I try.  I try to keep my kayak as scratch free as possible.  my last trip was bad.  I drifted across shallow water sideways.  the wind blew me onto a rock shelf while I was working on a knot.  

 

when I got home, there was some plastic confetti hanging from my boat.  wow.  some deeper gouges for sure.  I think its a futile dream to try to keep things pristine.   I tape the keel and replace as needed.  but that is about all I can do.

 

you even worry about it?  I think I am going to get over it.  I won't drag it onto a rocky concrete ramp, but I won't wipe it with a silk diaper either.  it is what it is. 

You always want to try and avoid scrapping the bottom hard, but it'll happen from time to time. Can't worry about it too much, it is a tool made to be used and abused.  Thankfully things can be repaired if gouged too heavy. I've Unforutanley drug my kayak a little too much where my last outing I found out I had a 2" long crack in the hull that I'll be repairing today. 

The way I see it, if you get one scratch, the odds of a second scratch hitting that exact same spot are nil.  So scratches themselves don't matter.  What matters is wearing wide holes by dragging the boat regularly on land.  Besides, a deep scratch is easy to repair.  A wide hole is quite a bit tougher.  But it's plastic.  It's all repairable.  So long as you don't leave it out to bake in the sun and make the plastic brittle, it'll be fine.  

You should see the bottom of a couple of my boats, lol.

16 minutes ago, J Francho said:

You should see the bottom of a couple of my boats

I bet the bottom of @TnRiver46 boats look they've been through a meat grinder.  He beaches his rig right on the rocks!

5 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I bet the bottom of @TnRiver46 boats look they've been through a meat grinder.  He beaches his rig right on the rocks!

Character. 
 

a kayak is one thing I don’t like to drag on a boat ramp. I used to guide kayak trips for an outfitter and we put holes in the back of several kayaks. Aluminum is much tougher than plastic

All of my boats have a sacrificial skid plate in the keel. I've never wore through one, but they're replaceable. 

I have never worried about scratches on any of my kayaks and I do a lot of river fishing which is pretty hard on a kayak.  My last kayak, that was 7 years old and warrantied for a hull crack, wore through a replaceable skid plate.  I never drag it on concrete though but I also don't baby it.  

deep scratches are a simple fix of heating up a putty knife and smoothing over the areas.

I was replacing the carpet on the trailer and needed to get under the boat for some measurements ...

 

5 hours ago, Chris Catignani said:

I was replacing the carpet on the trailer and needed to get under the boat for some measurements ...

 

^now there’s a fisherman 

I take great pains to keep from getting scratches on my plastic kayaks.  Just snapped a picture of the most recent purchase (4th of July weekend).  I'll go so far as to change where I'm going to make sure that they don't get scratches.  Rivers around here are a bit scrapey, so I've planned to head to the Gauley end of the month to make sure I'm in well-watered bodies of water.  Gotta keep that plastic pristine or it'll slow you down!

 

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

^now there’s a fisherman 

All thats from "gettin wide" and fishin "skinny water".

 

Southern Speak

gettin wide [git-in wahyd]

verb Fishing the wider secondary currents off the main river channel.

 

skinny water [skin-ee waw-ter]

noun Water three feet deep or less.

14 hours ago, CountryboyinDC said:

I take great pains to keep from getting scratches on my plastic kayaks.  Just snapped a picture of the most recent purchase (4th of July weekend).  I'll go so far as to change where I'm going to make sure that they don't get scratches.  Rivers around here are a bit scrapey, so I've planned to head to the Gauley end of the month to make sure I'm in well-watered bodies of water.  Gotta keep that plastic pristine or it'll slow you down!

 

hmmm..looks like mine.  mine might be slightly less scuffed. 

Its normal to be concerned about it when you first get a kayak, but nothing to worry about in reality.

 

My last kayak was 14 years old and never babied.  I beached it all the time on gravel banks.  Dragged it to the water at launches, ran into all manner of rocks etc.  When I retired it the bottom looked like hell but was still sound.  I plan on abusing my new one the same way, and this one has replaceable skid plates.

 

There are videos showing how scratches and gouges can be repaired fairly easily.  If you want a winter project, you could always fix the deeper ones at the end of the season.

On 9/7/2022 at 9:58 PM, CountryboyinDC said:

I take great pains to keep from getting scratches on my plastic kayaks.  Just snapped a picture of the most recent purchase (4th of July weekend).  I'll go so far as to change where I'm going to make sure that they don't get scratches.  Rivers around here are a bit scrapey, so I've planned to head to the Gauley end of the month to make sure I'm in well-watered bodies of water.  Gotta keep that plastic pristine or it'll slow you down!

 

?
 

You bought that on 4th of July and already scratched it that much? I like your style. That gauley comment had me rolling on the ground 

9 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

?
 

