The smell of paint:
While Maria churns past (thankfully!) we have been enjoying really nice weather. Moderate temps, low (for here) humidity, light winds and the bugs aren't too bad. For the south, that is! Perfect weather to work outside, and that means paint.
I've been working mostly on the hull, a little at a time, to get ready for paint. As each little bit adds up next thing you know a big job seems closer and closer. With the weather cooperating I decided to try to get as far as I can before returning to Japan.
I split the hull prep into 4 main components. 1: finish fairing in the repairs on the port side and fix the small dings and dents caused by Matthew. 2: Remove the old cove stripe and boot stripe. 3: Strip the old paint where it's not good enough to paint over and prep the areas of old paint that are, and 4: Sand and prime, then break out the long board to level the hills and valleys. If I have time and good weather after all that, then paint!
Not much is picture worthy, bodywork is pretty dull and repetitive but I took some pics of the highlights. First up was to remove the old cove stripe. This was vinyl tape, way past its expiration date and in pretty sad shape. I found the best way to remove it was with paint stripper.
In the course of stripping I discovered some interesting things about the various paintjobs the boat has had over its life. First off, it was painted from the factory! I finally realized this when I discovered that Hunter molded the original cove stripe and boot stripe as gelcoat in the mold. But the (factory add-on) sugar scoop did not have this molded in, so the factory painted the boat to blend all this in. No problem, the factory paint was in pretty good shape (on the starboard side, that is!). The port side has seen some damage (as I have alluded to previously) and was repaired by an ape, then repainted by a gorilla!
Most of the port side paint got stripped as well, then I started on the boot stripe. All three of them! Lots of built up paint that took a ton of work to remove. On top of that the repainted boot stripe was grossly uneven port to starboard and had been raised from the factory stripe. I did find a few spots that had been poorly repaired along the waterline:
Not deep, probably a gouge that was fixed but the old filler had cracks in it. This is usually a symptom of overly thick filler application. I ground out the old filler and added a few layers of glass to build things up and re-faired.
Next up was fairing in the scratches on the hull. Most of them were only in the paint so as the paint was stripped and sanded the scratches disappeared. Not all though:
Sometimes you just gotta buoy your spirits and see some real progress, so I split the primer application into three parts: port side front 2/3rds, starboard side front 2/3rds and stern and sugar scoop. So, here's the port side in primer:
Work continues, stay tuned!
Cheers,
Mark
While Maria churns past (thankfully!) we have been enjoying really nice weather. Moderate temps, low (for here) humidity, light winds and the bugs aren't too bad. For the south, that is! Perfect weather to work outside, and that means paint.
I've been working mostly on the hull, a little at a time, to get ready for paint. As each little bit adds up next thing you know a big job seems closer and closer. With the weather cooperating I decided to try to get as far as I can before returning to Japan.
I split the hull prep into 4 main components. 1: finish fairing in the repairs on the port side and fix the small dings and dents caused by Matthew. 2: Remove the old cove stripe and boot stripe. 3: Strip the old paint where it's not good enough to paint over and prep the areas of old paint that are, and 4: Sand and prime, then break out the long board to level the hills and valleys. If I have time and good weather after all that, then paint!
Not much is picture worthy, bodywork is pretty dull and repetitive but I took some pics of the highlights. First up was to remove the old cove stripe. This was vinyl tape, way past its expiration date and in pretty sad shape. I found the best way to remove it was with paint stripper.
In the course of stripping I discovered some interesting things about the various paintjobs the boat has had over its life. First off, it was painted from the factory! I finally realized this when I discovered that Hunter molded the original cove stripe and boot stripe as gelcoat in the mold. But the (factory add-on) sugar scoop did not have this molded in, so the factory painted the boat to blend all this in. No problem, the factory paint was in pretty good shape (on the starboard side, that is!). The port side has seen some damage (as I have alluded to previously) and was repaired by an ape, then repainted by a gorilla!
Most of the port side paint got stripped as well, then I started on the boot stripe. All three of them! Lots of built up paint that took a ton of work to remove. On top of that the repainted boot stripe was grossly uneven port to starboard and had been raised from the factory stripe. I did find a few spots that had been poorly repaired along the waterline:
Not deep, probably a gouge that was fixed but the old filler had cracks in it. This is usually a symptom of overly thick filler application. I ground out the old filler and added a few layers of glass to build things up and re-faired.
Next up was fairing in the scratches on the hull. Most of them were only in the paint so as the paint was stripped and sanded the scratches disappeared. Not all though:
Sometimes you just gotta buoy your spirits and see some real progress, so I split the primer application into three parts: port side front 2/3rds, starboard side front 2/3rds and stern and sugar scoop. So, here's the port side in primer:
Work continues, stay tuned!
Cheers,
Mark
