Rolling & Tipping

[Bob J.]

I'm getting frustrated with my paint project. The deck area looks great but the hull.. The paint isn't leveling out properly. I've added the recommend portion of thinner to the paint. I'm rolling vertically, tipping horizontally. Weather wise, it's in the mid 70's today.

For a hull should you roll horizontally & tip vertically so gravity does it's thing. Also any thoughts on keeping the brush in thinner instead of paint to help the process along. I'm using Pettit Ezpoxy 2. The stuff so easy even an idiot can paint a boat

Bob

 

[celticwinds]

I rolled and tipped before and had good success. My wife rolled horizontally with a four inch foam roller and I tipped vertically. I taped everything off first. For brushes I went to the Dollar store and bought soft bristle brushes and threw them away after each use. I washed the surface first with a tsp solution and then wiped it down with acetone, sanded , primed and then applied the paint. Don`t roll too much on ahead of the person tipping the paint.

 

[RIVERCRUISER]

http://www.offcenterharbor.com/videos/spring-painting-beauty-reward-prepping-painting-topsides/

 

[Joe]

You're putting the brush you tip with in paint? I'm a little confused. You should be rolling on the paint with a hi density foam roller... and immediately tipping with a dry brush. I recommend you use disposable foam brushes for the tipping process, and throw them away when there's paint build up.. If you roll vertically moving in sections from right to left... you should always keep a wet edge .. then tip from left to right blending the new section in with the previous... knocking down the inevitable seam and smoothing out the bubbles.

 

[Bob J.]

I watched a bunch of videos on the subject last evening. Some say tip with a dry brush, some say wet with paint, some say thinner.... The one thing I did notice, most are using a 4" roller, covering a small area before tipping, then moving on.

I'm doing this solo & I've come to the conclusion I'm laying down too large an area. I'm using a 9" roller on a stick so I'm only climbing a ladder to "tip". When the roller get's loaded with paint, I'm covering too large an area. With the stick I'm not painting within an "arms" length.

I'll bag the stick, switch over to a 4" roller & see what happens next weekend.

 

[kito]

Never heard of tipping with paint on the brush. Your trying to even out the rolled on paint.....not add brush marks.

 

[rgranger]

Never heard of tipping with paint on the brush. Your trying to even out the rolled on paint.....not add brush marks.

Ditto...

and I did not thin the paint. Maybe it is your paint?

This is a roll and tip job that I did .... I used a 2" dry cut brush following a high density foam roller.
You can still see the masking tape. This is right after I painted the hulll .... You can see the reflection of the trailer in the the new paint job. The paint I used was by these guys.... "supermarine"

... and here is a pic of the finished job two years later. You can still see the water reflecting off the side. The supermarine paint takes about three days to harden up and a week to fully cure. So you can't walk around on the deck for three days (made that mistake) after you paint it.. But the paint continues to level that entire time.... so the finish is FANTASTIC.

 

[tommays]

Priming is the biggest Grey area and in my case i used a Accuspray System HVLP Primer Gun as Alwgrip 545 primer is dangerous but manageable and to get a good result you need a good base



The Alwgrip manual recommends several brands of rollers like redtree that are easy to find and i used a metal tray bolted to my ladder in a FAILSAFE manner and a full width roller and a so so quality brush



Weather is KING and at least here right now thee has been to much humidity for a good result as it affects the final gloss tremendously

When i was done with the primer in the fall hurricane earl had other ideas about my completion date i did not get a good window until the spring which was no big deal a i had many other jobs on the refit



I did the job SOLO and its roll & tip just like it says the roll is just to put on and even film of paint the tip is ONLY to POP air bubbles and you MUST only TIP ONCE and wait for the miracle of modern paint to work



I rolled my way around the boat CC starting at the stern as allows to you a place finish on the starboard side without having to blend in a section of paint which will not work

A big one is the first coat of paint goes on completely different over the primer than the second cost of paint over itself and it is MUCH MORE RUN PRONE

I dont feel there is much magic in the rolling other than perhaps 24" something sections and then tipping DOWN

I say 24" because you cant reload the roller without tipping as each section MUST happen fast and you gotta move it took less then one hour per coat all the way around a 29' hull Or about 66'

 

[rgranger]

Beautiful job tommays...