You bought that on 4th of July and already scratched it that much? I like your style. That gauley comment had me rolling on the ground 

I did just get it 4th of July (actually Saturday before), and I am taking it down the Gauley (and New River Gorge) for Gauley season end of this month.  Usually some water there.  I certainly don't fish from this particular one, but I can't worry about some scratches on a plastic kayak.  It's like worrying about wrinkling the sheets when making love.

18 minutes ago, CountryboyinDC said:

I did just get it 4th of July (actually Saturday before), and I am taking it down the Gauley (and New River Gorge) for Gauley season end of this month.  Usually some water there.  I certainly don't fish from this particular one, but I can't worry about some scratches on a plastic kayak.  It's like worrying about wrinkling the sheets when making love.

You don’t have to worry about scratching your boat, @gimruisdoes it for us! 

I hate scratch's, too! And there is a procedure to keep the bottom of kayak looking as good as new. There's no easy solution, in my opinion, other than bodywork style, like with urethane paints, which starts with sanding and goes to a compound buffer.

 

Here's the low-down: for starters, I use the self-stick disc sanding pads attached to a variable speed drill. I start out with medium disc and work to finer disc, depending on the scratch. To get even finer, say 1000 or above grit, I have to cut out a 5" circle from a sheet of the wet/dry automotive sheet paper to fit my attachment disc. I use dum-dum caulk to attach them. I do this because I need to wet sand the hull with the extremely fine paper to ready it for the buffer. The dry self-stick pads are only used to remove the scratches. After the wet sanding, I use a orbital buffer with a wool fleece to bring out the luster. I load up the wool fleece with a jeweler's red rouge buffing bar. The results are absolute perfection, even better than new! Like mirror! And it doesn't take long if done routinely.

 

That's how I do it for minor scratches. I do not see any other way. I've heard of heat guns, melting the plastic, crazy stuff like that, but see no need for that kind of extreme approach with normal scratches and scuffs and scrapes. I use some of that KeelEasy for the keel, which is great and keeps it in check. Easy to maintain.

 

All in all, even after a year of extreme usage out in the rocky Everglades and throughout central Florida, hardly a scratch to be seen!

How much material do you think you can remove before the hull is compromised?  

A pretty good bit, but I’d leave the scratches vs trying to sand them out. Big difference in a lake boat in Florida and a river boat in TN/NC/VA. You’d spend three days sanding for every three hours fishing. 

I'm not gonna sand scratches, ever.  seems counter intuitive.

 

 

Scratching out your scratches?

On 9/11/2022 at 1:44 PM, Zcoker said:

I hate scratch's, too! And there is a procedure to keep the bottom of kayak looking as good as new. There's no easy solution, in my opinion, other than bodywork style, like with urethane paints, which starts with sanding and goes to a compound buffer.

 

Here's the low-down: for starters, I use the self-stick disc sanding pads attached to a variable speed drill. I start out with medium disc and work to finer disc, depending on the scratch. To get even finer, say 1000 or above grit, I have to cut out a 5" circle from a sheet of the wet/dry automotive sheet paper to fit my attachment disc. I use dum-dum caulk to attach them. I do this because I need to wet sand the hull with the extremely fine paper to ready it for the buffer. The dry self-stick pads are only used to remove the scratches. After the wet sanding, I use a orbital buffer with a wool fleece to bring out the luster. I load up the wool fleece with a jeweler's red rouge buffing bar. The results are absolute perfection, even better than new! Like mirror! And it doesn't take long if done routinely.

 

That's how I do it for minor scratches. I do not see any other way. I've heard of heat guns, melting the plastic, crazy stuff like that, but see no need for that kind of extreme approach with normal scratches and scuffs and scrapes. I use some of that KeelEasy for the keel, which is great and keeps it in check. Easy to maintain.

 

All in all, even after a year of extreme usage out in the rocky Everglades and throughout central Florida, hardly a scratch to be seen!

Seems counterintuive to sand down scratches and taking material away purely for aesthetic reasons on a part of the boat that you never see.

1 hour ago, VolFan said:

Scratching out your scratches?

makes zero sense

14 hours ago, flyfisher said:

Seems counterintuive to sand down scratches and taking material away purely for aesthetic reasons on a part of the boat that you never see.

makes zero sense

 

The procedure that I posted is for MINOR scratches, hence the material removed is quite insignificant. Even still, material has to be removed. Kayak seasonal hull maintenance is quite mainstream and follows much the same process. Weather this is counter intuitive or not or whether this makes any sense or not is subjective. The OP asked what others do to get the scratches out. I merely posted what I do. Take it or leave it. 

As long as it's not a deep gouge, I'm not worried. I buy my boats as tools to be used, not to be put on display.