Awl Grip - Lessons Learned

[ThomWV]

Coat 3 went on today. A lot was learned today that I thought I should pass on.<br /><br />The second coat looked much much better than the first, sort of stunning actually. The same can not be said of the third.<br /><br />Lesson 1. Always sand between coats. The second coat seemed to lay down so flat that I thought that sanding inbetween wouldn't be necessary. I was within 24 hours so all I did was quickly wet sand out a couple of bugs that had got in the paint, and clean up a little run and two sags. The thing is, the paint is so glossy that in the second coat there was some surface irregularity and it was amplified by the third coat. So, not sanding before the final coat was a mistake.<br /><br />Lesson 2. You can not possibly apply this stuff thin engough. If you think you have it too thin then spread it farther.<br /><br />Lesson 3. Reducer, reducer, reducer. Awl Grip's product guide says to reduce 25% to 35% but in truth I found that to get it to really flow well and to lay down properly the mix should start at 35% and then add a little to the tray with each replenishment (I only put a couple of oz. in the tray at a time). What I found was that in putting maybe 3 or 4 oz. of reducer in the tray it would work out about right if I added one cap full of reducer to each load.<br /><br />Lesson 4. If its properly reduced there is absolutly no reason to tip it. Tipped sections (I tryed it both ways on purpose) are no better than non tipped sections.<br /><br />Lesson 5. The best roller covers aren't necessairly the best roller covers. I found that a cheap quarter inch nap roller cover from Ace Hardware outperformed a similar one by GlassKoter. It had less lint.<br /><br />Lesson 6. The color coat paint goes a lot farther than the primer. A gallon of primer was enough to make 3 coats on our hull. A gallon of color paint is enough to put on roughly 10~12 coats. I could have done our hull (23 x 8.5) in three coats with a quart easily.<br /><br />That is all I know for right now, but as soon as I do something stupid I'll be back to warn you about it.<br /><br />Thom

 

[snapperbait]

Re: Awl Grip - Lessons Learned

Thanks for the heads up Thom.. Got a little project comming up in the near future and have considered using Awl-grip..

 

[12Footer]

Re: Awl Grip - Lessons Learned

How timely! I plan on using Awlgrip system on my project boat. Well, maybee not timely, as I won't be getting that far for some time. But thanks for the great tips. That's the stuff they on't go into on the label.<br />

 

[neumanns]

Re: Awl Grip - Lessons Learned

Awsome Picture (other thread) Thank you for your report. I hope to employ some of the knowledge you have shared at a future date also. It is unbalivable the confidence one can gain knowing it can be done in the backyard with some due dilagence by a novice (me not you...your an old pro now), and get results like that.

 

[Speakrdude]

Re: Awl Grip - Lessons Learned

Great advise Thom. Sounds like I have a lot of sanding ahead as my 20 yera old boat ( I recently purchased) has lots of dings, scapes and spider cracks.<br /><br /> http://community.webshots.com/user/speakrdude <br /><br /> I noticed you still have all of you hardware attached on the topside. Did you not repaint that as well? I too have removed and discarded my old aluminum rub rail and a place at www.rubrail.com to provide a replacement, probably rigid vinyl. What are you replacing yours with? The other website you referred on the previous post was very informative. <br /><br />You might as well go ahead and give me your phone # work and home, as I will have a million questions too..lol<br />Jim

 

[ThomWV]

Re: Awl Grip - Lessons Learned

Well, in a sense that was a mistake too. We only painted the hull, not the top side. I plan to do the top side next year. Looking back at it now I am sure we could have done the entire boat at once. The thing is that I put way to much time and effort into the priming. I could have done in a week what I spent the entire fall doing, if only I had known better.<br /><br />Here is the problem we face. We don't fish here or keep the boat here. I'm in West Virginia but the boat stays in North Carolina, on the Outer Banks. I tow the boat down around May and bring it home sometime around Thanksgiving. That means that we have all winter to fix whatever went wrong all summer. While that might seem like plenty of time in fact because of the weather its not. There simply wasn't enough time to do the entire boat and not miss a good part of the fishing season. Now here is a sad truth. I am not so very young any more and I'm not going to be doing this off shore tuna fishing forever. I figure I've got 3~5 more off shore years in me, at the most, and that will be about it. I am not willing to miss the spring bite at this stage of the game. So next year all the hardware comes off the top and everything above the rub rail will be painted. As it is now I've actually done above the rub rail right to the edge of the gunwale, but that little strip will be redone next year. Actually, unless I do something horrible stupid this comming summer that should be all that I have to do next year. I've got an electronics package I can live with, I rewired the boat end to end last year, it has all new plumbing, a new engine, and the interior is fine. So once its painted if I don't run into anything with it I immagine it will be suitable for use as my coffin. After all, don't you love your boat well enough to be burried in it? <br /><br />Thom