Paint recommendations - fresh water, marina slip

[renns]

I'm working on an old 16 ft boat similar to the Starcraft SS16, and have been mulling over paint options. I have some limited auto body repair/paint experience, but am green with marine ;-). I have read woodonglass's excellent summary here, but it states for 'trailer queen only'.

What are the paint recommendations for boats that remain in fresh water for the whole cottage season (6 months)? For boats used in this manner, would a bare hull be more suitable? I see many welded aluminum utility boats on our lake, and they appear to be bare aluminum, some with stripe along the top. We could do something like that if it would look decent over time. Any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated.

 

[jdvasher]

I'm working on an old 16 ft boat similar to the Starcraft SS16, and have been mulling over paint options. I have some limited auto body repair/paint experience, but am green with marine ;-). I have read woodonglass's excellent summary here, but it states for 'trailer queen only'.

What are the paint recommendations for boats that remain in fresh water for the whole cottage season (6 months)? For boats used in this manner, would a bare hull be more suitable? I see many welded aluminum utility boats on our lake, and they appear to be bare aluminum, some with stripe along the top. We could do something like that if it would look decent over time. Any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated.

I don't have any results yet but I am prepping to paint my boat now. After a lot of searching and phone calls to suppliers, I decided to go with interlux. there are some other great paints out there but it seamed like a good system for my application. It wasn't cheap paint but much more reasonable than some other brands. Here is the link to my build if you want to see how it turns out. https://forums.iboats.com/threads/1968-starcraft-holiday-restoration.724700/

Also, it took around 4 months for all of my paint to arrive due to shortages so plan for that. Most places will show it in stock, only when you purchase, you find out its on back order.

 

[Scott Danforth]

aluminum or fiberglass boat

if fiberglass, your two choices are gel coat or barrier coat and 3 layers of bottom paint
if aluminum, factory finish is baked on. however a good 2-part marine epoxy (hopefully white, as that is the least expensive)

 

[renns]

jd - thanks, will review your thread for more info. Bummer to hear the delays in shipment for those paints. Hopefully I can find some stock nearby.
Scott - aluminum hull, like the old Starcraft SS16. I'm in the paint stripping phase, currently, trying to figure out what's the best step moving forward.

 

[Scott Danforth]

jd - thanks, will review your thread for more info. Bummer to hear the delays in shipment for those paints. Hopefully I can find some stock nearby.
Scott - aluminum hull, like the old Starcraft SS16. I'm in the paint stripping phase, currently, trying to figure out what's the best step moving forward.

If your old paint is adhering good, I would scuff and shoot vs removing completely . if you remove, you must chemically etch, use an etching primer, then a 2-part epoxy

 

[renns]

The old fella I bought it from painted the boat with his grandkids using what appears to be house paint. There's at least three coats overtop, which I've now removed. During that stripping adventure, the base coat came off in different areas. I may leave the bottom areas, but acid-etch, and self-etching prime the sides.

The boat will be used primarily as a cottage shuttle/water taxi moving our family, guests, and gear back and forth to our property. I've seen those welded aluminum hull boats on our lake, and they are all bare aluminum. Seems like a good option for a boat to avoid the inevitable paint scuffs and scratches a utility boat will see.

 

[jdvasher]

jd - thanks, will review your thread for more info. Bummer to hear the delays in shipment for those paints. Hopefully I can find some stock nearby.
Scott - aluminum hull, like the old Starcraft SS16. I'm in the paint stripping phase, currently, trying to figure out what's the best step moving forward.

I did find some available through a couple sellers on ebay. always questionable but might be worth a try if you need it faster. Im really hoping I dont end up running short.

 

[jdvasher]

Im not very knowledgeable about paint but you might want some sort of aluminum safe antifouling paint if its going to stay in the water. Im going with 2part epoxy primer for the base, regular primer over that and then topside paint for final but it wont stay in the water. There are definitely cheaper ways to paint a boat as well.