I have returned... with a Starcraft this time!

[MTboatguy]

Discouraged is not a term we should use in the boat restoration business, everything is a challenge because we are redoing something someone else has already done and it is up to us to figure out the puzzle they left us.

Don't get discouraged, get ambitious and it will be your pride and joy in the near future, look forward to seeing it on the water with those fish dangling on the line!

 

[BWR1953]

You have a nice little fishing boat there that is 100% better than when you started, won't ever sink and is going to have all new materials inside. So what's there to be discouraged about?

You’re right, it won’t ever sink. Because it’ll never get done! LOL! :lol:
At least it feels that way to me sometimes.
Don’t mind me… I’m on meds.

Discouraged is not a term we should use in the boat restoration business, everything is a challenge because we are redoing something someone else has already done and it is up to us to figure out the puzzle they left us.

Don't get discouraged, get ambitious and it will be your pride and joy in the near future, look forward to seeing it on the water with those fish dangling on the line!

Yah… but I’m not in the boat restoration biz. :laugh:

I’m just a beat up old fisherman trying to get a 40+ year old boat back onto the water so that I can take it fishing again.

And it’s taking forever, partly due to my health issues but also due to my own inexperience in boat fixup matters. So I have a steep learning curve along with everything else.

Lately my ambition is to live through this whole KF job so that I can move on to other projects! :crutch:


Anyway, I decided to do a little test today and try using the walnut blast media I had on hand to remove the touchup paint. So the boy taped and masked off the area and I gave it a shot.

No joy. The paint was essentially unscathed. Although the walnut media did reduce the gloss. Hmmm…

I’ve been looking for 180, 220 and 240 grit sandblasting media in small quantities for a reasonable price. Haven’t found much so far but I’ll keep looking.

I researched the air eraser stuff and it looks those are for really small areas, like on model cars and whatnot, rather than for a larger area like on the KF. My HF sandblaster will probably do okay for the touchup removal once I find an appropriate media.

Here’s hoping anyway.

 

[MTboatguy]

Yup, walnut is not going to touch it other than dull it a bit, you need to be using aluminum oxide or silicon sand, with either one you will need to use your respirator, check at a rock shop or a tile and counter shop in your area, they should be able to sell you some.

 

[BWR1953]

We went out to the garage so that I could get some filing done today. Didn't work out very well though.


I spent more than an hour grinding, filing and sanding just a couple of letters from the small set. Took way too long and I wasn't very happy with the results. I'm going to scrap the pieces, print out a new set of letters and cut a new set of blanks.



The letters are messy but the concept should work fine with fully finished letters.

 

[BWR1953]

Went out this morning to do some boat work but got sidetracked doing maintenance and repair on the truck. Got that necessary stuff behind us though.

So we then removed the paper from the big letters in preparation for sanding and general cleanup. Man, the mineral spirits really popped the paper off there quickly and easily! As in 30 seconds of dunking and the spray adhesive dissolved and the paper just slid right off. No scraping was necessary! Cool beans. :joyous:






Then it was lunch time so we came back into the house. We're hoping that my wife will get off work early and bring us some Popeye's! :tongue:

 

[BWR1953]

This evening I received an order with my new small spray gun. This is the same one I'd had previously, as part of a 2 gun set, but I'd had to return the set because the larger gun was defective. I finally got a good larger gun by ordering only that size and used that gun to spray the Kingfisher.

My daughter gave me a gift certificate so I used it to buy the new small gun. I'll use it to paint the topsides of the boat and quite possibly the black spray rail area too.



I also ordered a new indoor/outdoor thermometer set which came with 2 outdoor senders. I'll use one in the usual place outside but put the other one inside the garage. Am hoping that the garage isn't too shielded to keep the signal from reaching inside the house. I'd really like to know what the temp is in there at times.

 

[BWR1953]

Yesterday we went shoreline/bank fishing but no joy. The water temps have cooled quite a bit and the fish are likely out in deep water next to a fireplace or something! :lol:

Today we did some driveway maintenance and a couple of other home related chores.

The driveway grading was because yet another FedEx maroon got stuck in my drive. Jeez, these guys can't drive. The UPS guys and USPS don't have this problem!

When the spray gun was delivered the other day, the FedEx guy drove straight down our driveway, no problemo. BUT! After delivering the package he started backing out the 400 foot driveway and once he cleared our gate, he decided to try to turn around. And he got stuck SIDEWAYS completely across and blocking the driveway! Duhhhh! This whole region of Florida is covered with sugar sand. He should have known better. If ya get off the gravel, ya get stuck.

I went out to offer my help but he turned out to be an angry jerk and I just told him that he needed to call for backup and wished him luck, then we went back in the house, closing the gate behind us. About 15 minutes later my neighbor with a Jeep pulled the FedEx van sideways enough that he could straighten it out and then back out of the driveway. He did... partway. Then at the head of the driveway he just drove through the neighbor's yard and got back on the road. Maroon. He really tore up my driveway pretty badly. I did what I could with my little garden tractor and box blade but it's really in need of more material. That'll have to wait.




After I messed up the green tape, we removed the mask and will start over once I'm ready to repaint the spray rail.

 

[BWR1953]

Got some more letter work done today.

