Anyone clearcoat their aluminum boat?

[Lion hunter]

Bear with me as this is the first time I ever painted anything of any consequence ( it's not showroom but I am pleased so far). Just got done shooting the second coat of color today. Going to do 1 more coat tommorow. Then I have to paint the cap and gunwales. Should I follow all this with clear coat? If so is there a specific type and how many coats? I'm using rustoleum oil based enamel.

before

After

 

[Rickairmedic]

Re: Anyone clearcoat their aluminum boat?

Well if you want to go reaally nuts you could clear coat it and Rustoleum carries a clear which would be wht I would use as you want your paints to be compatable with each other . I m not going for aa clear coat but I already have so many coats on mine if I dded 2 or 3 of clear she might be to heavy to float LOL.


Rick

 

[Lion hunter]

Re: Anyone clearcoat their aluminum boat?

How much protection does it add? Do I need the clear coat if I ever plan on waxing it?

 

[Rickairmedic]

Re: Anyone clearcoat their aluminum boat?

The only real protection a few coats of clear will add is if you get a light scratch it may not get into the color coats and caan be buffed back out reasonably easy without messing with the color coat . I figure its a boat and its going to get scrtched at some point nd thats why I went with rustoleum cheap and easy to fix a scratch with a little more paint and a buffer . On Cars nowdys a color coat is important as most auto paints today are 2 stage ( base coat + clear coat ) however on your boat it isnt really needed unless you just want the extr protection . The only other thing I will add is it might be easier to keep clean . After the Major rain and flood yesterday I had ALOT of Maple leaves on mine and had to scrub a little where they had sat due to them leaving a brown stain on the white but if you look at my pics from tonight the stains are gone and all I used was a wet terry cloth to clean it up no soap of any kind.


Rick


Rick

 

[Lion hunter]

Re: Anyone clearcoat their aluminum boat?

Read through jcserca thread on his glastron. Someone there tried clear over valspar oil-enamel and it lifted the paint. So I don't think I want to take the chance. After the 1st coat the paint seemed pretty hard any way. Has anyone had any durability issues yet with the rustoleum?

 

[Rickairmedic]

Re: Anyone clearcoat their aluminum boat?

Actually yes jcsersa did have a little scuffing from beaching and a rope rubbing the boat . The thing with clear would be to check with Rustoleum and see if their clear that comes in Gallons is Compatable with the Colored Rustoleum you are using . The person who had lifting issues most likely used a non compatable clear on his . The nice part though if you get a scuff is you can paint over it with the same $9.00 a quart paint instead of the $70.00 a quart paint and I bet it scuffs just as well .


Rick

 

[reelfishin]

Re: Anyone clearcoat their aluminum boat?

I would think that it may be easier to repair damaged paint without clear, if you have a clear coat, then any touch up would require removal and reapplication of the clear. I've run into situations with some automotive paints where the clear coat wasn't conducive to repainting, ever. You are often forced to repaint the whole panel and re-clear coat.

If it's plain enamel, you just touch it up and wet sand or buff and all is well.

 

[henrye718]

Re: Anyone clearcoat their aluminum boat?

Anything that a normal consumer could buy readily is junk. You would be able to scratch it with your finger nail basically it really offers no benifit for protection at that point. IE: stuff you can buy that comes in rattle cans, also you have to worry if the product is submersible, UV proof, make sure it doesnt melt the paint you have on there too.

On the other hand the stuff that comes out of automotive spray guns is a lot tougher but you need all the special gear for that. Bring it to a pro? Brush on the professional products, so you dont kill yourself with toxicity of all that nasty stuff?

 

[ben2go]

Re: Anyone clearcoat their aluminum boat?

Try this www.tinboats.net