Refinish old Goiot hatches and toerails

[kawaboy]

Gday all

Finally bit the bullet and am about 80% on removing deck hardware in readiness for some recore and repaint.

Questions:

1. Any suggestions in how to refinish the toe rails and hatch frames. They could do with a bit of tlc. Theyre oxidised from old age...kinda like me. He he he😊

2. Grind off the existing gelcoat antiskid and use awlgrip or similar? Or just scrub it down and repaint?

Any other thoughts / ideas would be great.

Thanks

Joe

[JPA Cate]

kawaboy,

You'd have to check what is available locally, but aluminum frames and toerails can be re-anodized. You'd want to smooth them as much as possible, first. And, of course, be very careful removing the acrylic from the frame, or you'll be buying new.

After you've done the core repairs, you'll be better placed to see what to do about the gelcoat non-skid. CFer <minaret>, iirc, posted about a way to renew gelcoat nonskid, somewhere in the archives. Try a CF Google Custom search with minaret + renew gelcoat non-skid, and see what comes up.

Good luck with your project.

[Suijin]

Toe rails and hatch frames...it's basically have them reanodized, or just clean up the corrosion and let them be. If you try and put paint on them it will never stick, unless essentially sandblast and then prime and coat before the aluminum starts to oxidize.

I just finished grinding the nonskid off my deck. Talk about huge volumes of dust, lol. You can paint over molded in nonskid but you're going to get a very unpredictable result, and it will be an excellent dirt magnet. It will be much easier to maintain going forward (including renewing the paint in future), if you get rid of the molded in now, while you've got everything off and are recoring. It's a pretty simple job if you've got a good touch with a grinder.

[robert sailor]

The good news is that your original hatches were Goiot which were an excellent cast aluminum hatch that will last the life of your boat, in a completely different league than the light weight extruded aluminum hatches you see on current high production boats these days. Yes you can have them re anodized and with new seals they would be as good as new.

[kawaboy]

Thanks for ur replies.

I tend to go with the sanding and volumes of dust. I was thinking about sanding to just get rid of the bumps and hopefully leave a bit of the original outline for appearnce and ease of masking.

Awlgrip and kiwigrip are hideously expensive here so i was thinking of using salt or sugar sprinkled on very wet paint. Wash off when paint is dry and bobs your uncle😊

Ill hunt around for an anodiser shop and see what they have on offer. Robert is right about the hatches. Theyre so heavy you want to keep your fingers out of the way when the knobs let go. Dont ask me how i know...

Cheers

Joe

[Suijin]

A few tips for grinding off the nonskid.

Use guide coat. It makes it easy to see when the texture is gone and when to stop. Use a grinder/polisher with an 8" soft pad and 36 grit. Hold it flat as you can, tilted up at most 1 degree. It's going to run away from high spots so you have to pay close attention to the feel of it and what the grinder is telling you. Be careful about chasing low spots (your deck is not perfectly faired, despite how it may look) to get out all the texture. You can always hit those spots with filler to level them out. Do the edges of the nonskid area with a smaller orbital with 80 grit if you want to keep them straight and neat. The grinder/polisher will be too aggressive to do it well.

You can do the whole thing with an orbital but it will take significantly longer.

[kawaboy]

Great tip about the guide coat.

I was thinking belt sander with 80g belt cuz thats what i have on hand. Besides... fibreglass is pretty forgiving. 😊

Gently does it huh?

Joe

[Mikado]

Originally Posted by kawaboy

Gday all

Finally bit the bullet and am about 80% on removing deck hardware in readiness for some recore and repaint.

Questions:

1. Any suggestions in how to refinish the toe rails and hatch frames. They could do with a bit of tlc. Theyre oxidised from old age...kinda like me. He he he😊

2. Grind off the existing gelcoat antiskid and use awlgrip or similar? Or just scrub it down and repaint?

Any other thoughts / ideas would be great.

Thanks

Joe

Hey Joe,

I recently did both.

I have (5) 24" X 24" Goiot hatches and as part of my refit I rebuilt all of them. I searched the internet for the rubber seal with the correct profile and replaced the hinge hardware with plastic bolts. I removed the old plexiglass and replaced with Makrolon (sp) which is a high quality acrylic with both sides treated with UV and scratch resistant. I had a local machine shop program the size and screw hole locations and then cut, drill and countersink on a CNC mill. The first step however was how to restore the frame. I thought about anodizing but went with bronze colored powdercoating. The shop bead blasted the frames to prep them and the color looks fantastic, even after 6 years. For 5 hatches rebuilt as good as new I spent about $700 total.

For the non-skid I went with Kiwi-Grip right over my old non-skid. I bought the white and had the local paint store tint it to match the Awl Grip Desert Sand color that I picked. It's only been on for about a year but so far I'm really happy with my decision.

Good luck,
Jeff

[thruska]

OP, youmentined a belt sander. If you have the room to get control of the 'swing and flow' of it , you can make short order of the sanding. With hardware and coaming in the way you may create more work for yourself with gouges and streaks. I have used a 4" belt sander on a large unemcunbered deck with great success. Less successful onaft deck sith less room and obstacles. The suggested use of a grinder is prudent. I use a variable dewalt with 7" soft pad and 36grt self adhesive. Burned up three grinders but dewalt keeps replacing them.( Same with 4" grinders) but you still are likely to use the orbital in close corners.
Good luck with your task.

[Alita49DS]

I have no love whatsoever for Goiot as a company. I had to replace a small hatch. The firm refused to give me, as a mere consumer, any help at all. Told me I had to go to a dealer. Who had similar problems with them. After months I eventually managed to get a replacement small hatch. It cost some £800 delivered and net of any tax. Sick joke. When installed the skirt depth was shorter even though it was represented to be a direct replacement to that fitted by Jeanneau. More cost.

The replacement glass for the other hatches I still await. At least there are instructions on the Goiot web site as to how to fit them. Sealant more money. I plan to get an auto glazier to do the job.

If I had an old boat with Goiot hatches on which the aluminium had gone I know what I would do - replace them with something better from a firm that cared about me.