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 Post subject: Hobie 18 restoration
PostPosted: Sat Jul 15, 2017 9:09 pm 
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Site Rank - Deck Hand

Joined: Sat Jul 15, 2017 9:01 pm
Posts: 6
Just bought a Hobie 18 and plan a complete refurbish of her... Is the rubber that runs along the top outboard section of the pontoons available anywhere ? My plan is to strip the toons and repaint... the rubber seems pretty important as a non slip area for your feet when flying...


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 Post subject: Re: Hobie 18 restoration
PostPosted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 2:27 pm 
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Site Rank - Captain

Joined: Thu Jun 16, 2016 2:15 pm
Posts: 78
Murrays Marine www.murrays.com has this decking in pre-cut strips, or you can buy a similar product in bulk from hydroturf.com -- both are adhered to the boat with contact cement.

Randii


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 Post subject: Re: Hobie 18 restoration
PostPosted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 10:59 am 
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Site Rank - Deck Hand

Joined: Sat Jul 15, 2017 9:01 pm
Posts: 6
Thank you !!!

randii wrote:
Murrays Marine http://www.murrays.com has this decking in pre-cut strips, or you can buy a similar product in bulk from hydroturf.com -- both are adhered to the boat with contact cement.

Randii


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 Post subject: Re: Hobie 18 restoration
PostPosted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 4:14 pm 
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Site Rank - Old Salt

Joined: Mon May 09, 2005 10:25 am
Posts: 4176
Location: Jersey Shore
That new Hobie of yours has hulls.

Please don't call them "pontoons" or "toons" unless of course you plan on converting it to a party boat or a raft....

With regard to repainting the hulls, there has been a ton of discussion on this forum over the years on that subject. The general concensus is that you are much better off trying to restore the existing gelcoat (wet sand, polish, wax) than you are painting. Using paint should only be done as a last resort.

sm


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 Post subject: Re: Hobie 18 restoration
PostPosted: Wed Jul 19, 2017 11:22 am 
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Site Rank - Deck Hand

Joined: Sat Jul 15, 2017 9:01 pm
Posts: 6
Well Old Salt I don't want to upset you so I will refer to the two flotation vessels as "hulls", in spite of websters definition of pontoons covering these. As far as painting goes I wasn't asking for any advice there, I have repainted phantom and sunfish hulls for a long time now and I can assure you your advice about gel coating is dead wrong...


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 Post subject: Re: Hobie 18 restoration
PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 7:26 am 
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Site Rank - Captain

Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2014 12:34 pm
Posts: 149
Location: Hartland, WI
If the gelcoat won't polish up, give her a fresh coat....Paint is all wrong

_________________
JKK
83 yellow/ white decks Hobie 14 Corando turbo
82 yellow hulls Hobie 16 Cat Fever
84 yellow hulls hobie 16 Yellow Nationals
plus a few extras that I'm restoring


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 Post subject: Re: Hobie 18 restoration
PostPosted: Sun Oct 01, 2017 4:05 pm 
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Site Rank - Admiral

Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2007 10:20 pm
Posts: 295
Location: South Boardman, Mi
Unlike sunfish, hobies have plenty of gel coat, and so you can take a little more off without going through. I very highly recommend wet sanding and polishing. I have done this with my H18 and the results were fantastic.

What color are your hulls? The white ones polish up the nicest, the blue and yellow ones don't polish back quite as nice.

If you have colored hulls and want to bring back their vibrancy, try spraying on gel coat after a ton of sanding. Then you won't offend the old salts here, and you will have a more robust 'paint' job that will last much longer and take more abuse.

While you can paint, a H18 has a lot of surface area so it will take a lot of paint and a bit of time. You will also struggle to paint the no-slip tread. If this gets filled in, your hulls are no longer class legal, but more importantly they just won't look as nice.


And srm, my H21 SC is a great party barge, but don't call it a pontoon boat :wink:


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 Post subject: Re: Hobie 18 restoration
PostPosted: Mon Oct 02, 2017 4:52 am 
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Hobie Approved Guru

Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2003 7:11 pm
Posts: 5197
Location: Detroit, MI
IOHIM wrote:
Well Old Salt I don't want to upset you so I will refer to the two flotation vessels as "hulls", in spite of websters definition of pontoons covering these. As far as painting goes I wasn't asking for any advice there, I have repainted phantom and sunfish hulls for a long time now and I can assure you your advice about gel coating is dead wrong...

Merriam-Webster definition of pontoon:
1 :a flat-bottomed boat (such as a lighter); especially :a flat-bottomed boat or portable float used in building a floating temporary bridge
2 :a float especially of a seaplane

Nope, doesn't cover the hulls of a Hobie Cat.

Anyway, with respect to painting, sure - it'll look great right after it's done (other than it filling in the texture of the non-skid) if you take the time to do the surface prep - and therein lies the rub. If the surface prep isn't done properly, then the paint will chip, flake and look generally nasty in a very short period of time. Even with good prep, the paint will chip after a while. Also, the hull bottoms wear from pulling the boat up on the beach. The paint (very thin) will wear through quickly as opposed to the gel coat (thick).

Then there's the issue of repairs - gel coat / polyester resin is easy to work with - and it's what the boat is made of. Paint just adds another level of complexity to repairs.

srm's been fixing Hobie Cats for more than a few years; I've been doing it since 1973. If you don't want to take our advice, that's fine. It's your boat - you can do with it what you want.


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