Re: 1 Part or 2 Part Paints
Originally posted by tengals123:<br /> great post tinkerer. i might try that. Would you sand between coats, if not what about cleaning between them. cheers
tengals<br /><br />Apart from brushing acrylic housepaint onto a trailer bondwood dinghy (Solarguard etc are good because they flex) I've never painted a boat so my opinion on painting boats doesn't count. Plenty of people here would be a better source of advice than me.<br /><br />Mostly I've done repair work on cars and furniture refinishing.<br /><br />Subject to what people who actually know about painting boats have to say, here are some general principles applied to fibreglass boats which hold good for whatever you're painting if it's an auto or similar type base, bearing in mind that a lot of auto base is now platic or related composites.<br /><br />1. The higher the gloss the more it exposes underlying faults and attracts the eye. A pinhead bubble on an otherwise perfect surface can look like a small mountain. <br /><br />2. The quality of the final finish is proportionate to the quality of prepartion to skill in applying the coating in the ratio of about 90:10 prepartion:coating. You'd be surprised how easy it is to apply a passable final coat compared with how hard it is to prep it right.<br /><br />3. First clean it with prepwash (auto wax and grease remover) to get rid of remnants of wax and grease and, most of all, silicones which are in most modern waxes and polishes. Doing this first stops them being ground into lower layers while sanding. Wet sand down from 400 to 800 to 1200 grit for a smooth base surface. Wet sanding removes the rubbish as you go rather than just grinding it into the new surface as dry sanding does. Then take it down through 1500 or even 2000 wet sanding. If you're a perfectionist apply epoxy filler or auto spot putty and then spraycan sandable auto primer filler over any rough spots. Then wet sand them when dry with 1200, 1500, and 2000. Let dry. Then lightly prepwash everthing again. After you've stroked it and admired it's silky smooth finish prepwash the areas you've touched as there's enough grease in your fingers to interfere with auto finishes, although probably not what's in boat finishes. You now have the cleanest and smoothest and best surface you're likely to get as a base. Super Cheap Auto's prepwash and spraycan primer filler is fine. K&H fillers etc are also fine but they're cheaper at KMart than the rip off merchants at Repco and Autobarn.<br /><br />4. Determine whether you need or want an undercoat or special finish to provide a key for the top coat to stick e.g. plastic parts on cars need a special primer. There's various solutions like Penetrol that claim to make paint stick better, although I've always found paint sticks fine to glass and every other surface it's not supposed to stick to if it gets dropped there accidentally
http://www.floodaustralia.net/products/penetrol.htm <br /><br />5. Find the worst small section of a square foot or so. Paint it by whatever method you've chosen with however many coats you want. Let it dry. This is where you might learn that the faintest line in the filler or surface looks like a canyon under gloss. If it ain't up to your standard, read and apply step 1 onwards, but more carefully.<br /><br />6. Alternatively, ignore step 5; paint the whole boat; and then decide whether to strip it, prep it properly or live with a poor finish. <br /><br />7. If it ain't up to your standard on the first view under steps 5 or 6, step back five or ten feet and see if it still shows. Then ask yourself if anyone else is going to look that closely. Then ask yourself what is going to happen the first time you brush a dock or get a bit sideways on your trailer etc etc. <br /><br />8. Reality. If you're not going to put it in a museum as the world's greatest example of boat refinishing, which you probably can't achieve without 40 years trade experience, ignore the foregoing; just fill and level the holes; prepwash; sand down to 1200; prepwash; paint it; and enjoy it. First trip out you'll probably scrape an anchor up the side of the hull anyway.<br /><br /><br />See my thread on trompe l'oeil for more meanderings.
