Its time to paint the hull, the old paint was green now has since faded to light blue/white. I have never painted a saillboat hull before, so i have no idea as to what type of paint, how much i need, and prep work involved. It is a 22 foot hunter. The boat is pretty much going to be used on the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound. Right now, its sitting on the trailer here in Florida till i move up in mid April and i wanted to get it done before i move. Any suggestions would be greatly appriceated.
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You must be sure that all wax is gone.
Sand any place that looks a little rough. Look at your budget and decide if you are a yachtsman or a boat owner. If you are a boat owner then go to shirwin-williams paint store and tell them that you need a paint for fiberglass that will be exposed to saltwater. If you are a yachtsman then buy some urethane boat paint. Either way you will get good paint you will just pay more if you decide that you are a yachtsman.
Sand any place that looks a little rough. Look at your budget and decide if you are a yachtsman or a boat owner. If you are a boat owner then go to shirwin-williams paint store and tell them that you need a paint for fiberglass that will be exposed to saltwater. If you are a yachtsman then buy some urethane boat paint. Either way you will get good paint you will just pay more if you decide that you are a yachtsman.
A quick summary
A professional spray job is expensive and would probably involve paints like Awlgrip or two-part polyurethanes. Two-part paints require thinning to the correct degree while one-part paints are used as is. Most home jobs use the single-part polyurethanes like Interlux Brightside, Pettit Easypoxy or West Marine's Sea Gloss, all of which are fairly similar in application and results. Interlux has a newer version called Perfection which is rumored to be a bit more difficult in working. The method of application is called 'roll and tip', meaning the paint is rolled on and smoothed with a bristle or foam brush immediately. A video of the technique can be obtained from WM and elsewhere that will be helpful; the paint likes certain conditions for best results. Caution: when used as a spray, all these paints are very dangerous and require professional gear; conventional painting methods are recommended otherwise. While not perfect, the hull will look professional from 10 or 20 feet, depending on the skill acquired. Preparation is accurately said to account for 90% of the result; the paint does not hide surface imperfections but emphasizes them instead. Sanding, fairing and an optional primer coat can take weeks, while the actual painting takes a couple of hours of a non-stop no-retouch two-person marathon. Clean and dewax the surface with a de-waxer before any painting. Two coats are usually required since the no-touchup aspect means a) the first coat will be imperfect, b) the technique not quite mastered, c) the depth of shine not deep enough, and d) two thin coats are required to prevent sags in one thick coat. Hope this gives you a starting point in your research.
A professional spray job is expensive and would probably involve paints like Awlgrip or two-part polyurethanes. Two-part paints require thinning to the correct degree while one-part paints are used as is. Most home jobs use the single-part polyurethanes like Interlux Brightside, Pettit Easypoxy or West Marine's Sea Gloss, all of which are fairly similar in application and results. Interlux has a newer version called Perfection which is rumored to be a bit more difficult in working. The method of application is called 'roll and tip', meaning the paint is rolled on and smoothed with a bristle or foam brush immediately. A video of the technique can be obtained from WM and elsewhere that will be helpful; the paint likes certain conditions for best results. Caution: when used as a spray, all these paints are very dangerous and require professional gear; conventional painting methods are recommended otherwise. While not perfect, the hull will look professional from 10 or 20 feet, depending on the skill acquired. Preparation is accurately said to account for 90% of the result; the paint does not hide surface imperfections but emphasizes them instead. Sanding, fairing and an optional primer coat can take weeks, while the actual painting takes a couple of hours of a non-stop no-retouch two-person marathon. Clean and dewax the surface with a de-waxer before any painting. Two coats are usually required since the no-touchup aspect means a) the first coat will be imperfect, b) the technique not quite mastered, c) the depth of shine not deep enough, and d) two thin coats are required to prevent sags in one thick coat. Hope this gives you a starting point in your research.
Sand it and powerbuff it.......
