dingy bottom repairs

[xort]

This is the bottom of an old Avon. It's pretty uniform over the whole bottom and goes under the hypalon so I don't think it's painted after manufacture.
What might I use to paint over it and fill in the voids after scraping off the loose stuff. Rather not sand the whole thing down. Just want to fair out the bottom some.

[tschmidty]

The two options I see are.

1) Break down and sand the whole thing smooth. Really will be your best result. If you were really worried about time you could use a belt sander to get it close and finish with a da orbital but of course you would want to be super careful.

2) Use a wire brush, either by hand or on a drill to get the loose stuff (or scrape). Then fill with either a thinned out epoxy putty or something similar. You could try to use a high fill auto primer after that or alone but it will be tough to fill the depth of those cracks. It might help to soften the edges of the cracks depending.

But really with the condition of that paint I would try to remove as much as you can/are willing to.

[xort]

I did hit it with a belt sander...it will take a lot of sanding to get all this off.

[sailingdog]

You're gonna be sanding a while if you want that to look good...

[xort]

don't need it to look good, it's on the bottom. Just want it to be smooth and solid. So I need to fill it and fair it.

[sailingdog]

Xort-

You really should sand it as much as possible, since you don't want to weigh down the dinghy with all the fairing compound you'd need to get what you've got in that photo smooth. The dinghy has a limited weight capacity, each ounce of putty/fairing compound you add lowers how much people/cargo you can carry.

Each ounce of fairing compound is also one more you have to lift to get the dinghy back aboard or launched. Spend the time sanding it as fair and smooth as possible.

[xort]

I don't know what this material is. Looks like paint but it goes under the hypalon. Would the factory paint the bottom before assembly? What paint?
This is a late 1980's Avon.

Good point about weight, I want to add just a minimal amount of epoxy or other material to fill in all the cracks so I don't think I'll be adding a lot of weight.

[sailingdog]

Smoother the surface, less epoxy you'll be adding.

Originally Posted by xort

I don't know what this material is. Looks like paint but it goes under the hypalon. Would the factory paint the bottom before assembly? What paint?
This is a late 1980's Avon.

Good point about weight, I want to add just a minimal amount of epoxy or other material to fill in all the cracks so I don't think I'll be adding a lot of weight.