Junky rubber...

[Uncle Duke]

G'day, folks. I went sailing this weekend with a friend in Connecticut. F'glass boat, but a nice day regardless.
Well, nice except that his portlights are surrounded with really old rubber which leaves really nice black marks on your skin if you are careless enough to brush against it. My friend had no problems, since he has learned over many years not to touch it. Me? I assure you that the black marks are actually hard to wash off.
Now, the obvious fix for the problem is to replace the rubber but this is a "cheap to the bone" guy, so that is not going to happen. Besides, *he* doesn't get marked up, so it is a very small problem in his mind. So, given that he is not going to replace the rubber, is there some goop or solution or magic elixer which can get painted on and which hardens up the surface? He's tried ArmourAll with no success....

[Todd Bradshaw]

West Marine sells some vinyl paint for stenciling registration numbers directly on inflatable dinghies that would probably work as a top-coat/sealer. I don't know how much residual surface contamination the Armorall will leave, but when patching neoprene or hypalon rubber inflatables if you wipe the spot down first with toluene it will clean the surface well enough for glue to bond. In this case, it would probably also take off a fair amount of UV deteriorated surface rubber and hopefully get you down to something solid to work with. The catalog number for the black paint at West is 7775331 ($16).

[Concordia...41]

We had the exact same problem on the Watkins and the Portager. I wouldn't buy the kit ($60+ shipping) just for hatches, but we had it on hand from another project.

I also used it on the little yellow boat.

http://www.poliglowproducts.com/

Poli Glow will work on the following...
RV's, Boats, Canoes, Fiberglass Jacuzzi's, Fiberglass Showers, Motorhomes,
Painted Fiberglass, Painted Metals, Rubber, Vinyl Lettering

It's on the black hatch in this picture - said hatch being about 10 years old (and looks new)

[Uncle Duke]

Thanks, all!
Todd - that stuff from West looks like the best bet for rubber. I'll pass the info along. Maybe if I volunteer to help him I can get in another nice weekend of sailing
The PoliGlow looks pretty neat, actually, for hard surfaces. And Lord knows that his boat has lots of hard surfaces which could use a little shining.....
Gracias

[Buddy Sharpton]

The black rubber strip on the bottom of my 1978 7.5 Honda outboard does/did the same thing. About six years ago I got fed up, reached into the boat bin and pulled out a tube of good old clear silicone caulk. Masked the area fingerpainted this on like I was putting waterproofing on leather boots. That same application is STILL working. Amazing.