Choosing White topside Paint for an '83 Hunter 34 - Interlux Brightside is much too white

[SabreToothedEngineer]

I need to paint some sections of the deck and cockpit of my '83 Hunter 34. I did one small section with Interlux Brightside, and it's much too white and glossy. It really stands out. Is there another paint that would match better, or if I used the Interlux Flattening Agent, would that dull it down enough that it's not so obvious? I'm not sure if just killing the gloss would be enough. I have no desire to paint the entire deck and cockpit in order to make it uniform.

Any help or hints would be really appreciated.

 

[jssailem]

A boat is a series of compromises. If you want similar visual look, then you need similar products. This means higher costs.

Your deck is gelcoat. Gelcoat and paint are two totally different products. You can scientifically get a similar color of gel coat to look somewhat the same. If you want a kindred twin match you need an artist to apply gelcoat to make the match.

Paint will never look the same, nor last the same as gelcoat. Once you go to paint you are pretty much committed to paint all of the boat to get a close match.

Watch the work of Andy on BoatworksToday.com He has great material about gelcoat and paint on fiberglass boats.

 

[FastOlson]

Any 1983 boat is overdue for a deck re-bed of all hardware. All.
And when all the pieces are off (in marked plastic bags with lots of notes attached to each), you can grind it all flat. Then lay out new non skid , and paint it with LPU.
We did that to our boat in 2021. We also over drilled/epoxied/redrilled all the fastener holes. All.... of them.
It's a bit of work, but the result is a new boat. A lot of deck gear was replaced, too.
If you love your boat now, you will love it a lot more when it's 'new' again...!

 

[ShawnL]

If you've decided to paint (I had to, PO painted some areas, didn't paint others), I'd suggest Jamestown Distributors. They send me some color cards for the paints they carry and I was able to get a decent match with a stock paint color to the color my remaining gel coat is now. It's not perfect -- paint to gel coat won't be, but it's pretty darn close. There's a lot of different options for "white".

 

[SabreToothedEngineer]

If you've decided to paint (I had to, PO painted some areas, didn't paint others), I'd suggest Jamestown Distributors. They send me some color cards for the paints they carry and I was able to get a decent match with a stock paint color to the color my remaining gel coat is now. It's not perfect -- paint to gel coat won't be, but it's pretty darn close. There's a lot of different options for "white".

I have the same problem. Quite a bit of the deck has been painted already. Today I took a hatch with the original gelcoat on it into a chandler, and it looks like there is a decent match with one of the Interlux Brightside off-whites. I'll give that a try and see how it goes. If that's still too far off, I'll take it somewhere to try to mix a scanned match.

 

[MitchM]

If you've decided to paint (I had to, PO painted some areas, didn't paint others), I'd suggest Jamestown Distributors. They send me some color cards for the paints they carry and I was able to get a decent match with a stock paint color to the color my remaining gel coat is now. It's not perfect -- paint to gel coat won't be, but it's pretty darn close. There's a lot of different options for "white".

Thanks for the tip about the JAMESTOWN COLOR CARDS.

 

[Project_Mayhem]

To quote myself...

I bought a boat that was painted from top to bottom with Brightside. The paint was solid on the deck, cabin top, etc. It was coming off pretty badly on the bottom, keel and cockpit sole. I'm not sure how much or how well the boat was prepped before hand. Most of the deck and boat had the Interlux branded grip additive. It was a bit abrasive. I think once or twice in three years I got an abrasion mark on my skin but otherwise it was fine. I will add that my boat got dirtier faster and went through more cleaning sponges than boats with gelcoat.

When it comes time to paint my current boat, I will be doing some research on two part paints. Practical Sailor should have some good test data

 

[dlochner]

Consider using a 2 part paint. As a general rule 2-part paints have better shine and are more durable than 1 part paints. They are a little tricky to apply and they do cost more.

Alexseal is a 2 part paint that is designed to rolled and tipped, not sprayed. Andy Miller on the BoatWorksToday channel has several videos on Alexseal.

Home - Miller Boatworks Ltd

A Few DIY Projects Completed By The Folks Over On Patreon Using Alexseal Coatings! (All Roll Application, NO Tipping or Spraying) Shipping Within The Continental US Only At This Time ARTICLES

millerboatworks.com

Boatworks Today | Boating Help For The DIY

Boating Help For The DIY on Boatworks Today…

www.boatworkstoday.com

 

[JBP-PA]

Interlux has 3 different shades of "off white".

Product Details | Products | Interlux

Product Details | Products | Interlux

www.interlux.com

Definitely get a fresh color card. Don't use an old one because they do fade which I discovered much to my dismay once.