Hobie Cat Forums

I've decided to paint all of the main aluminum pieces on my 1989 H18, including the crossbars, mast, boom, and rudder pieces. I could do the original black color, or go with silver, which stays much cooler to touch and won't fade as quickly. Any good reason not to go with silver?

Thanks,

Mark

Clean silver might look really cool. For what it's worth, I painted my entire rudder assembly (castings, arms, tiller cross bar) with Rustoleum "Hi-Heat" grill spray paint in flat black. There is a night and day difference from how everything looked before and it's holding up great. No fading, chips or scratches. I'm going to do my crossbars next. Rustoleum also makes this paint in a flat silver.

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Irie, mon....
'82 Hobie 18 SE with '85 Nationals Prism (White) sails
'73 Laser HID# 3463

Consider white.

I have (from date of supply) my hobie boom, mast and cross pieces all in white. It is quite snazy and certainly is different

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Richard Stephens

Richard,
Is that one of the original formula 18's? Looks awesome regardless. Love the green accents against the white!

I am not 100% sure of what is and is not.

The Hobie I have on my measurement certificate indicates 1991. I suspect that it is earlier. There are no date stamps on the hulls.

The Hobie is manufactured in South Africa under license and has the 3 part hull contruction around the centre board..... hull - center board case - deck.

I have not seen any other white masted Hobies here in SA.

So I think it looks quite cool and is certainly better looking than the stock standard black colours.

Shortly (6 weeks) I will be kitting the boat out with new Pentex high aspect sails. I certainly hope to go like a rocket after this.

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Richard Stephens

I run a pentex squaretop on mine and love it! You can really feel the puffs with the extra sail so high up. Makes you wish the bows were larger at times.
Your boat may be a true "Formula 18" the year model is close and the white metal is one of the key indicators. To bad they don't make green pentex!

How did it turn out? What kind of paint did you use? Can you give me any pointers?

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ResourceRider
ALSA
St. Louis, MO

I called Rustoleum tech support and told them what I was doing, with durability as the #1 goal. Their answer was the new "Universal" paint. I primed all of the pieces with their aluminum primer and then color coated with two coats of Satin Black, which it was until I waxed it a couple of weeks later. I used Meguires with quite a bit of pressure and it changed the satin finish to a nice semi-gloss and looks fantastic. The paint took a LONG time to fully dry, meaning weeks. I could scratch it with a fingernail for at least two weeks. It's been over a month now and its really hard and durable. Time will tell just how durable it really is, but they said it should last 5 years if I take care of it. I plan to re-wax each year.

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1989 Hobie 18 Magnum "Rhapsody"
2007 Hobie Tiger

poolemarkw - can you post some pics of the paint job?

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Paul


'87 Hobie 18 Magnum

Sure, but the parts are still separated from the boat. I'm just about to paint the hulls with Imron and then will be getting it all back together.

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1989 Hobie 18 Magnum "Rhapsody"
2007 Hobie Tiger

Here are a couple of pictures of the painted parts.

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1989 Hobie 18 Magnum "Rhapsody"
2007 Hobie Tiger

Looks nice. I'll have to give it a try on my rudder assembly and go from there. Thanks for the pictures.

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Paul


'87 Hobie 18 Magnum

WOW..that looks brand new. Well done.

How long did it take to sperate all those parts from the boat?

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ResourceRider
ALSA
St. Louis, MO

You can get Green at Dimension polyant. looks really nice.

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Rich Vilvens
F-18 5150
R.Vilvens@yahoo.com
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/f-185150sailing/