by Ron Grosso
Where it Began
In 2024 at Loveland Paddlesports annual spring gear swap, saw a person drive it with the Scupper 14 on her roof to sell. Took a couple weeks of negotiation to agree to a price. Good news was i got a great price. Bad news was for the past 8 years it lived on the roof of her car. Rotted seat, mud everywhere, busted padeyes, hatch covered in glue. But i love resurrecting kayaks. Here are the pictures when I got it home.
1st step was to strip it down to bare plastic and assess what it needed. Stripping down was easy as kayaks made with high quality parts are easy to disassemble. When stripped next step was to powerwash after applying a mildew removing plastic furniture cleaner. Then coated in Mothers Back to Black Plastic Conditioner, buffing that out and applying Aerospace 303.
Hatch was tricky. I could have just purchased a new hatch but wanted to use as many original parts as i could. I soaked paper towels in vinegar which slowly loosened the glue. When done applied Back to Black and Aerospace 303. This is the original plastic – it was not painted.
Picked up a new seat and carry handles plus a couple other parts from Swell and started the reassembly process. For side carry handles i originally used the rubber ones the. bought a pair of the stainless front carry handle and used those.
And here is the final result. And as displayed with the rest of the fleet.
