I just bought a '73 Hobie 16 that needs some TLC. It is in suprisingly solid shape(solid hulls, no soft spots or delamination), however there are lots of little nicks on the gelcoat, little chips all along the rear of the rudders, and the undercoating has seen better days.

Should I try and strip all the bottom coat off before painting it? Is it worth it in your experiences? Should I bother fixing all the little chips in the gelcoat and fiberglass while I'm at it? Any particular brands work better for fillers, bottom coating, etc.?

I appreciate any insight to these kinds of repairs, or even directions to websites that have this kind of repair information. Thanks, andrew

I went to the Marine store where I live, and told the guy that I didn't want to much work. So he said that I should sand down the Paint that's on there right now only a bit, so that the new paint will bond well. He also said that if I did it this way, I'd only have to buy one paint can. So no primer would be needed.

Swampy, I have a nice solid '72 and went through the same thing...just paint it and get it back out on the water. Nothing special, just a good hardware store enamal will do the trick. There is some good marine paint available but I don't have a store near me so filled the big stuff with a poly filler and painted. Looks good and most importantly is ready to sail.



Good luck,



Tom

Hey Swampy I have a personal mix that works wonders and is cheap to make, I used it to do my bottom, fill nicks and reshape the rear of the hulls where it had brokern away from the rudder pins. Here it is:



Fairing Putty: Resin - 3 to 4 parts microspheres - 1 part cabosil



Mix well will turn into a think marine tex looking mixture, apply with squeegy and sand smooth(3 sandings by hand 100 light, 300 light, 600 wet) Give the whole boat a light sand to rough up the gelcoat and have it painted I had both my hulls profesionaly shot with Emron for $200.00. This is the long but proper meathod of doing it, I'm all about looking good as well as sailing fast so this meathod was worth it for me on my 79 boat. Here are a couple more useful mixes:



Glazing Putty: Resin and Cabosil mix to desired texture

Bonding Putty: Resin - 3 to 4 parts microsphere - 1 part milled glass fiber



Good luck

Peter Cherrick

H16 ElDiablo

USA 37848

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/necatsailors

I also have a '72 that I just bought. Do knicks and scraps in the hull leak if there is no actual breach of the hull or should they be sealed with paint?

I have heard that a chip all the way through the gelcaot should be sealed as it will allow the fiberglass strands to wick up water and the water causes a breakdown in the resin. The resin's chemical structure deteriorates. The same problem that occurs when water is left on teh inside of the hulls where the surface is not protected by gelcoat.



Someone else may have more detail on this.

Try using Interlux Bridhtside Polyurethane. After a little sanding and priming, you can roll on that stuff with ease. I would say three coats at 20 mins a coat for each hull, and your boat will be gleaming. Worth it when you see the results!

I'd stumbled across Interlux Brightside through Pyacht.com and was planning to use it with 'brush ease' to refinish the old hulls. They sell it in quarts. I was wondering how much it would take to finish two hulls.