I'm considering buying a set of Prindle hulls to repair my P16, but they're older red hulls which are probably faded pink (I'm waiting for the seller to email some photos today). I was wondering how much $ it would cost in paint and supplies to paint them if they're beyond buffing and compounding. I just want an idea so I can better negotiate the price and not end up paying too much.

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Jason Kasper
2000 Mystère 5.0XL
Lake St Francis (St Lawrence River)
Lancaster, Ontario, Canada
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One qt Interlux Brightside $30 (matched by Jamestown Distributers) and a good $5 brush. Sand down with 120 grit after filling in any gouges with Bondo. It's a 3 day job. Tip on edge so hulls have flat surface & do one side. Next day tip other way, do other side. Last day for decks. There is NO Way you can buff out red, and you'll be amazed how easy the painting works. No need for a multi-process auto type paint job. These are 30 year old hulls needing a little sppiffing up! I've done it half dozen times. Pete

Thanks for the info Pete, how many qts of paint to do both hulls? And is the painted finish durable or is it prone to chipping/flaking off with use? My current hulls were orange and painted white and the paint came off in many places, looks horrible. I don't know what kind of paint was used though, and maybe the preparation wasn't well done?

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Jason Kasper
2000 Mystère 5.0XL
Lake St Francis (St Lawrence River)
Lancaster, Ontario, Canada
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My son uses PETTIT PAINTS Easypoxy 1-Part Polyurethane Enamel Paint available at West Maine and gets awesome results. As for repairs to hulls, I recommend WEST SYSTEM epoxy with WEST SYSTEM
#407 Low Density Filler for any gouges over Bondo. After cure, it's easy to sand and flare into surrounding area. For paint, best results are to roll on then tip off with a foam brush to remove any air bubbles. This paint flows out to a smooth shiny finish and is pretty darn tough.

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Mike Conway
H16
Hilton, NY
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You probably thought of this yourself but...
Why not paint them red? That way chips and scratches arent highlighted as much as when painting in a contrasting color / tint / shade or what have you.
I did this with an orange boat before and never regretted it. On that same boat I painted the decks grey over orange gel coat but used two layers of high solid two part epoxy primer to 'isolate' the orange. this worked reasonably well, though a miscalculation with the spinn pole did create an orange gouge, it was easy to fill with only a tube of filler.

Well I saw the photos and decided to pass on the hulls. they looked like they'd been neglected for a real long time and there was a pretty questionable looking repair done to the transom/rear deck area on one of them. Not worth the trouble in my opinion so I'll keep searching and maybe tackle the re-coring of my port hull deck in the meantime...

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Jason Kasper
2000 Mystère 5.0XL
Lake St Francis (St Lawrence River)
Lancaster, Ontario, Canada
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~~ Everyone has their own way of painting.... I tried the roll & tip method, IT SUCKED If ya have a sprayer, spray it !!! Heres two links that I've done. I painted plenty of boats.......
http://www.thebeachcats.c…ictures/?g2_itemId=46893
http://www.thebeachcats.c…ictures/?g2_itemId=62395
If ya have any questions. contact me here or popeyez7@aol.com
Keep ua up to date OK

--
~ Vietnam Vet 69-71~ 17 Hobie w/big jib, ~18 Hobie mag,~DN Ice sailor,
and other toys.......
~~ I live in NY state on the north shore of Oneida lake in
Bernhards Bay. ~~~~~~
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I think Pete does it with just the one quart but I am not sure I would be able to to just one I'd budget 2 to be safe.


What's wrong with your hulls. Are they not repairable? Prindle hulls are not usually to bad to repair though I have only done minor repairs.



Edited by Quarath on Oct 31, 2012 - 02:23 PM.

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Dustin Finlinson • Magna, UT
Member: Utah Sailing Association
1982 Prindle 18
1986 Hobie 17
1982 Prindle 16
1980 Prindle 16(mostly)
1976 Prindle 16(mostly)
Check out "Prindle Sailors" on Facebook.
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i had it done with awlgrip. i did all the fairing and sanding. 350$ cash. looks great on a 18 square.
marc



Edited by marcs2 on Nov 03, 2012 - 07:04 PM.

I picked up on this thread searching Gel Coat. As my H18 was laying on its side in the water today (could not bail out in time) I noticed around my dagger holes that the gel coat was worn down to the fiberglass.

I was looking to see if a gel coat job was "DIY-able" or not. But I see more posts on painting. I have yellow hulls - should I paint or can I gel coat??

Thanks.

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David
Memphis, TN
'84 Hobie 18
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I'm in the process of gel coating two Nacra 5.2's. A gel coat gun with a 2.3 - 2.5 mm nozzle is about $95. You will need about a 1.25 - 1.5 gallons of gel coat per hull to leave the suggested 25 mills if you want to sand off the orange peel. It's pretty easy to work with, but time consuming to do a really nice job.

Using a DA sander it's about a days work to take the old gel coat off and to do touch up sanding by hand. I'm changing color from white so I wanted as much off the hulls as possible. The toughest part is trying to locate and fill all the pin holes and pot marks in the fiberglass that show up if you get down to the resin. I'm finding there was a lot of air bubbles or voids behind the gel coat when they laid these boats up, even more so on the daggers. Even after you think you've filled them all, once you spray on the primer/surfacer you will find a bunch. I've found the best way after applying the first round of primer is just to cut the primer 50/50 with MEK and use a very small brush to dab in the holes and keep over dabbing until they are over filled. Then sand with 240 to a now pinhole free surface. You want the stuff very thin so it flows down into the holes, otherwise it will just lay across the hole and the hole will reappear when you sand.

