Painting the rudder castings of a Hobie 16

Somebody painted the castings of my Hobie with some weird blue paint or lacquer, which looks terrible and has flaked and chipped. It comes off ok with a wire brush on a drill but leaves the castings looking like a panda with some original dark bits and some bright bits where the original coating (whatever that is) has come off to expose the bare metal.

The castings of my friend's Hobie look to have been painted with something nice and thin that doesn't look like regular gloss black paint.

Does anyone have an suggestions what to use? I was thinking maybe something like the stuff you use to paint cast iron wood burning stoves .. eg Liberon iron paste. Or perhaps "gun blue"

How much money do you want to spend? It might be cheaper to buy a good used replacement set. If you want to restore what you already have...

Look for a business locally that does 'hard coat' anodizing for the most durable finish. Alodining is another possibility, but it's more of a primer for aluminum... won't last as long and is usually top coated with a durable paint. Some grades of aluminum don't alodine well either. Painting by itself is just a waste of time, including Powder Coating. Some will argue that Powder coating is an option, though I've never had good luck with it and salt water. It only takes a tiny scratch in the paint for salt and corrosion to get in. Soon after the corrosion spider veins will start creeping under the paint and it's all over. You won't have to strip the paint, it'll do it for you leaving you with a useless part, made of white aluminum oxide powder.

http://www.ehow.com/facts_6713942_alodine-vs_-anodizing.html

There are kits available on the internet for DIY anodizing, but for the cost of the kit, you might as well just buy new castings. Neither option is exactly hazard free or earth friendly either.

Good luck!

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TC

Thanks rockets. I don't want to spend any money There's no castings available secondhand here in the UK and all anodisers have a minimum charge of 150usd. I might buy a kit from Gateros for 100usd as I'd be interested to do it... might be able to find some other stuff to plate too!

Maybe you could get several other people to join you for that $150 minimum.

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'00 H16 #104691
'78 H16 #32692 ex-rental [gone]
Old Holsclaw trailer
My Hobie 16 pages