How to paint 12 foot fiberglass saiboat ??

[xrunner]

Me and my friends own old 12 foot sailboat made of fiberglass so we start discusing paint job, considering none of us has any experience in that matter I could use pretty much all advices I can get...do we have to take old paint off ? if so how? What kind of paint and what metod ( or tool) should be used ? At the end we don't realy need showroom example, but we're willing to put some affort and make it looks nice...how much paint do we need...etc. Thank you all for your time...

 

[oops!]

Re: How to paint 12 foot fiberglass saiboat ??

welcome to i boats.....

just about every kind of paint imaginable has been discussed on these forums at one time or another.....from rustolieum to immeron....

there are detailed pics and procedures here.

prep is the key.....

some near fameous examples are awlgrip.....and immeron....(sp?)

search paint.....roll and tip....

read the compleated projects forum....

one of our gurus here named "QC" is painting a woodie...(stunning boat)...
he goes in to great detail on paint...including what not to buy....and has pics of the finished project.....

search "monaco".....if that doesnt work....sometimes the search engine is finickey).....find a post by QC in the i/o section....click his name ....and look at find all posts.....then click on monaco.

cheers
oops

 

[xrunner]

Re: How to paint 12 foot fiberglass saiboat ??

Thanks 4 your welcome ! Will make sure to read everything I can find, sometimes just afraid that most of posts aply to advanced level of restoration while I'm still at the very basic "where do I start?" point...however thanks for your tips and cheers !

 

[fdmsiv]

Re: How to paint 12 foot fiberglass saiboat ??

You first have to answer a couple of questions like:

Is this boat going to sit in the water for extended amounts of time (+2 days or so)

How often do you want to paint?

How important is the finish of the paint?

These types of questions will steer you in the direction for product selection.

Physically you have to clean the bottom of the boat. Once the hull is nice and clean you are going to have to sand the entire hull. You don't have to get all of the old paint off, you will quickly develop a feel for what is good paint and what is bad.

Once everything is clean and sanded, start looking for cracks, scratches, dings, and stuff like that you can fill. Fill every thing you can, and repeat the sanding process.

After everything is filled and sanded, you need to follow the directions for the primer, but most involve wiping down the surface with some chemical to remove every last trace of dirt, sand, dust, wax, and oils.

 

[i386]

Re: How to paint 12 foot fiberglass saiboat ??

I'll add to what the previous poster said.

Once you decide on a particular finish. Start reading the documentation on that paint. It will tell you which primers are compatible and how to prepare the surface.

If you don't have spray equipment and all the safety equipment required for spraying, you also have the option to roll the paint.

There are quite a few systems out there designed for this type of application. The idea is to use a closed cell foam roller and the "tip off" with a brush. The paint is formulated to level out so that it doesn't look like it was brushed. I'm in the process of doing this now. Many others on the forum have already completed the process.

Do some research on:

Interlux Perfection
Interlux Brightside
Awlgrip
System 3
Petit EasyPoxy

Search YouTube, for "interlux perfection"

There are others, but that will get you started.

 

[gcboat]

Re: How to paint 12 foot fiberglass saiboat ??

How do you paint a 12' boat? Why with a 12' brush of course.

YUP !!!!

 

[xrunner]

Re: How to paint 12 foot fiberglass saiboat ??

12' brush, hahahahhaa ...this forum is so much fun, well I appreciate reply from fdmsiv and i386. At this point I know that old paint pretty much has to be removed, sanded...at least most of it. Well to answer few important questions, boat is sitting on a trailer and mostly weekends are when we tow it to the ramp on huron river (MI), than we cruise around 4 few hrs fishing and tow it back to the parking lot...so its not sitting in the water overnite...when it comes to how much time we can invest in the project I'm thinking weekends... let's say 5-6 hours...is that enough time to perform any decent job ??