Rudder repair.......PLEASE HELP

does anyone know if these can be fixed so they are completely black?? The fiberglass is starting so show in places. Please help! done a lot of searching and can not find anything on this. Any advise would be great......should I just buy some EPO2???? They just cost a lot more money. THANKS!





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'83 H16 Tequilla Sunrise and Cat Fever

There are a couple of different methods you could try. They're just epoxy fiberglass - it's not brain surgery. The rudders are fine structurally.

Krylon spray paint is cheap and fast. May not produce the most ideal or durable results, but hey - you only spent $5 and they'll be smoother and blacker than they were.

You could spray or paint them with black gel coat (need to rough up the surface well to get it to stick). Lots of finishing / polishing work afterwards.

Fair them out with epoxy/microballoons and then paint them with a polyurethane paint. Labor intensive, expensive - but it will produce the best, most durable finish.

You've got to put a lot of money and time into these before it would be worth it to shell out $500 for new EPO's.

I've been using the black appliance epoxy paint from Home Depot for years on my old EPO's.
It works just fine, no need for a lot of work.

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Pat Bisesi
Fleet 204 Syracuse, NY

Hi there. I had really good luck with this:

My EPOs were in bad shape a few years ago. Many fishing line strikes, bottom chips from hard grounds, and general wear and tear. Like yours I had some sun damage and the fibers were starting to show. Also, I had a bunch of slop in the rigging where the pins went through.

I decided to fill and refurbish the rudders, and then redrill them after everything was completed. First I got regular ole (cheap) JB Weld adn filled all the strikes, dents, dings, and most importantly, the bolt holes. Actually, I drilled out the bolt whole locations to 1/2" and then filled them with JB Weld. That way I had a solid plug to redrill through. The new holes have not wallowed out at all now.

Once the blades were filled, sanded, and smooth -- I was happy with the repairs of the dings, etc -- I mixed up West 2 part epoxy with graphite powder mixed in to make them black. Then I rolled on several coats, wet sanding between each coat, and the end result was STUNNING. They look better now than they did when new.

You can see your face in them. Now, about once every 2 years, I sand them with coarse sand paper, and then add another top coat of West epoxy and graphite. Never a problem, rock solid and looks amazing.

BTW, same proceedure can repair the comptip if the fibers are showing there as well. Mine was quite worn as it spent most of its time with the mast up and on teh beach. So I pulled the Comptip, sanded it thinner, and then epoxy and one layer of carbon fiber omnidirectional tape, and then 2 coats of west epoxy graphite powder again. LOOKS better than new, and I like how you can see the Carbon Fiber mesh in the surface now. Excellent bend properties and rock solid attachment to the mast.

Good luck! Let me know if I can help with any of these lil project. I did both blades and comptip in one weekend.

Enjoy!

A bit off topic, but does anyone know how epoxy bonds to the regular (plastic) rudders?

I just ordered a replacement and would like to paint/coat them somehow to at least match.