... she is gorgeous.

You touched on another key point... and that is the preparation work. You obviously sanded your hull down quite a bit and the primer is a nice way of starting with a smooth surface.

To the OP. Something else that might be causing you problems... Did you strip ALL of the wax off of your hull and at the very least do a light sanding before you tried to paint it?

I did not sand my hull as aggressively as did tommays but ... I did start with a 60 grit and touched the entire hull ... then followed with a 180 grit. But BEFORE I did that, I wiped the hull down with acetone on rags. I've read that if you sand before you strip the wax, you can actually imbed the wax into the microscopic groves of the sand job.... and never really get it all off. I took off my motor mount after sanding and when I painted in those areas... the wax that was on the hull in those areas caused the paint to "orange peel". If that is what your paint is doing, you may need to dewax and sand smooth before you try again.

 

[Bob J.]

Never heard of tipping with paint on the brush. Your trying to even out the rolled on paint.....not add brush marks.

It's actually in the Pettit roll & tip instructions & I've seen it on several videos. I guess keeping the brush "wet" stops it from dragging.

The boat was dewaxed & has three coats of primer on it. Sanding, I feel like Ralph from the karate kid, wax on, wax off.

So today I put the second coat on the deck/cabin sides. I kept the tipping brush in thinner & shook it out before tipping. What an incredible difference in the finish. I put the first coat on the cockpit/anchor locker covers & a couple of hatches. They look so good I don't want to top coat them.

After reflection, I was rolling out to large an area before tipping the hull. I'll tighten that up quite a bit.

Tommays, thanks for the advice on tipping down instead of horizontal on the hull. I read that last evening & your paint job has confirmed that

Thanks everyone!
Bob

 

[Joe]

I watched a bunch of videos on the subject last evening. Some say tip with a dry brush, some say wet with paint, some say thinner.... The one thing I did notice, most are using a 4" roller, covering a small area before tipping, then moving on.

I'm doing this solo & I've come to the conclusion I'm laying down too large an area. I'm using a 9" roller on a stick so I'm only climbing a ladder to "tip". When the roller get's loaded with paint, I'm covering too large an area. With the stick I'm not painting within an "arms" length.

I'll bag the stick, switch over to a 4" roller & see what happens next weekend.

It is definitely your method. Use a foam roller... you must not let paint set up... and it will set up fast... before you tip with a DRY foam brush.... 2x2 or 1x4 sections at first... It should take less than 30 seconds to roll each section. You can roll in various directions. The idea is to get it even. Another 30 seconds or so to tip lightly with the foam brush, blending the new section into the previous. You will develop a rhythm and feel for it ... you'll know if you need to slow down dry time with thinner, if you can't finish tipping before the section starts setting.

Hold the tip brush and the paint tray in one hand, the roller in the other. Roll the section on, put the roller in the tray, grab the tip brush and smooth it out horizontally... Again... it's really important to keep the edge wet...so keep plugging away. Lots of thin coats work better than one or two thick ones. Scuff with 320 between coats... DO NOT SAND/SCUFF after final coat.

Since you're working a long hull section... I would be inclined to start with a 1 ft wide section from waterline to deck..... that leaves you with only one edge to blend. If you get faster and can slow down the dry time appropriately, you can try larger sections. Having a helper can change the dynamic of this significantly. Good Luck.

 

[Tim R.]

Rolling and tipping can be very easy to get right if you follow a few basics rules. First, the need to thin your product is based on weather and humidity. You may have to thin one day but not the next. Test the viscosity on a pane of glass. Check out my article on repainting our mast and boom for more details.

http://tkronaboat.com/mast-refinish.html

 

[Bob J.]

Check out my article on repainting our mast and boom for more details.

I read your article a couple of years ago. Hope you & your wife are doing well!

Pettit responded to an email I sent out over the weekend & said I should up the thinner rate to 15%. It bubbles when I roll it on so I know the consistency is correct. I suspect I'm covering to large an area on the hull & leaning on the brush too hard... We'll see what the weather looks like come weeks end & go from there. The boats in the driveway so if it doesn't happen in the next couple of weeks, it'll still be here come spring.

Bob