Hi all,
I have an old 1978? hobie 16 that I'm trying to get back into condition. The hull bottoms have worn pretty thin from repeated dragging on the ground. Any suggestions about repairing this cheap?
What I've done with older hulls that worked fine is to simply use a good quality fiberglass cloth and fiberglass resin and masking tape, which can be found at most discount stores. After roughing up the surface, cut 2 or 2 1/2 inch strips of the fiberglass cloth and tape the cloth by the edges to the area of the hull bottoms between the pylons. Then just pour on the resin and work it into the cloth. The masking tape protects the sides of the hulls and helps hold in the resin. With a rasp or orbital sander the finishing is not too bad. The resin will last if the harderner is used correctly.
I did this to a set of 16 hulls 7 years ago and they're still ok. Epoxy (like West Systems) would be better but, at 40 bucks a quart is more expensive.
use fiberglass cloth tape and epoxy resin. flip the boat over.clean and sand the area to be repaired. lay on the fg tape, use masking tape on the ends to hold it in place. brush just enough resin onto the cloth to wet out the area you want to cover, the part where the gel coat has rubbed off, be neat and avoid excess resin, wipe off any runs. trim off the excess cloth after the resin sets with a razor knife and sandpaper. repeat if you think it needs oo be thicker. recoat with one or two more coats of resin -let each coat start to harden before recoating -until the cloth becomes slick. remember to clean off any drips and runs before they set up to save a bunch of sanding. sand and fair, paint , et voila!
Thanks for the tips, Now I just need to find some time with good weather to do this.