First Things, First.... Look the wooden frame over well. If there are any high spots, (proud spots), now is the time find them, and smooth them out. Once the fabric is on and 900 or so staples are in there, it is a bit late.

The skin is put on with Monel or Stainless steel staples. Home depot sells stainless, monel can be mail ordered. Either is fine for this stuff.

Put the boat Upside down on two real sturdy horses. It needs to stay still on there, so if you must, tape it down with duck tape, but be sure the tape will not end up under the skin.

WARNING, Once you start to skin the boat you MUST finish it. If you do a little one day and then the next day you do a bit more, the material will wet and dry from the air and make you crazy. So plan a day with the family and have fun.

1. Grasp the fabric in the center at both ends and find the middle lengthwise and fold it. Place the fabric on top of the frame, with the fold running down the center of the floor. Flip it open, being sure the overlap is even on both sides. Go to the stern end, and right where the boat begins to curve from the floor to the stern piece, drive 2 staples in to hold the fabric. DO NOT drive them in too hard as you will want to remove them later.

2. Go to the bow and pull the fabric taught, don't pull like crazy, just get it reasonably tight . It will put some wrinkles in but you don't want severe ones.

3. Go to either side, grasp the material about at the center of the boat and pull GENTLY down and drive 5 staples about the width of a staple apart. (The staples should be driven as evenly as possible so when you are done it will look like a silver line running around the edge of the boat gunnel.) I use 3/8 staples. They will generally NOT go all the way in and that is just fine because many of them are going to require removal and replacing. When the skinning is completely finished you will drive them all the way in with a hammer and dolly.

4. Go around the boat to the spot opposite where you drove the staples and again grasp the material and pull it tight, again don't go crazy but get it good and firm. Drive 5 staples here also. This can be a procedure that is a lot easier if you have 2 staple guns and 2 people, or at least one stapler and a person on each side.

5. Go back to side one and staple about 5 inches of fabric, in the BOW direction. Be aware of what the cloth is doing and don't pull too tight. Now back to side two, and here you can pull tight again, and staple.

6. Go back to side one and this time go in the STERN direction and staple do about 5-6 inches toward the bow and then towards the stern. Just keep alternating directions as you staple and it will push the spare fabric towards the ends where it can be handled.

7. As you progress you may have to pull those staples you drove into the floor at the very beginning and take out slack, but it is unlikely. when you get to a point about 3 feet from the ends of the boat you should stop and look at what you have. There will be some wrinkles, but they should not be huge. if you see some that look like they are too much, simply pull the staples in that area and to to work the out so that may not disappear but they will at least get smaller.

8. The two staples that you put in first at the ends now probably have just a little slack in the fabric. Take them out. While you are pulling the fabric towards the end of the boat have someone drive 2 staples back in just short of where the boat curves downward. Give it a good pull so the material is stretched a bit, but be real sure you are pulling EVENLY, you dont want more cloth stretched from one side then the other. If you find that it puckers severely , pull the staples and try again. You will always have a pucker, but you don't want a ig bunched up spot. Do both ends and set these staples in tight with a small hammer. Just tap them in firmly.

9. Here is the point where you will sweat a little because you are about to cut your cloth at the bow and stern. Take a sharp razor knife and begin your cut about a 1/4 inch from the staples on the side where you have NOT stapled yet.. Just cut about 2 inches with the knife. Try to make it absolutely straight in the direction of the keel. Find the center of the material and finish the cut with a sharp pair of scissors. Now do the other end. You now have two flaps on each end of the boat.

10. Take one of the flaps and pull it TIGHT around the curve of the bow and drive about1/2 inches of staples into it. Tap them in firmly with a hammer. The purpose here is to strengthen the canvas where you ended your cut. If you don't reinforce this spot well, it may be able to rip along the keel some day. Do the same thing with the other flap.

11. Drive a few staples in the gunnel and then pull on the flap and drive a few. Just as you did with the two sides. Go slow, this takes time to do right. just keep working out as many wrinkles as you can, you wont get them all but 3 little wrinkles are better then one big one.

When you get it all stapled down to the boat, drive all these staples in tight with the hammer. Then carefully trim the excess from the cloth on this piece, leaving an inch or so in order that the staples don't pull through the cloth.

Now do the other side, and trim it. You are going to cover this over after with several layers of vynal so don't worry about what the staples look like. Keep in mind when you drive the staples that you want them in the center of the wood if possible. This is a spot frankly where I use plenty of staples. it is really the only weak spot in the canvas but with good stapling it will never pull apart. Go to the other end and do the procedure again.

AT this point stop and look the boat over. if any pulls or puckers on the sides are too big just pull a few staples and make the big pucker into 2-3 little ones.

Drive in ALL the staples firmly with the hammer and dolly.

You now have the skin on and the staples driven all the way in. Take a bucket of HOT water and a sponge and rub down the canvas with the hot water, don't just pour it on, as it is sized and it will run off. Sort of wash it with the sponge, vigoriously. This will shrink the untreated cotton duck like you have never seen. The boat may even creak as you do it, but don't worry it won't come apart. It is a sound that my grandkids love though LOL.When the skin drys it will have taken out all those little puckers and then relaxed a bit. When it is wet it will be so tight it will drum, but it eases a bit on drying.

I put this shrinking trick last because you dont want to get sloppy about putting the fabric on thinking the shrink will cover all mistakes. Do the very best you can to remove the puckers and then the shrink will cover the rest.

About the paint. I use an OIL based paint that can be thinned. Sears sells some good stuff, but over the years I have used about any brand you can think of. DON"T use the house LATEX. it wont sink into the canvas no matter how thin you make it. The first coat really is to dye the inside of the boat and sink into the canvas. Use whatever color you want the inside to be, thin it till it is like water and apply is very liberally till you can look up inside and see it soaking through.

Be sure to cover the floor or do it outside because this is messy. When you are doing the ends of the boat keep in mind that there are TWO layers of canvas and you want to saturate both. the better it is sealed from moisture the longer the skin will last. You will never get the skin smooth like a canoe. We use fillers on canoe canvas, but they would crack in a kayak because there is no wood behind the skin and so it flexes. You just want to keep the water out. I will usually apply about 4 coats of thinned paint. Then every spring I scrub the boat down and put on another very thin coat for color, the boats do get dirty in the harbors so it just refreshes them. You can do this for about 8 years before it gets thick enough to start cracking. One last NOTE: Save all the scrap from the cotton duck. You will use some of it for making a cradle that you will need in doing the top covering.