Please advise the best way to paint my boat

[Johnny Be Cool]

I have a 1990 Regal 233 XL Ambassador. The prior PO's have spary painted the Hull sometime ago. During that porocess they made any repairs to the hull with Bondo and did a horrible job. There is many waves and pits in the bondo. To make matters worse, they spray painted over it. I just power washed it and most of the bottom spray paint came off.

I want to repaint it using Petite products using the roll & tip method.
I want a nice uniform finish, it doesn't have to be a show piece.

What # sand paper to start with & up to what increment, how to smooth out previous bondo, what to sand outdrive with, it's very crusty.







Thank you!

 

[DeepBlue2010]

Re: Please advise the best way to paint my boat

I am not an expert and I am sure you probably will get a better answer from the experts here but here is what I learned in preparation to do mine.

Bondo Doesn't like water, this was a mistake from the PO.
Start by acetoning the hell out of it. Don't use circular motions. It will spread contamination around. Just drag in one direction and turn the rag to a clean side or replace it if you used all sides.
Use a DA with 220 grit - you may need to go to 150 or even a 100 - but start with 220 and see how it goes.
Get this Bondo out and use marine grade filler.
The primer you will use will tell you what grit to use right before the primer and what grit to use after before the top coat.
This petting on the outdrive I am not sure how to deal with it. It looks like the PO didn't replace the zinc plates at all. Make sure you do that after you fix it.

 

[archbuilder]

Re: Please advise the best way to paint my boat

I'm guessing you are going to need to use 80 grit, I would just try to take off the old paint and start over. Looks like they didn't get very good adhesion. I had spray paint on mine, took it down the the gelcoat where I could get some good adhesion, so far it has worked great. Prime and sand it till you get a good finish and work it up to the recommended grit. I think they recommend 220, but I would check with them.

 

[Johnny Be Cool]

Re: Please advise the best way to paint my boat

There are several areas of bondo repair and I'm guessing bondo due to the crappie job. I really don't have all summer to do the best of jobs. I just want to smooth out any rough areas, sand and paint. DO I NEED TO PRIME THE ENTIRE Area to be painted? Or, do a good job at sanding & cleaning. If there is bondo remains, could I cover over it with a Marine grade filler.

Also, when I was power washing, a lot of the pin stripe blew off leaving the glue residue. How to get the glue off?

What does acetoning do?

Thanks!

 

[DeepBlue2010]

Re: Please advise the best way to paint my boat

Unlike marine fillers, Bondo doesn?t flex well with the boat and it also absorbs moisture. Sooner or later it will fail. Also if the low spots are really deep, you need to fill them with structural filler with fiberglass in it like DuraGlass. Acetone will remove all contaminations that may ruin your topcoat and cause defects like fish eye and such. If the paint you will be using requires priming, sure you will need to prime ? prep in general ? all the surface that will be painted otherwise, there is no guarantees of good adhesion between the paint and the hull. Take preparation as seriously as possible then your final paint job will take only few hours and will look exactly as you want.

Regarding the glue, use this product. You can find it in any auto body supply store

This is what I used to get my glue out.
3M 6041 Citrus Based Spray Adhesive Remover also works great. It is a little hard to find though. I found it in Dunn Lumber. It will work better on the hull than the general purpose one. Whichever you go with, make sure to give it some time to work before wip it down. Just read the instructions and you will be find.
MEK ? in any Lowes or Home depot - will work as well but it is a health hazard. Use it only of you have a good respirator with fume filter as opposed to dust filter of example. Good luck to you

 

[Johnny Be Cool]

Re: Please advise the best way to paint my boat

Thank you for that advise.
I spoke to Petite Paint MFG this morning. They advised to sand the entire boat with 80 grit in order to get a good adhesion, then paint with VIVID FREE using a 3/16 nap roller, no tipping of a brush needed or primimg. The paint will fill all of the roughness done by the 80 grit.
I have a lot of pin stripping that needs to come off, I think taking that off will be the most time consuming. The hull sanding will be done by block and an orbital sander.
That citrus spray looks good, I'll try to locate some.
Thanks!

 

[DeepBlue2010]

Re: Please advise the best way to paint my boat

Good luck. Post some pictures of your progress

 

[Johnny Be Cool]

Re: Please advise the best way to paint my boat

Well, I got some 80 grit and went to it. It was so easy to smooth out the prior POs bondo repair. I guess they were too lazy to smooth it out and just painted over it. Anyway, the rest of the hull the paint came off pretty easy, a lot of air residue. I did discover that the PO left the old badging on the sides and painted over it. I tried sanding that as well but having a more difficult time. I still haven't got down to the decal using 80 grit, so I left it alone for now and thought that since I'm getting new decals, I wonder if I can leave the old on and apply the new over it. It seems too much work and that I might be getting over my head if I try to take the paint down. I've already got down to the fiberglass on the corner. I'll give Petite Paints a call tomorrow.

