Hi everyone,

I have been talking about my restoration of a 1977 H16. The hulls had some holes, gouges, badly worn keels and some sort of huge/weird chemical burn on one side of a hull. I used epoxies and vinly esters to repair and fair her out nicely. ...Believe me when I say this was much more involved than my description implies. Once they were perfect, I used a true 2hp compressor and a $40 dollar paint gun to apply a two-part polyurethane finish. Specifically, three coats of epoxy primer with the third coat thinned %15. And three topcoats of super-gloss white and canary yellow - with the third coat thinned %15. I also stripped the original mustard tramp of contaminants and re-dyed it black. New gromets are on order. All aluminum castings were acid stripped and all anodized aluminum was polished. Presently, I have just completed a two step acid strip and refinish of the old (galvanized) trailer using the same coating system and colour scheme. I will provide photos and specifics on that at a later date. I am now assembling the boat and trailer while awaiting some small parts and new sails.

I hope you enjoy the photos (although I am a poor photographer). I hope it gives you some idea, and confidence, of what can be done with an old boat - and this old boat was in pretty rough shape. While photographing, it was difficult to accurately show the shine/finish of the topsides (yellow) because of the overhead sunshine, so some photos were taken in different light to show the best of each colour. Unfortunately, this makes the canary/banana yellow look like mustard in most of the photos. However, when you look close at the white bottoms in the last few photos, I can tell you that the topsides turned out even finer.


Dave

Topsides

Topsides 2

Topsides 3

Topsides 4 - non-skid close up

Topsides 5

Topsides 6

Topsides 7

Bottoms 1 :note the reflections and the super high gloss of the two part poly.

bottom 2

bottom 3 - big time reflection and gloss

bottom 4 - reflections close-up

Trampoline

- it has been stripped of contaminants and re-dyed using a quality vinyl dye (not vinyl paint). I have walked on it, handled it and new hiking straps have been sewn to it and so far it is holding up perfectly. However, I have little previous experience with this type of dye ... so time will tell.

Looks like a great job. Do you have a photo or two of the 'before' condition? I'm curious to see how it compares to the 1981? model I'm about to start on. Mine is bad, real bad.

Nate

Wow - great job Dave - I hope to see you in the north end of Lake Simcoe soon!

Which two part product , if I may ask ? I am about to take on a big'un.. And that looks fantastic I thought you had the hulls grey at first thats how much perifial light is absorbed in the gloss.

Nate,

I do have some before pics. However, they are not digital and I do not have a color scanner. When I finish assembling the whole project and post the final pics (in a week or two) I will have the "before" pics scanned for posting... The hulls were a mess ... some holes...several poorly attempted repairs (from years gone by) that had to be cut/ground out, and a huge (unidentified) chemical burn. Moral of the story...if you plan ahead, spend some money, and do all the grunt work while resisting the urge to take shortcuts - then your "real bad shape" boat will be beautiful again.




DSYC,

The product I used was EP-FD 2-part epoxy primer and EX-2C 2-part polyurethane topcoat - both from Endura (a canadian company). I originally planned to use a primer and paint from Awlgrip, but the Endura was a little cheaper, and judging from what I have been told, Endura is at least as good as Awlgrip. After using both, I would agree.

It takes roughly 20 oz (total) of paint or primer (sprayed) to do a single coat over both hull bottoms and about 8 to 10 oz (total) to do a single coat over both hull caps/tops.

Dave

Dave,
Nice job on everything, you've inspired me! Tell me about the vinyl dye you used on the tramp. What brand and where did you get it? Thanks [color:"black"] [/color]

Andy,

Thanks for the compliment. Next week I will post the completed photos - including the trailer.

As for the dye, I checked a few places out before settling on an automotive "Vinyl Dye" (NOT vinyl paint) from a Canadian Tire store. I chose "jet black" which seems to be the same as a "flat black". It comes in aerosol form and seems to work great. I stripped and cleaned the tramp vigorously with soap/water and a pressure washer. Then I completed a couple of wipe-downs with RM 900 by BASF - a professional degreaser-dewaxer and silicon remover.

I have not used vinyl dyes in the past and have generally believed them to be a "no-no" on vinyl that gets bent/crimped or stretched a lot. However, on my well-aged Hobie tramp I had nothing to lose.

So far this is what I have found; on the topside of the tramp (where there was a lot of surface corrosion/UV damage) the dye penetrates and adheres surprisingly well. It resists scuffs and scratches quite well too - although from time to time I am sure a little touch-up will be required...easy to do. On the underside of the tramp where the vinyl was smooth, relatively shiny and undamaged, the dye does not penetrate nearly as well, and is prone to scratches (yes, the underside must be dyed, otherwise color uniformity is poor ...yup - I tried it). The finished product looks fantastic in every sense and I am very happy with it.

As far as I know, it is the original "mustard color" 1977 tramp - it was structurally sound but cosmetically awful. I drilled out all the old corroded gromets (I will make a separate post on this) and replaced them with new ones from Hobie. It looks brand new.


Dave

Just wondering - did you drill out the gromets beforehand or after dying the tramp. I'm assuming that since you were replacing them anyway, you did it before, but I'm just curious as to if the dye would stain the gromets at all, because I have a really ugly blue color tramp but with perfect condition gromets, and I'd prefer not to remove them at all, or stain them.

Yours truly, Peter