Gofirstclass
Well-Known Member
My Zodiac 10’ dinghy for Beachomber is one that came on my original 1996 330 Sundancer and it’s seen a fair amount of use over the years I’ve had it. It was starting to look pretty bad last year, with the tubes fading and discoloring.
I bought a newer Achilles 10’ dinghy last spring and it’s been in my garage. I had to remove the name from the bottom of the Achilles, patch up some minor scratches on the bottom and fill some small screw holes on the transom where the prior owner had installed a starboard plate to thicken the transom. I was going to use it on Beachcomber but I found out it would cost several hundred dollars to buy new hardware to be able to use that dinghy with my Seawise davit system.
I had heard about a paint that was supposed to be pretty good for refinishing hypalon or PVC dinghies so I got some and brought my Zodiac home a few weeks ago to paint. It was a major PITA having two dinghies plus 3 vehicles, lawn tractor and all the other assorted junk in the garage.
It seemed like I always had to move a dinghy to do something, so before I started painting I built a “dinghy dolly” to move one of them around on. It took three designs before I finally built one that was sturdy enough to hold the dinghy and yet able to be moved around without breaking. Here’s what the final design looks like.
The paint I used is Inland Marine Topside Paint from Inlandmarine.us. It comes in several colors and here’s what the can looks like.
When I started painting the dinghy I wasn’t sure one quart of the paint was going to be enough. As it turns out, I was able to put two coats on the topside, two on the bottom and touch up some additional spots on the top. The paint is water soluble so cleanup was a breeze. I used a paint pad to apply the paint and it worked well. There’s a lot of prep work before the painting can start but I won’t go into that here.
You can see above what the dinghy looked like before I painted it. Here’s the difference between the top and bottom after two coats on the top...
And the end result.
The paint goes on smoothly and covers fairly well. I had some dark stains on the dinghy tubes and it took 3-4 coats to fully cover up the stains. All things considered it’s a much better looking dinghy now and it cost a whole lot less to paint it ($40) than to buy a new dinghy.
My only concerns at this point are about how long the paint will last. After a few days I'm going to go over it with 303 and hope that helps.
I bought a newer Achilles 10’ dinghy last spring and it’s been in my garage. I had to remove the name from the bottom of the Achilles, patch up some minor scratches on the bottom and fill some small screw holes on the transom where the prior owner had installed a starboard plate to thicken the transom. I was going to use it on Beachcomber but I found out it would cost several hundred dollars to buy new hardware to be able to use that dinghy with my Seawise davit system.
I had heard about a paint that was supposed to be pretty good for refinishing hypalon or PVC dinghies so I got some and brought my Zodiac home a few weeks ago to paint. It was a major PITA having two dinghies plus 3 vehicles, lawn tractor and all the other assorted junk in the garage.
It seemed like I always had to move a dinghy to do something, so before I started painting I built a “dinghy dolly” to move one of them around on. It took three designs before I finally built one that was sturdy enough to hold the dinghy and yet able to be moved around without breaking. Here’s what the final design looks like.
The paint I used is Inland Marine Topside Paint from Inlandmarine.us. It comes in several colors and here’s what the can looks like.
When I started painting the dinghy I wasn’t sure one quart of the paint was going to be enough. As it turns out, I was able to put two coats on the topside, two on the bottom and touch up some additional spots on the top. The paint is water soluble so cleanup was a breeze. I used a paint pad to apply the paint and it worked well. There’s a lot of prep work before the painting can start but I won’t go into that here.
You can see above what the dinghy looked like before I painted it. Here’s the difference between the top and bottom after two coats on the top...
And the end result.
The paint goes on smoothly and covers fairly well. I had some dark stains on the dinghy tubes and it took 3-4 coats to fully cover up the stains. All things considered it’s a much better looking dinghy now and it cost a whole lot less to paint it ($40) than to buy a new dinghy.
My only concerns at this point are about how long the paint will last. After a few days I'm going to go over it with 303 and hope that helps.
