After sandblasting and repairing steel hull whats next?

I'm having the hull on my roamer sand blasted and then any bad areas will be fixed. Where do I go next? Expoy/seal the hull then prime in it and then bottom paint? Very new to steel hulls

Re: After sandblasting and repairing steel hull whats next?

You've got it right.

For fresh water, you want a barrier coat of a quality epoxy paint.

Over that you can use any number of non ablative bottom paints. Just find a brand that is ok with sitting in water for months or longer at a time. Personally I'd use something like awlgrip or imron, but you may want something cheaper or a newer technology paint. Hard to go wrong if you pay the $$ for a two part epoxy paint, but that might be more expensive than the 2 part LPUs.

If you're going to use it in salt, you need ablative bottom paint.

There's not much difference from a fiberglass hull except you really need to watch out for accidentally creating circuits between two types of metal. Ablative bottom paint tends to be copper based, and painting it right up to aluminum or other cathodic metals can cause electrolytic corrosion. This is made worse by having a metal hull, the barrier coat keeps chips from going down to bare metal.

I've seen pics of roamers painted with coal tar over the barrier coat, long lasting and tough but ugly

Erik

Re: After sandblasting and repairing steel hull whats next?

Thanks you erik this is all so new to me and I want to make sure I do it right.

I guess i'll have to do some research!

Re: After sandblasting and repairing steel hull whats next?

Ayuh,... Around here they use something called Coal-tar Epoxy... No top coat,... it's black...

Re: After sandblasting and repairing steel hull whats next?

How about por-15 on the inside in the bilge area or is there something better.

Re: After sandblasting and repairing steel hull whats next?

Get the barrier coat on ASAP. That nice clean steel started rusting right after
you blasted it. Remember most epoxies cure with a residue on the surface that has to be removed prior to finish painting. The previously mentioned coal tar epoxy barrier coat has a time window in the cure where the coat is still "green"that allows overcoating without sanding or solvent washing. Many other epoxies have the same characteristics.

Read the directions of whatever product line you go with very carefully. Follow them closely.

http://www.yachtpaint.com/usa/diy/products/Pages/search.aspx?BannerName=steel

This company has a full line, good support, and they are available off the shelf in small quantities. Hence they are expensive. This is, however a good place to start. GH

Re: After sandblasting and repairing steel hull whats next?

Instead of the POR-15 I'd use a quality epoxy paint. If you're able to go that far, something like the Interlux Bilge-Kote is good, or I've had people recommend (and tried) using Sherwin-Williams industrial paints like "Tile-Clad" which is a two part epoxy paint. The S-W is quite a bit cheaper than the Interlux and is as tough. Cost is about $65 a gallon.

An anti-rust paint is well and good, but what you really want is a tough paint that will keep water away from the metal and to keep the bilge dry to avoid corrosion. Obviously bilges are always wet to some extent, but if you don't have things arranged to get as much water out as possible, you should.

Don't forget to keep an eye on what types of metal are hanging into places where they could get into bilge water. Steel plus water equals rust, steel plus water plus another metal equals electric current and accelerated corrosion. Bottom line, keep water away from the metal.

Erik