Paint is nice but is only a 'temporary' coating. Why not flat sand the oxidation off with 1000-2000-3000 grit wet and dry paper and then 'power buff' - the same process used when pulling a new boat from a mold. Gelcoat is usually quite thick and all you need to do is remove less than a 'thousandth' of an inch to get into 'good' gelcoat. Here's a method I posted in the past few days on another bulletin board: Take a pocket microscope and view the surface for 'alligatoring' ... microcracks that look like the back of an alligator. If alligatored then the only course is to re-gelcoat or paint. Boats with thick gelcoat tend to 'alligator' if left unmaintained/unwaxed in the strong sun. If not alligatored, wet sand the surface with 1000, then 2000, then 3000 grit wet and dry sandpaper and a sanding block using a few drops of diswashing detergent in a few gallons of water as a 'lubricant' and to prevent fouling the sandpaper. The goal is to get down through the oxidation and create a FLAT surface. Once you have the gelcoat flat and the bulk of the oxidation removed ...... Use a high speed (variable speed) auto body shop polisher (not a cheapo 'orbital' buffer). Buy several real LAMBSWOOL bonnets - never mix grits with the bonnets OR use 3M perfect-it foam pads. Working in 2ft. by 2ft. 'squares' use 3m super duty rubbing compound #05954. Buff it off with the polisher using a 3m perfect-it foam pad #05723. Keep the polisher 'moving' so that you dont 'burn through' the gel, avoid corners and sharp edges. Do the whole boat. Then (2ft. squares) apply 3m finesse-it II #05928. do whole boat. Then polish it off using 3m perfect-it #05725 Then wax with Collinite's #845 insulator wax or Collenite fleet wax. The last step is THE most important as it will 'seal' the porosity of the gelcoat from further oxidation. If you cant find the 3M products then use 1000 grit, 1500 grit, then 2000/3000 grit auto body compound .... you dont need much, so dont make the bonnet 'soggy' with compound. Every two years, use an amonia based (strong) detergent or TSP to strip out the old dead wax (old dead wax promotes oxidation) and reseal/buff. Re-wax evey year (or when the water no longer forms 'tight drops' of water) with a powerbuffer .... take the wax in your very clean BARE hand, add a few drops of water and rub the wax INTO the gelcoat until it begins to shine, then powerbuff. It makes NO sense to apply wax then smear it off with a buffer, the wax has to be pushed INTO the porous gelcoat. This is the method used when a NEW boat is pulled from its mold. If done right with diligence you will restore the hull to better than NEW appearance. Its a LOT of work but will result in 'brilliant' surfaces. You might want to arrange a 'counterbalance' system so that the weight of the powerbuffer is 'hung' ... and your shoulders wont be so sore when you are done. OR hire a 'detailing' crew, give them the above directions to follow .... and avoid shoulder 'bursitis'. Forget the 'orbiting' type of buffer/polisher .... they are totally worthless, get an honest to goodness variable high speed auto body shop buffer (a good one will coat $150-300) and LAMBSWOOL bonnets. hope this helps.
Paint is nice but is only a 'temporary' coating. Why not flat sand the oxidation off with 1000-2000-3000 grit wet and dry paper and then 'power buff' - the same process used when pulling a new boat from a mold. Gelcoat is usually quite thick and all you need to do is remove less than a 'thousandth' of an inch to get into 'good' gelcoat. Here's a method I posted in the past few days on another bulletin board: Take a pocket microscope and view the surface for 'alligatoring' ... microcracks that look like the back of an alligator. If alligatored then the only course is to re-gelcoat or paint. Boats with thick gelcoat tend to 'alligator' if left unmaintained/unwaxed in the strong sun. If not alligatored, wet sand the surface with 1000, then 2000, then 3000 grit wet and dry sandpaper and a sanding block using a few drops of diswashing detergent in a few gallons of water as a 'lubricant' and to prevent fouling the sandpaper. The goal is to get down through the oxidation and create a FLAT surface. Once you have the gelcoat flat and the bulk of the oxidation removed ...... Use a high speed (variable speed) auto body shop polisher (not a cheapo 'orbital' buffer). Buy several real LAMBSWOOL bonnets - never mix grits with the bonnets OR use 3M perfect-it foam pads. Working in 2ft. by 2ft. 'squares' use 3m super duty rubbing compound #05954. Buff it off with the polisher using a 3m perfect-it foam pad #05723. Keep the polisher 'moving' so that you dont 'burn through' the gel, avoid corners and sharp edges. Do the whole boat. Then (2ft. squares) apply 3m finesse-it II #05928. do whole boat. Then polish it off using 3m perfect-it #05725 Then wax with Collinite's #845 insulator wax or Collenite fleet wax. The last step is THE most important as it will 'seal' the porosity of the gelcoat from further oxidation. If you cant find the 3M products then use 1000 grit, 1500 grit, then 2000/3000 grit auto body compound .... you dont need much, so dont make the bonnet 'soggy' with compound. Every two years, use an amonia based (strong) detergent or TSP to strip out the old dead wax (old dead wax promotes oxidation) and reseal/buff. Re-wax evey year (or when the water no longer forms 'tight drops' of water) with a powerbuffer .... take the wax in your very clean BARE hand, add a few drops of water and rub the wax INTO the gelcoat until it begins to shine, then powerbuff. It makes NO sense to apply wax then smear it off with a buffer, the wax has to be pushed INTO the porous gelcoat. This is the method used when a NEW boat is pulled from its mold. If done right with diligence you will restore the hull to better than NEW appearance. Its a LOT of work but will result in 'brilliant' surfaces. You might want to arrange a 'counterbalance' system so that the weight of the powerbuffer is 'hung' ... and your shoulders wont be so sore when you are done. OR hire a 'detailing' crew, give them the above directions to follow .... and avoid shoulder 'bursitis'. Forget the 'orbiting' type of buffer/polisher .... they are totally worthless, get an honest to goodness variable high speed auto body shop buffer (a good one will coat $150-300) and LAMBSWOOL bonnets. hope this helps.
