Re: best way to paint a boat?
First of all, I'm assuming you are painting an aluminum boat. I too was new to this just a few months ago and have been painting my boat the last couple of weeks and just finished yesterday. The best advice that I can give you is educate yourself on the different paint options and decide if you are planning on using a clear coat over paint because you don't want to use a clear if you paint with an enamel. In no way am I a professional painter and like you had to use resources to learn the steps and get past the intimidation of painting a boat. Here are the steps that I went through on my aluminum boat.
-Used Citra strip Stripping Gel that doesn't contain methylene chloride! It was non-toxic and very low odor.
-Used a wire wheel to sand down scratches.
(I stripped & sanded because I was changing colors of boat)
-Used PC-11 to fill in any deep scratches
-sanded entire boat with 80 grit paper (scratch it up so primer will adhere).
-Applied self etching primer.
-Wet Sanded using 400 grit.
-Cleaned it really good with soap & water (Very Important-before applying paint use Denaturated Alcohol to make sure surface was really clean).
-Applied first coat of paint and let dry for 48 hours.
-Wet sanded using 1000 grit paper which got rid of any orange peel.
-Again cleaned the boat thoroughly
-Applied second coat of paint.
-I then plan on color sanding and buffing to bring out the shine.
I would recommend turning the boat over, which I had done at a marina that had a hoist. They had it turned over in about 15 minutes. I sprayed using a gravity fed gun and because the paint was self-leveling it turned out very nice. You can also use the roll & tip method if you do not want to spray. If done right, it's hard to tell the difference. The last thing is please make sure you wear a respirator with charcoal cartridges when you are painting...Good luck. Again I'm not a professional painter, but I'm pleased with the results.
