Hyperlon Paint

Paora · 16 October 2002, 07:55

Does anyone whether I can paint my hyperlon Achilles inflatable tubes. From the usual red / orange to Black

Jelly · 16 October 2002, 09:58

Greetings Paora,
Well if you were in the Northen Hemi I would suggest Polymarine, but sorry no idea in the southern hemi.
Question why Black? if you have a black boat people ask more questions, as there are a lot of boats that colour used for well lets say non legit activities - not that I'm implying anything as an owner of a large black inflatable my self (it came that colour and was free

with a few added ventalation holes

) I get asked them!
Paul lemmer wrote some articles for RI on the RIB industry in NZ in the last few months might be some contacts in that.
Jelly

Paora · 16 October 2002, 10:19

Fortunately in sleepy hollow NZ you would need to drug run one hell of a long way (about a couple of thousand KMs) so black in a RIB is seen more cool than sinister. The other reason (and as a Zodiac Owner yourself Jelly) Zodiac made an Anniversary model for civilians and one for the British SAS which looked awesome. Hence the question. Looks cool, burns the hell outta your hands in the summer but what the heck.

Pete7 · 16 October 2002, 16:54

Yes, providing you use a flexi paint designed for it. They are available in Orange, Grey and Black in the UK although interestingly I saw a new aerosol can of paint in Halfords yesterday which was a flexi type. Not sure if I want to be the first to use it though. And yes apologies I know your'e in NZ and Halfords probably haven't got there just yet, but uk ribsters on this forum might be interested.

Having used the grey before, we made the mistake of using a paint brush. The paint dried quickly and left brush marks on the surface, which looked amateurish, but on a £500 sib we didn't worry too much. You might want to try an air gun to spray a small patch to start with, or use a pad instead of a brush.

The big problem though is coming to sell it. Painted tubes could hide a multitude of sins, so the selling price would have to reflect this. If the rib is cheap enough go ahead and paint. Makes the boat more presentable and may extend the life of the tubes a few years.

Pete

Paora · 16 October 2002, 21:33

Sounds Great Pete. So would it be very apparent if it was painted? Like would it be so think that it could crack of flake of whatever?

Pete7 · 17 October 2002, 17:16

The paint didn't flake off during the year we had it, however as I say it did look as if it had been painted. I think time given to preparation is they key. Also we painted grey over black and the black showed through in the brush marks. I think spraying a couple of coats is probably the answer.