Painting your boat???

boardstiff · Soul Rider Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Posts: 264 City: Canada

Just wondering if anyone has experience at painting boats? I am considering painting my 20' 1969 correct craft southwinds. The boat was restored about 7 yrs ago, including paint. It's not in bad shape, but there are some chips, bangs and scratches on the hull and in the interior of the boat (mostly from boards).
I hope to change the colour of the entire boat other then the seats (grey with yellow trim) and carpet (grey) from yellow to something yet to be decided. I've included a couple pics of the boat.
Economically, will it be worth it? I know it would be a lot of man hours, but I would attempt to do the work myself. So material would be the only cost, I hope.
I plan on going to west marine to kinda price out essentials for the project. If anyone can recommend any specific products used when painting your fiberglass boat a list they could pass along would be great to ie. cleaners/degreasers, paintstrippers or any other materials used in the process.
Any advice from someone who has possibly undertook a project like this, or anyone with experience in the field would be appreciated. Thanks

dizzlestoy · Soul Rider Joined: 26 Jul 2007 Posts: 305 City: dallas

my buddy painted his with a foam roller and some good paint from west marine. I think any good painter would say them same thing when i say this. "Its all in the prep work"

Wakebrad · Ladies Man Joined: 11 Dec 2003 Posts: 12257 City: Dallas

I researched it and it is a lot of work. For the boat surface gelcoat is really the best thing because it is more durable. If you want to actually use paint you need to use a hard paint so that it wont get scraped off by the trailer bunks.

The stuff I was planning to use was Interlux Perfection and they sold it at West Marine and other boat shops. This is applied by a foam roller or sprayer but the sprayer really needs to be done by a professional.

It will only last a few years though. If you want to do it right look into applying new gelcoat. It requires a lot more sanding but will leave you with a longer lasting finished product.

boardstiff · Soul Rider Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Posts: 264 City: Canada

Wakebrad....thats the problem I am having now. The boat was painted and chips and gets scarped off pretty easy. Is it possible to remove all the paint and apply a gelcoat in it's place?

Wakebrad · Ladies Man Joined: 11 Dec 2003 Posts: 12257 City: Dallas

boardstiff, yeah, you can do that. I actually went through the beginning stages of removing the paint from my old boat. You can get some paint stripper at a boat shop and remove the paint then you can roll on new gelcoat.

Gelcoat is best sprayed on but sprayers are expensive and tricky. If you roll it on it takes a lot of sanding but you can get a good finish. I would recommend doing some research into rolling on some new gelcoat. You probably need to apply 2-3 coats and then sand after you're finished.

After all of the work it was going to require I ended up finding a local guy who did it for $1,100 which was a steal considering most wanted to charge $4,000 for it.

boardstiff · Soul Rider Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Posts: 264 City: Canada

wakebrad...I've been searching the net trying to research my project. I also bought a How to book at chapters. The problem I'm having is that none of the information i am getting is specific to my needs. Can you recommend a good step by step book or website? Thanks

Dave W · Posted: Aug 24, 2007 4:43 am Post subject:

If your current finish is not staying on the boat well, anything you put on top of that won't stay on any better. Gel coat is not a very popular product in the high end marine industry. It's nice in a production boat setting because it offers a lot of room for errors to be sanded and buffed out. On the down side, it is heavy and it fades and chalks terribly over time. One of the biggest reasons gel is used on production boats is to protect the mold. Laying up fiberglass directly against the mold leaves print on the mold after you pull your part.

I've never heard of anyone doing a whole new paint job on a boat in gel. Sounds like a complete pain in the rear. If you're going to go to the trouble of sanding off all your old paint to get a good surface to adhere to, make the investment in Awlgrip paint for your new paint job. If the surface is properly prepped it will hold up great over the years without fading.

Wakebrad · Ladies Man Joined: 11 Dec 2003 Posts: 12257 City: Dallas

boardstiff, I couldn't find a good step by step really. I did bits and pieces of research and talked to a lot of people. I started out here I believe. Watch the slideshows

http://www.fiberglass-repair.com/

Dave W, awlgrip is a topside paint. Not something you want below the waterline correct? The high end marine industry uses anti-fowling paint on the bottomside which is not what he wants.

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

Dave W · Posted: Aug 24, 2007 9:47 am Post subject:

The shop I worked at painted entire hulls with Awlgrip; top to bottom. But, we weren't concerned that the hulls we painted were going to be sitting in the water for months on end. We were more concerned about getting a speed warranty on the paint. Awlgrip wasn't so keen on guaranteeing anything over 175.

So.... my experience might be slightly skewed. I can't believe there aren't any paints rated for below waterline use that aren't anti-fowling. Awlgrip is some hardcore paint though. Doing some refinishing on boat painted with it was pretty crazy. We were longboarding the repairs and would run into the paint with 36 grit at the outside edges of the repair area. The paint would scratch. Slowly.

boardstiff · Soul Rider Joined: 02 Jan 2004 Posts: 264 City: Canada

This was my original plan. The boat is now yellow. Like I said it was painted about 6 or 7 yrs ago. The original colour was a red, which you can see under a lot of the chips and scratches. My plan was to strip the yellow off the boat. At that point i would have to decide whether or not to take off the underlying colour. Then after all the essential prep work was done I was thinking about painting it a 2 tone. Something like black on the hull (up to about 2" above the water line) and white on the rest of the boat. I was considering using an antifouling paint for anything below the water line and something like the Awlgrip Dave W suggested for anything above the waterline. The boat will not be in the water full time, but will be in a lot more then past years due to a new dock and being able to leave it in now.
What are your thoughts on The 2 different types of paint? Will the paint hold up If the boat spends a lot of time in the water? Thanks