I'm using gel coat from Sher-fab locally here in SoCal, and mixing 50/50 with Prestec clear. Speak with AJ, he is a great resource. There is no thinning necessary when doing it this way and it lays out quite nice. You also don't need to add any wax or over spray with PVA. Just finish all your application within about 90 minutes of the previous coat. Buy in 5 gallons rather than a few 1 gallons. The bright lime green I'm using for one set of hulls is $100 per gallon, but only $235 for 5 gallons. The Canary Yellow for the second set was a bit more expensive at $265 for a 5 gallon pail.

What I liked about using the Prestec is that it lays out nice, but also that if you run out of time or you mess up the coat, you can just clean the gun and walk away. Let it cure overnight, then come back and sand the hulls with 150 - 240 to provide a good surface to adhere to, and get rid of any runs and blemishes , then lay down the rest of the gel coat.

Again, it's a good amount of work, but for some reason I actually like it, and there's something satisfying about taking a 35 year old ugly duckling and making it look like a new boat for the fraction of a new boat. It's also fun to add a new skill. Have no fear, you can always sand off a run or other screw up.

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Craig
Windrider Rave Hydrofoil
Nacra 5.2 Restored and heavily modified
Nacra 5.2 (one under restoration)
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.8NA
SoCal
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Thank you for the great detail and suggestion. I would really like to attempt this. Do you have the non slip cross hatch pattern on the top of hulls. I don't think I could sand that out - maybe I could hit that area over a primer to get consistent color?

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David
Memphis, TN
'84 Hobie 18
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sailinagin

Thank you for the great detail and suggestion. I would really like to attempt this. Do you have the non slip cross hatch pattern on the top of hulls. I don't think I could sand that out - maybe I could hit that area over a primer to get consistent color?

David,

Have you seen these pics? Inspiration
http://thebeachcats.com/pictures/?g2_itemId=62395

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Damon Linkous
1992 Hobie 18
Memphis, TN

How To Create Your Signature

How To Create Your Own Cool Avatar

How To Display Pictures In The Forums.
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David,

My 5.2's have the cross hatch pattern on the deck sections. I just taped those off when I sprayed. I had to get into my front decks on one boat so the patch area is visible. I plan to coat the decks with colored bed liner coating for a better look that is also non-skid. I'm just now trying to figure out if I want to carry it over the side a bit for grip when out on the trap.

I don't know about spraying gel coat on the non-skid decks since you generally lay gel coat up pretty thick. But you might be able to just shoot a couple of thin coats and get away with it. Note that you WILL get orange peel when shooting gel coat out of the mold. With the Prestec it seems to be less, but I'm still going to be sanding on Saturday to get rid of it and then buff out to that smoooth mirror finish. I just finished shooting one hull this morning and was able to take it out of the booth when I got back from the office this evening. Man, what a difference, and that light lime green is way cool looking. I'm chomping at the bit now waiting for my new sails made with the green color injection. It is going to be one sweat ride.

You might want to look at Plasti Dip spray for the cross hatch area. I did a small trial area on the 5.8NA that I'll be restoring next, and it looked really great, and seemed to be more skid resistant than the rest of the deck area. You can get it in different colors and I think even make custom colors.

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Craig
Windrider Rave Hydrofoil
Nacra 5.2 Restored and heavily modified
Nacra 5.2 (one under restoration)
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.8NA
SoCal
--

Thanks Damon and Craig.

Yes I have seen those pics - he is painting and I am considering Gel Coat. Left you a PM.

Craig - thank you for the detail. Do have a post here on the project? Let me know how the finish looks.

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David
Memphis, TN
'84 Hobie 18
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David,

I haven't kept a log on this first restoration. I kind of wish I would have so that I could reference the before and after. Maybe on the second one, but I'm really pressed for time. I've promised our young men's (16 - 18) group at church that I would supply them with 2 or 3 cats for their High Adventure trip they are doing at Mission Bay in San Diego July 23 - 28th.

I'm definitely learning a great deal on this gel coat project and will post the pointers soon. I did color sand the daggers today and they look awesome, smooth and the shine is great. But there is a lot of work to get the orange peel off so you get that shine. If there is much orange peel, even just slight indents, I find it hard to buff to a great shine. I couldn't get the buffing to cut even the slight indents, so they just didn't shine like the high spots. Went back and hit with 240 disk (would prefer 320 or 400 but didn't have it available so I had to make due), then 600 disk, and then 800 3M Purple Disk. Then went to 1000 wet and then 1200 wet. Buffed with 3M Perfect II then with 3M Finesse It II, then a polymer sealer. The key is to make sure there is plenty of gel coat laid so you can cut it to smooth and not end up with thin spots that show, and the better trick is spraying it so that you get as little orange peel as possible. I'm working on that!

If you have a reasonable gel coat base you can start with on your hulls, and go back with the same color, I see the project being a whole lot easier. At times white hulls sounds good, but then all I have to do is take a look at those Kawasaki green hulls and I'm very happy I didn't go back white. Next up, Canary Yellow hulls on boat #2.



Edited by nacraflyer on Jun 23, 2013 - 06:19 AM.

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Craig
Windrider Rave Hydrofoil
Nacra 5.2 Restored and heavily modified
Nacra 5.2 (one under restoration)
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.8NA
SoCal
--

YES I plan to stay with my yellow hull color. So I would not need to sand down to the fiberglass? Looking forward to your posts and description of the work. I am not aware of detailed gel coat projects on here.

I am sure those boys will enjoy the boat(s) - Sounds like you have a serious deadline!

David

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David
Memphis, TN
'84 Hobie 18
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