Painting Hypalon

[zeehag]

there is a special paint for hypalon dinks.
many have gone where you are determined yet to go. no sweat.
\seems he just wants to sell you a newer dinghy. hypalon

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by zeehag

there is a special paint for hypalon dinks.
many have gone where you are determined yet to go. no sweat.
\seems he just wants to sell you a newer dinghy. hypalon

Yes, "a special paint for hypalon dinks", this is the question. So far only two, the Liquid Rubber and the Plasti-Coat have been suggested.

I'm lost with who might be determined to go somewhere and who this is that wants to sell a hypalon dinghy. Maybe you read something on another thread.

[JPA Cate]

Hudson, I just googled hypalon paint for dinghies, and there are a bewildering array of products that claim to rebuild your boat, properly applied. I sure hope you can find some folks who have used the products successfully, because the claims are high, but they want you to buy something....at least another cruiser or four may have tried some of those products.

Someone above mentioned Practical Sailor's having done a review. FWIW, Flexithane says PS recommends them.

Ann

[Morrissey]

I had an older RIB that would not hold air pressure for more than a day. I redid a few of the repairs with only marginal improvements. Then I went over it with Tuff-Coat Inflatable Boat Restoration Paint

The result was pretty good both aesthetically and in terms of sealing. You have to pay particular attention to the seams as that is where the most problematic leaks are likely to be. I ended up with 2 compartments holding pressure, and the other one leaking very slowly. It would need a bit of air after about 4 days. I did have some leftover paint so I could have re-done the one small area of seam that was causing the problem, but instead I sold the RIB and passed on the paint to the new owner. He said he had a friend who was a guru at doing these type of repairs so I hope it went well for him. I cant give you any long term performance assessment of the product....

It was easy to apply although the base coat has Xylene as a solvent so you need to use a gas mask. The top coat on the other hand is a water based product. Seems weird, but it works.

[Hudson Force]

Ann T. Cate, thanks for the google reference and you are correct, I'm more interested in recommendations by experiences than the google listings or claims by manufacturer's. I've saved the Flexithane to my list.

Morrissey, Thanks for the Tuff-Coat information,- I'm adding this one too.

Over the forty+ years I've been fulltime Liveaboard/cruising I've owned seven dinghies and five of them have been inflatibles. Only the last two recent RIB's were bought new. All of my previous dinghies except the hard shells were used until suffering from complete failure.

This time my plan is to test this current dinghy with a coating before symtoms of failure. My plan is to attempt a preventative maintenance coating. I'm discounting the Plasti-Coat coating simply because they don't present their product as an inflatible coating.

I have Liquid Rubber, Tuff-Coat and Flexithane left for me to choose from. I'll be reseaching these a little more before making a choice. Sometime in the future I'll post some before and after photos. I just hope the "after" photo is a success story!

[Boatguy30]

Keep us posted. Salvaged an old caribe a few weeks back. After a few patched and a inner poured seal, holding air ok. Better when in the water it seems. Will paint it next year if it survives a winters bahamas cruise.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Boatguy30

Keep us posted. Salvaged an old caribe a few weeks back. After a few patched and a inner poured seal, holding air ok. Better when in the water it seems. Will paint it next year if it survives a winters bahamas cruise.

The "inner poured seal" adds a whole new and different approach. I don't think I'll take on that too. I have also heard of another approach that is extremely radical. I've heard of filling the entire inner void with expanding closed cell spray foam. I've never seen the endproduct,- 'seems like something that I could make a real mess with!

[Boatguy30]

It's just that stuff you put in and roll the boat all around. Pretty common.

I might try the foam but just to keep it as a local runabout would be too heavy for davits. I think you have to vacuum all the air from the tubes and then somehow inject the foam with minimal air to get a good result. This might not work either as I would guess the foam needs to mix with air to expand?

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Boatguy30

It's just that stuff you put in and roll the boat all around. Pretty common. .............

Yeah, That's the real funny part! ..."roll the boat all around" just doesn't happen very easily with the big rigid bottom inflatibles or is it just me that thinks it takes a village!

[hellosailor]

boatguy-
There are different types of expanding foam. Some make a very light foam, others a heavier dense foam. They all cure in the presence of moisture and air once you squirt them out. In a dink, you'd have pockets of trapped air (i.e. at the ends of the tubes) unless you made at least a couple of pinholes to let the trapped air out before the foam hardened up. And of course, after it expanded, if it wasn't dense enough, you'd be able to "dent" it with any impact. But the foam bonds aggressively to almost anything, I'd expect the skin to stay attached where it was dented.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Hudson Force

Yeah, That's the real funny part! ..."roll the boat all around" just doesn't happen very easily with the big rigid bottom inflatibles or is it just me that thinks it takes a village!

Hi, Hudson,

Please, y'all can call me "Ann", that's enough. Now about turning that dinghy,

I bet you could have a bunch of yachties over and have a dinghy rolling party What a gas!

I'm thinking a couple of cans of the liquid rubber stuff could save you a couple of grand anyway. A worthwhile experiment!

Friends of ours have been using for about the last 15 yrs, a 2nd hand Caribe they bought from other friends. They put a cover on it maybe 3 years ago, and it is still holding air fine. All of which suggests to me that the older ones (at least) were made with high quality hypalon.

Ann

[thinwater]

The Practical Sailor review was in Aug 2011.

A Peek at Inflatable-dinghy Paint Test Panels After One Year - Practical Sailor Article

I used the MDR product just after that. It has popped a few places (very limited) and it is probably because of bad prep, since the rest is perfect. The spots that popped are areas that see zero wear, but it's fine under the tricing lines.

And pick a light color, whatever you do! I picked dark gray and it gains way too much pressue. My mistake.

[1affiah]

FWIW:
I used a gallon of "Green Slime" from Walmart 2 yrs ago on the inside of my 15 year old 9' Avon hypo dinghy, split between the 2 tubes and keel, and it holds air like new. I was trying to seal the patch I applied 10yrs ago, it is easy enough to slosh around. I carry a qt as a cruising repair kit. I also made chaps from sunbrella and fifertex, more work than it appears. I also painted over old reg numbers with thinned rustoleum, it still looks good.
Larry

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by 1affiah

FWIW:
I used a gallon of "Green Slime" from Walmart 2 yrs ago on the inside of my 15 year old 9' Avon hypo dinghy, split between the 2 tubes and keel, and it holds air like new. I was trying to seal the patch I applied 10yrs ago, it is easy enough to slosh around. I carry a qt as a cruising repair kit. I also made chaps from sunbrella and fifertex, more work than it appears. I also painted over old reg numbers with thinned rustoleum, it still looks good.
Larry

Larry,

I suspect a soft bottomed dinghy is easier to twirl and get a reasonably good coating with. Hudson is talking about a 10 ft. Caribe RIB, and they're a lot heavier than a soft bottom Avon.

Ann

[1affiah]

Ann:
Actually, it is easier than it sounds, and "twirling" is not necessary. The stuff is quite watery, and cleans up easily with water. I took the valves out and cleaned them days later. It will move about for days while blocking and repositioning the boat, and think about it, there is some logic about sealing from the inside, where the air pressure helps the sealing process.
Find the leaks with soapy water first.
Larry