Hobie 16 EPO Rudders - Sanded Edges

I sanded the edges with 100 grit sandpaper with a soft block. They came out pretty good!

There are a few nicks here and there that will need to be filled in.  That one bottom edge smoothed out OK as well.

I'm still not sure how many coats of epoxy resin I will need, I think there will be more than 3.  Maybe I can get away with three and a half, with that half going towards the edges to fix them all up.  You don't want too thick a final size, as you will have issues with them fitting in the rudder casting.  (nope, never had that problem!  :)

On a side note, I just submitted all the paperwork to title the Hobie 16 hulls,  I had to end it off to Austin, as per the Texas Parks and Wildlife department.  If all goes well, it'll cost about $100 to get a Bonded Title in my name.  I don't know why I don't part these things out, maybe I have an inner drive to build up the local H16 fleet?  The hulls need a bottom job and a fix to one gouged area, but otherwise they are completely solid.  I'm almost considering swapping these hulls with mine!  Hopefully I will hear back on the title in about a month, maybe more because of Christmas.

Hobie 16 EPO Rudder 2 Side 2 - Edges

I sanded the other side of rudder 2, so all the hard work sanding is done.

I still have to do the edges all around.

I'm thinking I'll need to fix up all the edges the same time I'm filling in the holes...

But first, a comparison of the drill holes!

Hobie 16 EPO Rudder 2 Side 1 - Drilled Holes

I had to buy some more low grit orbital discs, and tried out some 40 grit discs on rudder 2.  I still needed 3 of them to finish one side.  The finish is about the same.  I want to do the edges with something finer like 120 or even 220, so they are still not done.

The only reason I can think of why someone would have taken the edge down to the fiberglass and core was maybe to get rid of rudder hum?

Rudder one has two holes drilled, I am definitely going to fill one if not both of them and re-drill he hole.

Rudder two's hole has been deformed and elongated over time, I'm pretty sure I'm going to fill that in and re-drill as well.

I am going to take all my rudders apart and compare all the drill holes.  It will be interesting to see the differences between all the drill holes on four sets of Hobie 16 rudders!

I'll take pictures of the Hobie EPO rudders I've refinished already so you can see what they look like after sanding like this and 3 coats of epoxy resin, two with graphite filler.  It will also be interesting to see how this set compares to my other restored set!

Hobie 16 EPO Rudder 1 Side 2 - Exposed Core

Here's what the unsanded rudder looks like.  Is the core really supposed exposed at the top like this?

They are in pretty rough shape.  Here' the bottom edge:

After a sand with 80 grit pads on the orbital sander, here's what the other rudder looks like.

You can see that more of the core is exposed now.  I haven't taken the edges down to where they need to be yet, but here they are so far:

For the last set of rudders I restored, I used 3 coats of fiberglass resin; the first clear, the second two with the graphite filler, all applied on the same day.  I hope that three coats will work with these rudders, we'll see!

Hobie 16 EPO Rudder 1, Side 1

It took three 80 grit orbital sander pads, but I finally got one side of one rudder completely sanded. The finish is actually pretty smooth, so I think I will fiberglass over this without sanding to 120 or 220.

These rudders are definitely different than the last set...  They sand to yellow fiberglass, verses to grey mat that my other set sanded to, and the core is exposed along the entire edge.

I'll get the other side sanded and take some closeups of the exposed core next.

Hobie 16 EPO Rudders - Scratch, not crack

I did a quick sand on the "crack" and it looks like it was just a deep scratch.

The other set of EPO rudders I restored didn't sand to yellow fiberglass, it sanded to black mat, so this may be an earlier set?

This is a good sign.  After I sand the black layer off, I should see how the rudders look.

Scored some old Hobie 16 EPO rudders

I bought a Hobie 16 and a trailer for $300.  The H16 hulls, frame, mast, boom and trailer are in good shape, everything else is in poor shape, including the rudders.  The rudders are EPO rudders, so I will be restoring them to make them a backup set, swapping them out with my current white plastic rudders backup set.  If all goes well, I'll have a decent set of EPO rudders as a backup, and a trailerable H16 for sale.

Here's what the rudders look like:

They are pretty beat up.  At least they weren't in the sun for the last 10 years, they were in a barn!  One had what appears to be a crack in it:

Ouch!  The edges don't look good either:

I'll have to sand them down to see what damage we really have.