Dinghy rehab project

GnrlPatton

Well-Known Member
Jul 12, 2010
708
Maple Valley, WA
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
 
Kevin, That looks really good! What did you use on the tubes to get them this clean? JC
 
Kevin, That looks really good! What did you use on the tubes to get them this clean? JC
All products I had gotten through Inland Marine, based on a thread that I had seen posted here. I did some back and forth with them on product questions, they recommended I just use the cleaner and then top coat paint to get it up to snuff, they said that the route I was considering (and ultimately went with) was overkill. I couldn't be happier with the results though, so I'm glad I took the time to do it.

Here are the products I went with, all found on the Inland Marine site:
Cleaner: Nautical Ease Inflatable Boat Prep/Cleaner
Rubber Tube paint: Liquid Rubber (White)
Paint for Letters/Logos: Topside paint (Grey)

I purchased 2 quarts of the liquid rubber and used about 1.5q of it, purchased one spray bottle of the cleaner and used about .25 of it, and purchased 1 pint of the topcoat paint and used about 1/10 of it. The products go a long way.

Kevin
 
Does the paint improve leak resistance of older sun damaged tube material?

MM
I believe that it does, if you use the liquid rubber paint. If you have pretty major leaks, they also have an internal sealer product, probably similar to Tubeseal, but I have no experience with it since mine didn't have any leaks. Their website is pretty comprehensive on instructions of what products you would need.

The liquid rubber puts a coat of rubber 2-5mil thick (depending on how thick you spread it), so unless there are major leaks happening, it should seal it up nicely.
 
I believe that it does, if you use the liquid rubber paint. If you have pretty major leaks, they also have an internal sealer product, probably similar to Tubeseal, but I have no experience with it since mine didn't have any leaks. Their website is pretty comprehensive on instructions of what products you would need.

The liquid rubber puts a coat of rubber 2-5mil thick (depending on how thick you spread it), so unless there are major leaks happening, it should seal it up nicely.

That is good to know.

MM
 
Very impressive. I need to do something similar this spring with the dinghy that came with my boat. Any suggestions for painting an aluminum bottom? It's going to need it.

This is my dinghy on the right there ...as you can see needs some good ole TLC.

IMG_9888.jpg
 
Hi Mike-
Sorry for not responding sooner, been out of town for a family funeral.

I didn't have to touch the bottom on mine, except for a little cleanup. Mine is a fiberglass bottom, not aluminum, so not sure how you would go about painting it.

As it turns out, my davit and swim platform combo won't lift the dinghy, so I'm going to be cleaning it up and putting it on the market to find something smaller and lighter. I probably could use an aluminum bottom 10' dinghy!

Kevin
 
Hey Kevin ...no worries, and thanks for circling back. You did a wonderful job on this dinghy! I hope mine turns out half as good! :)
 
I just ordered the protector and cleaner combo. I hope my experience works as well as yours. This could be the perfect solution. Thanks
 
I had not used the Nautical Ease inflatable cleaner until today. Dang this stuff works well! The only problem is there isn’t a web site to order it. The manufacturer is rvroofing.com but they only take phone orders for now. My dinghy looks new. I used there finish product but I think 303 would work just as well. Thanks for the heads up
 
I had not used the Nautical Ease inflatable cleaner until today. Dang this stuff works well! The only problem is there isn’t a web site to order it. The manufacturer is rvroofing.com but they only take phone orders for now. My dinghy looks new. I used there finish product but I think 303 would work just as well. Thanks for the heads up
Yeah, it's impressive stuff isn't it? I ordered from inland marine, looks like they still sell it: https://www.shop.inlandmarine.us/NauticalEase-Prep-Cleaner-9528200009.htm

Kevin
 
Hey Kevin, you would be hard-pressed to guess that the two pictures are of the same dinghy... Great Job !!!
 

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