I ended up buying a SR Wilderness 18 in need of some TLC. It was from this forum post.

Wilderness 18

My friend (user0317) and I are in the process of fixing her up in hopes for a fall trip with our sons (ages 11 & 13).

I hope to have a whole "fixing" post with pics when we are done.

I purchased new gunwales from Wenonah, who were very helpful and friendly even though it was a competitor canoe.

I have questions with putting on the gunwales. Do they have to be pre bent? If so how do you make the jig to do this. Gunwale install should be next weekend.

Any help is appreciated.

Bobs

I assume you have aluminum gunwales. I have done wood inwales and outwales, but metal is a different beast. There is a good source of information on the MadRiver page..... check out what they say.

Good luck

MadRiver gunwale installation

The gunwales went on good without a jig and pre-bending. The Wenonah gunwale actually help form the canoe with the natural resistance to the bend. Just slipping them on works well with the SR Wilderness 18, but I can see how this would not work with say my Wenonah Fisherman. Those would need some pre-bending.