GnrlPatton
Well-Known Member
- Jul 12, 2010
- 724
- Boat Info
- Current: 1998 370 Express Cruiser
Sold:1988 230 Weekender
- Engines
- Twin Cat 3116T
I bought a (very well) used Dinghy about a month ago, I already had an 8'6" Aquapro but was looking for something a bit bigger. I settled on a 1996 Caribe 11'+ dinghy. I had seen a thread here about someone that had done rehab work on their dinghy, so I wasn't too concerned about quality of it, as I knew that I could put the effort in to get it looking new again.
I had a few focus areas to deal with - Restoring the tubes, reupholstering the bench seat, and then refinishing the motor cover.
The motor cover was beat up pretty bad, so I took off the old decals, sanded it down, filled in the dings/gouges and then prepped it for paint. I just used some Dupont Duracolor rattle cans I got from the local hardware store and then found an online store to purchase the decals. That project was pretty easy, just time consuming on the prep work.
The seat was completely trashed. It was an old vinyl bench seat, and as I ripped it apart I found that the wood was completely waterlogged, and the vinyl was beyond repair. The only thing savable was the foam. I used the wood as a template to cut the new plywood from, then sprayed it with 2 coats of Flex Seal, and took the whole thing to a local upholsterer to refinish. We chose the same design, but using Sunbrella instead of vinyl. Just got it back yesterday and was very happy with the results.
The tubes were a huge chore. They were completely dirty and chalky, plus had some bare spots. I bought some cleaner, rubber paint, and topcoat paint from inland marine and got to work on them. First step was to scrub them down using their cleaner, which surprisingly took all of the dirt and chalk off with the first application. After a good rinse, I used the rubber paint, and rolled it on using a smooth nap roller. It took about 4 hours to do the whole boat, top and bottom, plus go back over it with a thicker second coat. The paint only cures at above 55 degrees, and I was working in an unheated garage, so I rented a propane garage heater and left it on for the first 48 hours pretty much non-stop, and then for a few hours over the next 5 days. According to the instructions, the paint cures to the touch in 48 hours, and fully within 7 days, if kept above 70 degrees. That matched my experience, as it was done a week after I painted it. I also used the grey topcoat paint, which is also rubber based, to paint on the logos and numbers. Nothing hard, just took a lot of patience.
Here are the photos of Before, During and after. I'm really happy with the way that it worked out. I would say total I have about 30 hours of actual work into it (I did a bit more than described above in cleaning everything, plus replacing things like the radio, steering wheel, fuel tank lines and bilge pump output lines). I still don't know if my boat and davit system will handle the weight of it, but I'm going to try it out this weekend and see. If not, I will flip it and find something else.
Before:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/m0vzhy1y426ncor/DinkBefore.jpg?dl=0
During (half of one tube has been cleaned):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ujmaksydy6goys9/DinkDuring.jpg?dl=0
After:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/auvtxlgr1iodehw/DinkAfter.jpg?dl=0
Sorry for the links, I couldn't get the pics to show inline.
Thought I would share my experience in case anyone else is doing something similar.
Kevin
I had a few focus areas to deal with - Restoring the tubes, reupholstering the bench seat, and then refinishing the motor cover.
The motor cover was beat up pretty bad, so I took off the old decals, sanded it down, filled in the dings/gouges and then prepped it for paint. I just used some Dupont Duracolor rattle cans I got from the local hardware store and then found an online store to purchase the decals. That project was pretty easy, just time consuming on the prep work.
The seat was completely trashed. It was an old vinyl bench seat, and as I ripped it apart I found that the wood was completely waterlogged, and the vinyl was beyond repair. The only thing savable was the foam. I used the wood as a template to cut the new plywood from, then sprayed it with 2 coats of Flex Seal, and took the whole thing to a local upholsterer to refinish. We chose the same design, but using Sunbrella instead of vinyl. Just got it back yesterday and was very happy with the results.
The tubes were a huge chore. They were completely dirty and chalky, plus had some bare spots. I bought some cleaner, rubber paint, and topcoat paint from inland marine and got to work on them. First step was to scrub them down using their cleaner, which surprisingly took all of the dirt and chalk off with the first application. After a good rinse, I used the rubber paint, and rolled it on using a smooth nap roller. It took about 4 hours to do the whole boat, top and bottom, plus go back over it with a thicker second coat. The paint only cures at above 55 degrees, and I was working in an unheated garage, so I rented a propane garage heater and left it on for the first 48 hours pretty much non-stop, and then for a few hours over the next 5 days. According to the instructions, the paint cures to the touch in 48 hours, and fully within 7 days, if kept above 70 degrees. That matched my experience, as it was done a week after I painted it. I also used the grey topcoat paint, which is also rubber based, to paint on the logos and numbers. Nothing hard, just took a lot of patience.
Here are the photos of Before, During and after. I'm really happy with the way that it worked out. I would say total I have about 30 hours of actual work into it (I did a bit more than described above in cleaning everything, plus replacing things like the radio, steering wheel, fuel tank lines and bilge pump output lines). I still don't know if my boat and davit system will handle the weight of it, but I'm going to try it out this weekend and see. If not, I will flip it and find something else.
Before:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/m0vzhy1y426ncor/DinkBefore.jpg?dl=0
During (half of one tube has been cleaned):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ujmaksydy6goys9/DinkDuring.jpg?dl=0
After:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/auvtxlgr1iodehw/DinkAfter.jpg?dl=0
Sorry for the links, I couldn't get the pics to show inline.
Thought I would share my experience in case anyone else is doing something similar.
Kevin