PAINT JOB

[larglo]

Hi all,

Ma boat has places that look like, either the gel coat has worn off, or someone may have painted it and it is waring off. Either way, I'm thinking about painting parts of the boat that, like the top of the bow and around the stern area, with something like "Interlux Brightside High Gloss Polyurethane Marine Paint"

My first thought was,,,,,how will it look afterwards, as good as the gel coat, will it be smooth and hold the shine of gel coat?

If any of you have painted your boat, I'd sure love to hear from you and get your opinion of, is it worth it or not?

I can't take it out of the water, so most of the painting will be areas, like above the rub rail. Any tips you may have for me would be welcome too.

Thanks ahead of time.

Larry

[larglo]

Hi all,

In order to get more use of our boat this year, I have decided to do a couple of things.
First, I will move to an open slip on the end of the dock in hopes of being able to get the boat docked easier returning from a day on the water, plus, it's cheaper.
Second, I just ordered a rail mount for the danforth anchor I have, so as, to be able to mount the anchor on the stern of the boat. I also ordered new rode and 6' of chain. I'll order 6 more feet of chain next month for a total of 12' of chain.

I want to thank all of you who made suggestions to me in my post concerning these matters and it helped me a great deal in deciding what to do.

Thank you.

Larry

[Paul]

Hi Larry,

I used Brightside to paint the hull of my boat from the rub rail down. I used the roll & tip method to apply it and is turned out very smooth. I also used no primer, just cleaned and scuffed the gelcoat then painted right over it. It's been 9 years now and it still looks great.

If you choose to do the top sides of your boat with this stuff, I would suggest doing only the smooth with it and using an anti skid paint to do the existing anti skid surfaces.

Also as far as maintenance goes, I've chipped this paint a couple of times and was able to repair it fairly easily. Had to feather out the chip with wet paper, touch up the paint then polish it out with 3M Finesse It II and a polishing wheel.

Hope this helps,

[rossjo]

Well worth it!

prep

prep - get as much of the old paint off - down to gel coat

prep

prep - block sand

prep - clean

prep - prime

prep - clean

2-part Urethane (so you don't have to do it all over again in 3-5 years)

cover and wait a week to use

... let the debate begin (again) ...

[Paul]

Did you say prep?

[rbcool]

Sounds kinda Preppy

Ron

[larglo]

Was hoping for a little more response concerning the paint job, but thanks to those who did comment.
Looks like it would be a worth while project for mid summer. Pricing looks to be between $80.00 to $100.00 a gal. So guess I'll put it on my to-do list.

Larry

[captainmaniac]

I have only ever painted to refresh my stripes (black) - never done a 'whole hull' job.

Like the other guys said here, PREP is critical (any dirt or wax under the paint, its coming back off!). Plus with high gloss finish you will see every imperfection in the hull underneath it, so filling / fairing is also important. During application, you don't want any wind, and want to do it in the shade. Doing the right prep and ensuring the right conditions will probably be more difficult than the actual painting job itself.

[summer storm]

Larry,

I had my 32 sprayed and the 26 brushed. When I get home I'll post some pics so you can see the difference.

[gettaway]

larry,

I have the same issue on my F32, if I machine polish the boat it looks shiney and good from a distance, but up close you can see the years in the gel coat. I have decided to just keep it as is and not start the paint and repaint cycle.
on my previous boat (trawler) I painted the house with sterling LP. it was very expensive, the prep work took a couple of weeks, of after work and weekends, prime, fill, build, prime and then the panic paint of roll and tip.
it looked great for about 4 years, then it started to crack and flake. for the cost and work I regreted the amount of time and money for the limited time it lasted.

If I were to do it again, it would be professionally sprayed awlgrip

[Big D]

Gettaway, have you tried wet sanding a small area, then polishing? Sometimes that's all it takes to bring the best shine back. Depends on the condition of the gel but worth a try. Lots of info out there on how to do this process properly.

[gettaway]

Big D

I doubt there is enough gell coat left to be that aggressive, even with 300-400 grit,
on the other hand, when I walk up to the boat in the marina, she looks good, she looks clean, and thank goodness that trojan didn't follow Uniflyte with crappy gelcoat and resin, as there are NO blisters. (there is a 32 Uni thats a few years newer than my F-32 a few boats away that is covered in blisters and looks "old")

so, for the value of the boat, she looks great to me. I wax every few months with a 3M cleaner wax and use my buffer and she looks great to me...thats all that matters right?

with the trawler, it was a continual project, while it was a glass boat,there was considerable bright work and teak decks, so if any part was lacking, the whole boat looked like $#!t, I love the limited bright work on the Trojan F-32, hand rail, panel strips and bridge access.....easy!

[Big D]

I was thinking more 600-800 grit. Sounds like you've gone as far as you can with yours though. I'm with you, painting would be an absolute last resort.

[summer storm]

Larry, the first photo is of the 32 which was sprayed ($$$$$$$) and the second photo is the brush job on the the 26 ($) I can't really tell the difference. Is it worth it, IMHO- YES. There is nothing better than walking down to your boat and having it shine like the sun. After the 32 I said never again but when the wet sanding wasn't working out on the 26 I had a guy "roll and tip" awlgrip. This is what I learned- First, you got to do the window trim. If you don't the new paint will make it look old. as you can see in the photo I just took them out and painted them in a shed. Second, you must make sure the paint matches. I didn't do the hull and you can't tell the color difference, before picking out the paint get some color charts and see which color is close. Third, Awlgrip is a pain in the a$$ to work with but it is hard a nails when it dries. Fourth, you can't paint the non skid, the surface is to bumpy to get a good sanding for the paint to stick. It may hold for a while but over time you will see the paint on the top of the "bumps' coming off. I ground down all the non skid on the 32 and they applied nonskid paint to the decks, it looks fresh and new but again on the 26 I didn't want the cost so they just painted the smooth parts of the boat and with the color matching you can't really tell that the non skid is not painted. With all the prep work done the painter charged me $600 for painting the top and he wanted 1,000 (with sanding) for the hull, which I skipped. I paid $350 for all the paint and primer and he put 3 coats on. I hope that helps

[9rock]

If you can get all the old paint off and u still have gel coat that u cant see the base coat , I would sand it as I did mine,

If not brightside is ok but perfection is better high gloss is to much gloss u should flaten it out, , roll and tip or spray either way is good, brush ease or spray thinner will be nessasary , i would find a simaler surface to test on before jumping straight on the hull , start with a little thinner till u get it like u want,

make sure u read and follow directions , temp and sunlight changes things quick


If u power sand ,, hook n loop is best

I just saw the post on awlgrip. it is the best stuff but its by far the hardest to work with and u need perfect conditions or a garage

mine sanded out pretty good

9