Painting Catalina fiberglass interior

[radioguy]

Hey guys!

I'm in the process of painting my entire boat inside and out. I've spent the last few days sanding the outside of the boat and applied the first coat of primer yesterday. Today, the second primer coat goes on, and then Wednesday we will apply Interlux Brightside paint (Medium Blue, with a white boot stripe and black anti-fouling, BEAUTIFUL!)

We also want to do the interior. It's currently a beige color and is pretty beat up. I've read in other places that you can prime it and paint it with a nice mildew-resistant interior paint from a home improvement store, instead of using the high dollar marine paint. Either way, I'm curious to read anyone elses experience in painting the interior.

Same procedure, sand, prime, sand, prime, sand, top coat, sand, top coat? Does it come out well?

Thank you
RG

 

[Old Skool Neil]

My experience, before and after. The paint used was Rustoleum gloss white. Going on 5 years now and still in good condition.

 

[adirondackbob]

Neil, nice job. Just wondering what you use on your interior wood.

Bob

 

[Old Skool Neil]

Neil, nice job. Just wondering what you use on your interior wood.

Bob

Thanks Bob.

In the original pic of the hanging locker area you might be able to see a darker, muddy color to the drawer fronts. I think the P.O. stained them. After thoroughly sanding all the teak I applied Minwax Red Mahogany #225 oil based stain (trying to get the color more uniform throughout the boat and the red tint was to give it a little pizazz). Following the stain I sprayed 2 coats of high gloss polyurethane.

I refinished the teak first with no masking. Then I masked the teak and went to work on the fiberglass. The strategy was to mask only once. Here are a few pics of the interior mid-project with the masking in place.

 

[Stu Jackson]

The Pardey's recommended adding a little blue to the white for interior painting.

Beautiful job, Neil.

 

[Team118]

I never really thought about painting the interior until I saw Neil2099's pics.

Are you saying that you just sanded the interior floors and bulkhead/walls and then painted with a simple Home Depot Rustoleum paint?

I've scrubbed and power washed the interior, but I assumed it was almost a 'rubber' like material that wouldn't sand well (at least the floor). Am I wrong?

Did you just paint using a roller or brush, do you use the tip method?

Why add the blue? Wouldn't an eggshell or beige or maybe even a light gray work?

After it has dried, wouldn't walking on it scrap it up? It seems to me that paint on a floor that has alot of flex to it would peel after time....

Sounds like a great project, just never thought about it!

 

[Old Skool Neil]

Fiberglass sands easily and accepts paint well. I applied it by spraying with an HVLP gravity feed gun. There's a strategy to it, one cabin at a time spraying top to bottom. Yup, that meant laying on my back spraying the V berth overhead, quarter berth too.

My interior had a veined texture to the fiberglass so in reality spraying was the only option. I can't imagine how a rolled or brushed finish would look, likely run city.

I didn't paint the sole. True, it got some paint but only overspray from everything else. I've carpeted it but I really want to do a real teak and holly sole, not that plywood stuff but real 8/4 teak sawn so the edge grain becomes the face, but I digress .. you can see the dark blue carpet in the hanging locker and main salon pictures.

The reason the Pardey's suggest adding a teaspoon of royal blue to a quart of white paint is to give it a whiter than white look, really make it pop. As I recall, their recommendation applies to exterior work as well. Note that I didn't do that, it was Stu's post that mentioned it.

And yeah Team, that's plain old Rustoleum. In my opinion it's one of the last decent quality high solids oil based paints available to the average schmo. I added a capful of japan dryer (aka cobalt dryer) per quart of thinned paint. This cuts the drying time of oil based paints at least in half. Works great with varnish too.