Prep & Painting
The process of sanding and fairing in preparation for painting is a LONG, TEDIOUS process, but it's critical to getting the
job done right. At some time, a previous owner had repainted the boat, and the paint was in BAD shape. In places, the gel-coat underneath was
also in pretty bad shape. To make sure that my paint job would turn out right, I had to remove all of the old paint. In the places that the original
gel coat was also in poor condition, I had to sand it down, too...
My fingers are SORE- But I'm not done yet.... Still a LOT more blue to remove. I've been looking like a smurf a lot recently. There really
isn't an easy way to do this- I use my orbital sander with 80 grit paper where ever I can, but there are lots of places that a sander just doesn't
fit, so a lot of hand sanding is inevitable.
Finally, ALL the light blue is off. Time to start filling holes and cracks!
I filled in most of the imperfections, old screw holes, and scratches with thickened epoxy. I used a fairing filler that is relatively
easy to sand. When I filled holes, I usually backed the hole with a piece of masking tape, then filled it with the filler... Once it all cured, I sanded it all
down, and then filled any low spots again.
Once I finished sanding everything down so it was all fair and smooth, I sprayed the first coat of primer. I used a High-Build primer, the first
coat is WHITE. Since I'm using a dark color later, I'm going to use a deeper primer over the top of this one. I used the white because they accidentally shipped it to
me rather than the tinted primer! Ooops.
Next, I'll mask off the non-skid areas, since they are going to be white, I will leave the white primer on them. That way, the white paint will
cover better-
Here is the first coat of RED OXIDE primer-
Starting to look better now...
I have to SAND, SAND, SAND.... Get it all smooth, remove any 'orange peel', and get it ready for the topcoat...
And now, the first coat of color- Sprayed with an HVLP sprayer-
STARTING to look good, although its' going to need LOTS more coats. Red is a TERRIBLE color for coverage!
Next coat-
And, the NEXT coat-
And, ANOTHER coat!
and, ONE LAST COAT. Phew.
Did I mention that red is a ROYAL PAIN? Well, It is. But, it looks GREAT.
Now, I've got to wet sand it all to get all the imperfections out of it, and then cut and buff to make it really SHINE. But, the paint
has to fully cure before I can do that, which will take a few days. In the mean time, I'll do the non skid-
Once the paint is good and hard, it's time to start sanding... An almost never ending process, it seems. I'm starting with some 600 grit wet/drt, moving to 1000 grit, then to
2000 grit. Once I've got it as smooth as I can get it, I'll hit it with rubbing compound, then glaze... Then I sit back and admire myself in the reflection-
It turned out better that I expected!
While I was working on the topsides, I got the inside of the hull done, too.
I've got the inside of the hull primed with white -
And, Painted Gloss White-
Originally, The inside had a 'flecked' paint job, called Zolatone... Or, I should say, MANY glasspars had this. I decided to try to
recreate this as closely as possible. 'Real' Zolatone is out there- but the application equipment is expensive- So I tried it my way-
I used two different shades of grey, which I thinned down a bit, and tossed on to the surface using a cheap 'chip' paintbrush. Do a few
practice squares first, to get an idea of how the paint behaves, but it's not that tough.
Overall, I', happy with it! Looks MUCH nicer than just plain white would have. Here is a closeup-
After finishing the hull insides, I gave the floor a good non-skid coating, by adding silica to the white paint then rolling
it on. It's important to keep the paint well mixed while you're doing this, so the silica doesn't all settle to the bottom!
Well- It's all painted and polished- Time to put it all back together again!
Main