Painting a fiberglass hull

Cptkid570

Ensign
Joined
Oct 18, 2005
Messages
964
Hi everyone,
I’ve read through a bunch of threads and still can’t make this out -- without getting into too much detail…
If I want to paint the gelcoat, exterior sides (not cockpit sides) and topside of my fiberglass ski boat, can I just use marine topside paint for all of it? Just do the roll and tip method? I’m pretty confused as far as all the different types out there and don’t really know the difference between all of them.

Home Depot and Ace Hardware both have a marine topside paint for like $15 a quart. Will this stuff work? I used some of it to paint some stuff in my cockpit and it looks like it’s turning out pretty good. Goes on pretty smooth..
 

ondarvr

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Apr 6, 2005
Messages
11,527
Re: Painting a fiberglass hull

The home Depot stuff may work very well, but may not be the product you want for a roll and tip type application. The marine topside paints have thinners just for brushing and websites to help walk you through the process. They also have a proven track record with many users on this site, so it's up to you, the name brand marine paints "will" work, the Home Depot stuff "might". There may be others here that have used them though, so they might be able to answer if they give good results.
 

Tail_Gunner

Admiral
Joined
Jan 13, 2006
Messages
6,237
Re: Painting a fiberglass hull

Just a thought here, If you are going to paint your boat you are going to have to prep it. Before you decide on paint id suggest you use a orbital sander 80 grit, take your time cutting or better said ruffing up you old gel.

I was totaly prepared to sand down and refinish a old 93 Starcraft, after spending a great deal of time sanding and trying to get a very well preped surface what i found was a gel coat that was as smooth as a baby's A@@ and had to ask my self why would i not just polish this up with some 220 and then take a buffer to it.

Unfortunatley the other side of the boat had some body work done to it and i could not fade the new paint into the gel, it just wouldnt work (Color)

You might want to see just how good that old gel is under all that old residue you might be surprised.

Interlux Bright Sides is really very cheap and a good selection of color's with primer, fairing, 3 quarts of paint its about $120.00. it just takes quite awhile to dry out would be my only issure.
 

Cptkid570

Ensign
Joined
Oct 18, 2005
Messages
964
Re: Painting a fiberglass hull

Thank you for your responses. And I agree about trying to sand it down first... This boat his pretty scratched and chipped up..plus, the prior owner painted some stripes on there that ran and came out like crap, so I'm kinda leaning towards just experimenting with it and repainting all of it. I don't think I can make it look any worse. I was just making sure that I'm reading correctly about the type of paint to use if/when I paint it. The home depot stuff says it's marine topside paint, but, as you said, it may not be the same quality as the good stuff.

I was reading another post about some other good stuff besides interlux, I may look into that too.
 

Mr Hands

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Aug 14, 2006
Messages
44
Re: Painting a fiberglass hull

Cptkid570 said:
Hi everyone,
I’ve read through a bunch of threads and still can’t make this out -- without getting into too much detail…
If I want to paint the gelcoat, exterior sides (not cockpit sides) and topside of my fiberglass ski boat, can I just use marine topside paint for all of it? Just do the roll and tip method? I’m pretty confused as far as all the different types out there and don’t really know the difference between all of them.

Home Depot and Ace Hardware both have a marine topside paint for like $15 a quart. Will this stuff work? I used some of it to paint some stuff in my cockpit and it looks like it’s turning out pretty good. Goes on pretty smooth..
 

Mr Hands

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Aug 14, 2006
Messages
44
Re: Painting a fiberglass hull

I just got off the phone with Pettit paint.
I don't plan to keep my boat in the water (fresh) more than a day or two at a time and trailer it.
They confirmed that in my case, where I'm sanding down the old paint layers and using epoxy resin as a barier coat, their Easypoxy Undercoater and Easypoxy topcoat should work fine.
Good luck...
 

epresutti

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Aug 14, 2001
Messages
465
Re: Painting a fiberglass hull

Mr. Hands,

I used Easypoxy on my topside with very good results. Used two part Interlux on the hull, also with good results. Key is: if you are not keeping the boat in the water all the time, the topcoats should work fine for what you are doing.

Peace.

Ed.
 

Cptkid570

Ensign
Joined
Oct 18, 2005
Messages
964
Re: Painting a fiberglass hull

Ok, while I'm rambling about this... The topside paint at Home Depot made by rustoleum, is made with alkyd and is not a polyurethane enamel like interlux.

The paint sold by the Ace Hardware where I am is made by Valspar and is a polyurethane enamel.

I looked up alkyd and I guess it's an oil based paint, but I don't have any idea what that is.

The interlux paint (brightside) is only like $15 a quart more than the ones at home depot or ace hardware, so, when you are looking at the overall price of the job, it really doesn't amount to much more money to use a name brand paint.
 
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