I recently inherited a venture 222 and it definitely needs some work. I’m totally new to sailboats and sailing but not boating. I’m wanting to repaint the interior and as I was scraping off the really loose stuff today I noticed a lot of spots starting to look like the pic. It looks like somebody was last painting the interior with the blue. The white is underneath that , and then the fiberglass. My question is, should I just sand off all of the paint until it’s all fiberglass or sand off the loose stuff and paint over it? I’ve never painted a boat before so any advice would be great. Thanks in advance!
Venture 222 interior painting
- Thread starter JustinP
- Start date
I recently inherited a venture 222 and it definitely needs some work. I’m totally new to sailboats and sailing but not boating. I’m wanting to repaint the interior and as I was scraping off the really loose stuff today I noticed a lot of spots starting to look like the pic. It looks like somebody was last painting the interior with the blue. The white is underneath that , and then the fiberglass. My question is, should I just sand off all of the paint until it’s all fiberglass or sand off the loose stuff and paint over it? I’ve never painted a boat before so any advice would be great. Thanks in advance!
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,163
"Fiberglass" (FRP). If you want the paint to stick you will need to prep the surface. You need to remove the loose stuff, and prep by cleaning all oil, grease, dirt etc. from the area you want to paint. If you paint over the central area with the glass weave showing you. will see the glass weave in the finished material. To address that you need to fill in the glass weave with either a coat of epoxy resin and or an epoxy filler.
Once sanded smooth and then again cleaned, you will be able to paint the surface.
I would suggest that you check out the Boatworks Today website. Andy does a great job showing the steps needed to have a professional job form a DIY perspective.
Once sanded smooth and then again cleaned, you will be able to paint the surface.
I would suggest that you check out the Boatworks Today website. Andy does a great job showing the steps needed to have a professional job form a DIY perspective.
You can also try gentle use of a heat gun to help scrape more of the loose stuff. Might be easier than sanding everything.
Will do! Another question I have is, is it ok to sand fiberglass? Obviously not a lot but just enough to get it clean. Does it have a coating on it or something like that I shouldn’t penetrate?
It’s ok to sand a bit. The strength is all from the glass fibers and not any coating. The only exception would be on the outside of the hull if there’s an epoxy barrier coat below the waterline. If you sand through that it would be good to replace it to prevent osmotic blistering, especially if the boat will be stored in the water and not on a trailer.
From the looks of the picture the weave of the glass cloth might not be filled with any resin. That’s sometimes done to keep hull weight down, but it might complicate the paint removal a little. You don’t want to sand too much and cut the top of the fibers down and reduce the thickness of the laminate. That’s where the heat gun could help - it might make it easier to get the paint off without sanding into the glass.
From the looks of the picture the weave of the glass cloth might not be filled with any resin. That’s sometimes done to keep hull weight down, but it might complicate the paint removal a little. You don’t want to sand too much and cut the top of the fibers down and reduce the thickness of the laminate. That’s where the heat gun could help - it might make it easier to get the paint off without sanding into the glass.
jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 22,163
@Davidasailor26 is spot on about the heat gun... It will loosen the bond stuff has. It can also loosen the resin bond of fiberglass. So not too much heat.
Not sure what you are looking for as a finished product. If you are not minding texture, then chipping away the big pieces... Looks like most will be happy to flake off, then paint stripper and then some scrapping would clear a lot of the old paint away. Follow up with a good cleaning and then epoxy paint the area and you have a 75% job complete in an area few will look at. If you are trying to get "Bristol" than you will want to aggressively remove all of the paint. Recover the area with new soaked fiberglass and resin. Then sand and fair the area till smooth. Then prep and paint. A lot of work for perhaps an unappreciated space in the boat.
Not sure what you are looking for as a finished product. If you are not minding texture, then chipping away the big pieces... Looks like most will be happy to flake off, then paint stripper and then some scrapping would clear a lot of the old paint away. Follow up with a good cleaning and then epoxy paint the area and you have a 75% job complete in an area few will look at. If you are trying to get "Bristol" than you will want to aggressively remove all of the paint. Recover the area with new soaked fiberglass and resin. Then sand and fair the area till smooth. Then prep and paint. A lot of work for perhaps an unappreciated space in the boat.