to cool so I could push
directly on the bulge. I
used a glass jar to roll over the bulge until
it was gone.
It was tricky waiting right
amount of time
but it just took a few tries
of just waiting a little extra time, like a
minute and then waiting
a shorter time on the next try until I got the
right results. I was having
a bit of trouble because the plastic was
stretched from being worked
to much so I put the bow under the bottom
of a door to put some
tension on the top of the bow. I adjusted the
tension by putting a volleyball
under the middle of the boat so that the
full weight of the boat
was not pulling down on the bow.
I also decided to add some
small foot bumps to give my toes a little
extra room. All I wanted
was a quarter inch but it needed to be in just
the right spot so I made
a jig.
It took a few tries toget
the jig just right so that as I pushed it forward, it would
push out on the right spot.
I measured everything up and marked the top of the
bow so I knew were to heat
it. I heated the plastic up to the glossy
point around the perimeter
of the marked area and then pushed forward on
the jig until the bumps
came out. It took a few tries of heating,
hopping in with my booties
on, and modifying the jig because I did not
want to make the bumps too
big.
I now have a Mr. Clean that
I can stay in for almost an hour without
being in total agony. The
Unmodification was a success but I spent too
much time working on the
boat. I would have been better off spending a
little more money on a boat
in better shape except that the things I
learned were invaluable.
I don't think I would have had the guts to
modify a boat in good shape
without knowing what I know now. I hope this
helps out some of you out
there thinking of modifying a boat.