Hobie 16 Corner Casting Removal Help

Hey everyone, I bought a 1979 Hobie 16 over 6 months ago. The hulls are in pretty bad shape, so I am getting ready to do delamination repairs and restore them. I am having issues getting the corner castings off. I have tried everything I can think of.

I beat them with a 48 oz dead blow hammer, sprayed them with PB blaster, hit them again, flipped it over and sprayed it with PB blaster, hit it again (no luck), heat it up to about 450 F, hit it again (again no luck). Not a single one of them would even budge. I need them removed to clean all the corrosion of recoat all of the structural member. Is there anything else I can do before I cut them off with a grinder and buy new corner castings?

Also, anyone have a set of corner castings for sale?

Thank you,
Jakob

Why do you need to separate the corner castings to do delam repairs?

I would not worry about recoating any of the structural parts. It is a 40+ year old Hobie. I would get it as seaworthy as possible and then just sail it. You are likely to spend more on replacement corner castings than the whole boat is worth. Plus it is likely to open up a whole can of worms related to fitment issues when you attempt to reassemble with the replacement castings.

sm

On an older boat if there isn't anything structurally wrong, leave them alone. You've got bigger fish to fry...

Sounds like a plan. I will leave them on and clean up the corrosion as is.

Thanks for the help guys. Wish me luck on the delamination repairs.