topside paint chipping

had my boat completely redone, new gelcoat on the hull and what I thought was going to be gelcoat on the topside appears to be merely paint? Problem is after 1 month and babying my boat, the paint has small chips in it. Not sure if the wrong paint was used, not enough or what? Is there any protective coating that could be put over the paint or should I find a different guy to sand and do the gelcoat like I originally wanted?

Re: topside paint chipping

Umm, how about taking it back to the guy that painted it and tell him to do it right?

Re: topside paint chipping

chriscraft254 said:

Umm, how about taking it back to the guy that painted it and tell him to do it right?

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+1 on this. If he is painting it, it needs to be done with AwlGrip or Imron (or similiar). Standard paint, obviously, doesn't cut it.

Re: topside paint chipping

Fireman431 said:

+1 on this. If he is painting it, it needs to be done with AwlGrip or Imron (or similiar). Standard paint, obviously, doesn't cut it.

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I'm going to try and find out what kind of paint he used. He probably thinned it out whatever it was it wasn't very thick as I can see the primer underneath.

But let me get this right, AwlGrip or Imron should not be chipping so easily?

Re: topside paint chipping

But wait, there's more. If dirt gets on the paint, it seems to stain and not remove easily. I can rub 'some' of the stains out but only if I use a cleaner that contains oxalic acid. Which, I do not want to be using on a weekly basis.


Thanks for the help, I'm definitely going to find out what he did/used and I will never let him work on my boat again. Live & Learn I guess.

Re: topside paint chipping

I will never let him work on my boat again.

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Before you jump the gun by saying that.

See if he'll do you right by fixing it right on his dime.


EDIT, Got any pics ??.

Re: topside paint chipping

Summer Fun said:

Before you jump the gun by saying that.

See if he'll do you right by fixing it right on his dime.


EDIT, Got any pics ??.

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I'll post some pictures, I was going over the materials list, and it looks like he used 2K Paint

Re: topside paint chipping

hhere's some pics of some of the chipping.

Re: topside paint chipping

The second and third pics don't look like chips, but more like scratches. The second one has silver under it. Is that primer or aluminum?

With AwlGrip or Imron, stains come off easily with water and a soft brush. Soap is only needed on the heavily soiled areas. Most dirt just hoses off.

Re: topside paint chipping

Fireman431 said:

The second and third pics don't look like chips, but more like scratches. The second one has silver under it. Is that primer or aluminum?

With AwlGrip or Imron, stains come off easily with water and a soft brush. Soap is only needed on the heavily soiled areas. Most dirt just hoses off.

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The silver is the primer. Under that is fiberglass. In places I can see the darker primer underneath the paint, looks like maybe one coat and very thinly applied. JMHO The dirt stains, it absorbs right in. The hull has gelcoat and wipes off nice and easy with a cloth and water. But the topside is where we have anchors, boat hooks, coolers, people, etc and it appears to scratch the paint off real easy. I'm afraid at this rate the topside will look like s**t quickly. Our boat had gelcoat on the topside when we took it in and therefore, assumed it would have it reapplied. Never thought a thin coat of paint would be what was on top.

Re: topside paint chipping

Bubba1235 said:

,
The toughest part of this is that in order to fix the problem, the new paint will have to be stripped off.

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Okay, I can get someone to sand off the 'new' paint but, would you recommend I then redo it with gelcoat, Awlgrip or Imron ?

Re: topside paint chipping

Ok, got some questions! Who did this job for you? Was it a qualified restoration done by a marina or some jack leg that does it on the side? Why did you have the work done? Was this a rebuild? Was it just faded? Did you inspect the boat before you brought it home? Why would you except sub-par work? Why when you could see the primer through the paint didn't you drop the boat back off to this guy and tell him to fix it properly. Was there a pre-work contract that showed work to be completed? Gel coating can usually be restored without having to paint it unless there were repairs. Then you might paint it. Looks like they used kiwi grip non skid. That will all have to come off to if the surface under it wasn't prepped right.

Re: topside paint chipping

I live in Belize, we have a population of 300,000 people. You sometimes have to take what you can get. This was a rebuild, the boat had been under water and was full of wet rot. Structurally the boat was rebuilt well, we saw that every step of the way. It's just the topside paint chipping off that is the problem. I just think the wrong product and perhaps technique was used.

This is the first time I've had my boat redone, and quite frankly I'm a novice at this. It wasn't until yesterday when I was washing the boat that I realized it wasn't quite right.

Now, i can wait for it to all chip off or get it sanded off now and redone properly.

Thanks for your advice, what do you prefer gelcoat, Awlgrip or Imron ?

Re: topside paint chipping

Take a look at the boat in my avatar. It was gelcoat before (2001 model). Constant waxing, chalking of the gelcoat, tough to get clean, etc. We opted to have it painted with AwlGrip. The gelcoat must be sanded to a smooth finish and then cleaned/tacked prior to paint. The paint has to be mixed properly and then either sprayed on or applied in a roll/tip method (look online for specifics). It takes about 8-10 hours to 'flash', giving the paint plenty of time to flow smoothly before curing. Second/third coats need to be applied in a specific time period or they don't bond properly. This takes a professional a while to learn. Newbys can learn also (everyones starts sometime, somewhere), but should be trained to do this, not try to learn on their own. Personally, that paint doesn't look like AwlGrip to me. Unless it was a small project to learn on, I wouldn't tackle a boat painting job. I would leave it to a pro.

Best money spent on my boat so far. Boat is always shiny, even if it's dirty. Usually hoses clean, sometimes a little soap. No waxing. It used to take me 4 hours to clean the boat top to bottom because of the staining, now I can do it in less than an hour.