Don Casey....
... has written a number of excellent articles on how to do this, and what paint to use. His flyers are available at West Marine/Boat US, online, and in his books. I've had good results following his advice on this subject. As with most painting tasks, the key is in the prep.
... has written a number of excellent articles on how to do this, and what paint to use. His flyers are available at West Marine/Boat US, online, and in his books. I've had good results following his advice on this subject. As with most painting tasks, the key is in the prep.
Hull painting
Mike, the formula is the length of the boat times the height of freeboard (from the top of the bottom paint to the toe rail) times two. Include half the transom width in the length measurement. So for a 22' boat with a 5' wide transom and 4' of freeboard the length measurement would be 24 1/2'. Thus, the formula would be: 24.5x4x2=196 sq. ft. Once you've determined which paint you'll use check the can for the theoretical coverage. From this you can determine how many gallons you need. Wash the hull with soap and water, dry then use a de-waxing solvent on the entire hull twice. That's the first step of the prep which as John told you is most of the job. Next, fill dings and scratches, make any repairs and sand the hull thoroughly with 220 - 320 grit sand paper. If your going to use a primer(recommended) then sand with 100 grit. This gives a good tooth or surface profile for the primer to adhere to. Then sand the primer with 220-320for a good finish. Primer helps seal and cover any repairs and helps to assure that your new topcoat doesn't re-act with the old topcoat. To ease your apprehension about doing the painting I suggest practicing to build some skill level before you lay a hand to your boat. Buy a cheap 4'x8' sheet of plywood paneling sand the backside with 220, clean and coat with 3-4 coats of resin. Once the resin is cured sand the surface with 220-320 thoroughly. You're not trying to remove the resin only smoothing it out for a good paint finish. Now stand the panel up with the 4' vertical and the 8' from side to side. Clean and tack rag the surface and mask out a 2' wide section from one end. This will give four 8 sq.ft practice boxes. Roll and tip the first box to completion. Once dry you can determine two things;(1) whether you sanded adequately, (2) how your paint technique was. If you got lucky and were happy with the results on your first try then great. If not move on to box two make necessary adjustments in sanding or technique and try again and so on. Remember to clean and tack rag each box just before painting. Good luck and let us know how it turns out. Gerry
Mike, the formula is the length of the boat times the height of freeboard (from the top of the bottom paint to the toe rail) times two. Include half the transom width in the length measurement. So for a 22' boat with a 5' wide transom and 4' of freeboard the length measurement would be 24 1/2'. Thus, the formula would be: 24.5x4x2=196 sq. ft. Once you've determined which paint you'll use check the can for the theoretical coverage. From this you can determine how many gallons you need. Wash the hull with soap and water, dry then use a de-waxing solvent on the entire hull twice. That's the first step of the prep which as John told you is most of the job. Next, fill dings and scratches, make any repairs and sand the hull thoroughly with 220 - 320 grit sand paper. If your going to use a primer(recommended) then sand with 100 grit. This gives a good tooth or surface profile for the primer to adhere to. Then sand the primer with 220-320for a good finish. Primer helps seal and cover any repairs and helps to assure that your new topcoat doesn't re-act with the old topcoat. To ease your apprehension about doing the painting I suggest practicing to build some skill level before you lay a hand to your boat. Buy a cheap 4'x8' sheet of plywood paneling sand the backside with 220, clean and coat with 3-4 coats of resin. Once the resin is cured sand the surface with 220-320 thoroughly. You're not trying to remove the resin only smoothing it out for a good paint finish. Now stand the panel up with the 4' vertical and the 8' from side to side. Clean and tack rag the surface and mask out a 2' wide section from one end. This will give four 8 sq.ft practice boxes. Roll and tip the first box to completion. Once dry you can determine two things;(1) whether you sanded adequately, (2) how your paint technique was. If you got lucky and were happy with the results on your first try then great. If not move on to box two make necessary adjustments in sanding or technique and try again and so on. Remember to clean and tack rag each box just before painting. Good luck and let us know how it turns out. Gerry
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