Finished the big "S" using 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500 grit W/D sandpaper used dry. Going all the way up to 2500 was truly unnecessary but I felt like testing. Took me almost 15 minutes but when I started seeing the ceiling and lights reflecting in the "S" I knew it was time to move on. :lol:

 

[BWR1953]

More letter work today.


Got started on the RAFT first.



Two coats of regular primer applied. I'm hoping to get some paint reducer tomorrow so that we can spray the black color coats. :joyous:

 

[BWR1953]

oops... forgot the split S.

 

[BWR1953]

Ran errands this morning and picked up the Preval sprayer kit at HD, then went to Tractor Supply on the other side of town and got the paint reducer I needed.

Brought it all home, regrouped, had lunch then went out to do some color painting.

I used a scotch brite pad to scuff the primer on the letters but quite frankly it wasn't needed. They were already super smooth. But I did it anyway. To no avail... :mad-new:

The black tractor paint had gone bad! Once we opened the can we found a very thick rubbery layer covering the paint. It was easily 1/4" or more thick. I'd used less than a quart to paint the bottom of the hull and the rest was properly closed and has been sitting. So that's like $20 worth of paint shot.

Tomorrow I'll have to buy more black in addition to more white. The weather is right for painting today and tomorrow only. After that, we'll get rain and colder weather. Timing is everything. :frusty:

 

[MTboatguy]

Ran errands this morning and picked up the Preval sprayer kit at HD, then went to Tractor Supply on the other side of town and got the paint reducer I needed.

Brought it all home, regrouped, had lunch then went out to do some color painting.

I used a scotch brite pad to scuff the primer on the letters but quite frankly it wasn't needed. They were already super smooth. But I did it anyway. To no avail... :mad-new:

The black tractor paint had gone bad! Once we opened the can we found a very thick rubbery layer covering the paint. It was easily 1/4" or more thick. I'd used less than a quart to paint the bottom of the hull and the rest was properly closed and has been sitting. So that's like $20 worth of paint shot.

Tomorrow I'll have to buy more black in addition to more white. The weather is right for painting today and tomorrow only. After that, we'll get rain and colder weather. Timing is everything. :frusty:

I used one of those kits to spray a whole 14' fiberglass back in the early 90's took me a couple of days but it came out nice, was a real expensive way to do the whole boat!

:facepalm:

 

[Watermann]

I've had no issues using the paint after removing the film it creates which seems to protect the rest of the paint. Just be sure to filter it before use.

 

[BWR1953]

Yeah, I just didn't trust that old paint. It had been sitting in the garage with the really high temperatures inside for a long time. I didn't want to risk paint failure after all I've been through with this project.

So today I bought a quart each of the black and white Majic paint. The white for the topsides and the black for the trim and most likely the trailer as well.




First coat of black applied. The little Preval sprayer worked well enough. Not too different from a rattle can.

 

[MTboatguy]

I used to seal my cans when they were partials with a saran wrap across the top and then put the lid back on with a rubber mallet, I also used a paint can opener and not a screwdriver so I didn't mess the lip that seals up, one small dent in that lip will let air in and cause the film over the paint. There are many different ways to seal a paint can back up after it has been opened, I have a buddy that uses a commercial vacuum packer and seals them in a vacuum bag when he does not use all the paint, it looks funny to have a can sealed in a back, but it works.

 

[BWR1953]

Yup, we use the plastic wrap as well.

 

[59Thompson]

Not high tech but storing the cans upside down always works as all air entry points are encapsulated. Shake well before opening.

 

[BWR1953]

Not high tech but storing the cans upside down always works as all air entry points are encapsulated. Shake well before opening.

Hmmm... now that's interesting.

 

[BWR1953]

Well, I messed up the letter paint job. It came out really ugly and we had to strip all the paint off and start over. My bad. Again. Dunno if I'll ever be able to paint correctly. :facepalm:

The paint had horrendous orange peel. While painting, I'd noticed that the spray mist from the Preval unit wasn't as fine as what I'd seen on regular rattle cans but didn't think too much about it at the time. After seeing the dried paint, it looked like maybe it hadn't been thinned enough. I'd used a measured 3:1 ratio (25% thinner in the mix) and thought it would be okay. After spraying I saved the leftover paint in the glass jar and screwed the lid down nice and tight. This morning I checked using the dipstick method and the paint was definitely too thick.

Sooo... after we stripped off all the letters, I repainted a split S with 2 coats of SE primer plus 2 coats of filler primer (which is all I had, the regular primer was all gone.) That was supposed to dry for 2 - 4 hours before adding a top coat. However, the rains came and I couldn't paint the color coat today.

Temps are dropping to the low 50s overnight and likely won't reach 60 tomorrow. Temps will get even colder after that and probably won't warm up until next week sometime. The boy goes back to school next week so that'll hinder my progress once again.

But I can still sand and clean up the rest of the letters anyway.

 

[BWR1953]

The weather was a little warmer today so I tried painting a couple letters again. Not much joy.

One thing I thought of the other day while out running errands. As I passed Tractor Supply I realized that they probably sell the Majic paint gloss black in a rattle can. They do. Duh. :facepalm:




But on closer inspection, there are bubbles in the paint which probably won't flow out.


I'm thinking that the weather was just too cool, preventing the paint from flowing. I guess I'll have to wait until the temperatures get into the 80s again before I try next time.