As for the stripping residue. I was able to get a can of 3M adhesive remover for decals & woodgrain trim. The citrus was not available. It looks like you have to take off the top layer of striping then apply the remover on the glue. Very hard work and very slow to complete.

How was your glue removal done and what process did you use.

Anyones advise is welcomed.!!!!!

 

[DeepBlue2010]

Re: Please advise the best way to paint my boat

I took my time removing the decals first with a plastic scraper and a hair dryer. Just get a one end off and apply heat. the rest will come off easy.

 

[Johnny Be Cool]

Re: Please advise the best way to paint my boat

I tried the hair dryer and it was of no use. In fact I let it blow on the sticker for a very long time and still noyhing came off. However, I did find a way to remove them. I took a straight razor and pushed on an angle while the decals were dry, this allowed the top layer to come off and the glue residue was then picked up by th eremover.

Now I have a delmia. I like the look with out the stripes but the area under where the stripes sat looks shinny and new. I wonder do I have to wet sand that area. What do I need to do to get the rest of the hull to shine.
Here's a picture of the boat from last year, looks good at 30 feet. After I had it docked at the Marina for 3 months the bottom paint started to peel off.


I debating if I should repaint the top red stripe or just wet sand that as well.

 

[Bobby77]

Re: Please advise the best way to paint my boat

I am of the mind to remove what I dont like and redo it. As for the decals, get a heat gun and just get them warm or even on a hot day use a straight blade and carefully work at it. If the decals are old and have shrinked to the point they are split and cracked there is a wheel you can put on an electric drill to remove vinyl, works real well. Probably get one at NAPA, West Marine or Eastwood has a vinyl eraser.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Please advise the best way to paint my boat

Previous repairs scare the heck out of me. We dont really know what they covered up. Are you Sure there isnt busted up glass under the filler ..

Just to sand and paint at this point could be a bad idea. You should probably investigate whats under the filler before you spend time and money on your finish.

Good luck.

YD.

 

[Johnny Be Cool]

Re: Please advise the best way to paint my boat

Previous bondo repair isn't that bad. It just needs to be smoothed out. So far I've been able to get all of the stripes off and glue residue. Now I'm at a crossroad. As you can see in the above picture the boat is two tone Red/White. I'm only painting the Red. How do I bring back the shine to the white without having to paint it. Do I take care of the white before painting the red or do I paint rhe Red then take care of the white.
I wanted to wet sand the white and then buff it out. What is the process on wet sanding & buffing?
I don't want to go backwards on this job, so please steer my in the right order of operations. Thank you!

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Please advise the best way to paint my boat

Previous bondo repair isn't that bad. It just needs to be smoothed out.

And you know this how ?

I can only go by pics .. and I have no clue whats under that bondo ( or even if its been prepped properly ).

*Story*

Back in 1990 in St. Thomas .. here comes a 45' blow boat up to the dock..bumps the stem of the boat onto the break wall ( Not fast..just bumped it ). A 3'X3'x1/4" Bondo fill Falls off the boat. Im not kidding lol..Splash !

We called that guy " bondo Bob " ..

Underside of that repair was fractured glass and the owner ended up spending 3k ( 500 bucks more than the original repair cost ) for a redo re-prep repair.

YD.

 

[Johnny Be Cool]

Re: Please advise the best way to paint my boat

OK. Understood, but would like to get back to my original question regarding if I should wet sand the white section of the boat first before rolling on the red paint or vice versa!

 

[Johnny Be Cool]

Need More advice on Hull Paint job!

Need More advice on Hull Paint job!

Sanded bottom and Red sections of Hull with 80 Grit, will be filling small nicked areas with Vinylester marine puddy. I will be rolling on Pettit Vivid Paint.

1, Do I need to prime the repaired areas.

2, The top Red stripe area has inlets for water, electric and cleats. How do you roll around something like that if it can't be taken off. Is a brush possible with this paint.

3. The white areas of the boat, I would like to wetsand and buff to shine.
Do I do this before rolling or after

4, If I do buff before rolling, do I use a dewaxer on the entire hull

 

[Johnny Be Cool]

Re: Need More advice on Hull Paint job!

Re: Need More advice on Hull Paint job!

Anybody?