The Latest: The decks
The decks are looking nice one more coat and the non-skid and this puppy is painted. Someday in the future the cabin top will match the decks........ But I will sail before that happens. I think the beige works, it's easier on the eyes and not so 1950's refrigerator looking as the off-white of the cabin top.
Take two
I hired someone to do the second attempt and it looks a lot better. Not sure the lighting helps out the color, it's very dark though. I like it and when the varnished wood is added it'll look really sweet. Now to the non-skid.........
Frustration: First Attempt
Well let's not make any bones about it, the first coat looks awful. We made about a dozen mistakes in technique. The most important one is: the roller is only used to lay down paint, EVERY thing must be brushed, in fact you might as well solely use a brush. A wide brush but a brush. The parts that were left with rolled on paint look horrendous. Here you see a glimpse of what the boat will look like with the dark section painted. It is the only boat that I have seen, that will have a dark middle like this.
9-8-2002
A very depressed Diego.
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9-10-2002
So what happens to a lousy coat of paint......
You can see where this is going....... My friend Tiki lending a hand with the sand.
Ahhh yes all gone, let's see how the next coat goes on.
Deck Painting:
There are as many opinions out there as hues in the sky. My neighbors had all done it differently.
1. One part paint.
2. Two part paint
3. Gel coat.
Here are the arguments:
One part paint might look as good, but after talking to several people, the verdict is, 2 part lasts twice as long. It's not that much harder to apply, it's twice as expensive, but my labor is more expensive.
Gel coat is very similar to 2 part paints since it too is comprised of a base and a catalyst, it lays on thicker so it hides more of the imperfections, it lasts just as long, it has a nice non-skid solution. Problems with it are, any colors outside of white have to be hand mixed, which I think makes touch up work much harder. It has a pot life of about 30 min (as opposed to 6-8 hours on the 2 part paints ) so it makes the work much more intense.
Therefore after much deliberation, I went with the two part paint solution.
First I built a structure that would hold up a tarp so that I could be enclosed and the sanding dust would not go into the water. Not only is that environmentally good, it's the law. It also makes everyone on the dock think you are doing some serious work.
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I decided on grinding the non-skid completely off, this would be the third coat of paint going on top of the nonskid, and I think it would have lost a lot of it's texture and therefore it's non skid properties. It took about a full day to grind off the non skid layer, 50 grit disc was sufficient and it prevented really deep accidents from keeping the disc in one place for too long.
Not to be a salesman, but West Systems 410 filler for fairing is dreamy. Easy to sand, easy to apply. West system epoxy is expensive as hell, luckily here in Santa Cruz we have http://fiberglasshawaii.com/ they also have a store in Santa Barbara. Anyhow they make a reproduction of the west system 5-1 ratio epoxy resin and hardener, that is very good. In fact, you can use west system hardener and vice versa. But the filler you can put into any resin anyhow. Since I am painting with Interlux paints I also bought Interfill fairing epoxy , but have yet to use it. A little can of the stuff goes for $21. What's gold trading at today????
Labor day weekend.
Priming away: Taping actually took more time than one would think. In just this small amount it took a good 4 hours, which makes the strong argument to remove as much from the decks as possible.
Let's talk about priming. I used a two part primer. They say that after it dries, you need to sand it down with 80 grit to a translucent color. I wish I would have put down a lighter coat . The subsequent sanding of my thick application was tedious.
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