Ryan,
An outstanding job. Excellent gloss. Thanks for sharing your experience. Jake Jake Brodersen C&C 35 Mk-III “Midnight Mistress” Hampton VA From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Ryan Doyle via CnC-List Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2016 11:46 To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com Cc: Ryan Doyle <ryanpdo...@gmail.com> Subject: Stus-List My Experience and Mistakes With Interlux Brightside/Interlux Prekote Hey all, I've got the day off, so I wanted to post my experience as a first-time boat painter repainting the topsides of my 1976 C&C 30 with Interlux Brightside and Interlux Prekote. I made some small, but dumb mistakes during this process. I'm sure the experts will have a little laugh at my expense, but hopefully this post will save other first-time painters some grief. When I bought my boat back in October, I knew I was going to repaint her. The hull was robin's egg blue... which many people think is a beautiful color, but I don't. The paint job was sloppy with lots of thick brush marks, and it had been worn off in a few places from rubbing of her lines and fenders. This was the state of her hull before: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8g8d5sXYVWGMGt4dHNRS0tZSXM https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8g8d5sXYVWGRGJaVTFUa0FKcTA I spent my mornings before work this winter rewiring the entire boat - crawling around in cockpit lockers and getting covered in 40-year-old boat grime. So when the weather broke and it was finally time to paint, I was excited to work outside. I bought 8 cans of Steel Gray Interlux Brightside (A.K.A. Way Too Much... but more on that later) and 2 cans of Gray Interlux PreKote from defender.com <http://defender.com> for a total of $351.90 before shipping. When the paint arrived, I carefully taped off the toe rail at the top, and the line where the bottom paint starts with Scotch Blue Painter's tape. Looking like a CDC agent in my 3m respirator, gloves, and cover-alls, I got to work sanding. If you read online, you'll quickly learn that sanding is the key to a nice finish. Thankfully, I took this advice seriously. I sanded the old paint off using 150 grit pads on my cheap Black and Decker orbit sander. I sanded until I could just see the old paint disappear, then I moved on to a new section until I had gone over the whole hull. I then wiped down the whole hull with a rag soaked in Interlux 333 brushing liquid Sanded: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8g8d5sXYVWGNGVFWUp4YkpSemM https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8g8d5sXYVWGS2Q4bmJhU2JXaWM I hit those old decals with a blast from my heat gun and they peeled right off. Now it was time to prime. I was nervous when I opened the first can of Interlux PreKote because the stuff was completely separated - the solids were all on the bottom of the can. I thought maybe I had bought bad paint and I was also concerned that the weather - then hovering around 55-60 degrees was too cold to apply it. I took my drill with a mixing bit and mixed up the paint as best I could. This got it to a nice consistency. Donning zero protective clothing - just an old pair of gym shorts, an old tee shirt and brand new sandals - I took a foam roller and rolled on one coat of primer. This primer was very thick and I thought it did a nice job filling imperfections. Here's where I made dumb mistake #1: I got covered in paint. I have plenty of experience with interior house paints, and at the time I thought, "No biggie. I'll just rise it off with a hose." Hah. As I wet my hands, the water just beaded up and my hands stuck together. "Oh yeah. Boat paint." Not wanting to use nasty paint thinners to remove it from skin, I went home and used high percentage rubbing alcohol and a towel. With a lot of elbow grease, this took the paint and a few layers of skin off quite nicely. I then waited a day for the primer on the boat to dry. The next morning, I sanded it. Sanding will be a recurring theme in this post. I used 150 grit discs again and worked to get the surface as smooth as possible. In tough, uneven places, I sometimes sanded the primer completely away, trying to get the surface smooth knowing that I was going to apply another coat. I then wiped the whole hull with a damp rag to remove the sanding dust and rolled on another coat of Interlux PreKote - this time with coveralls on. The next day I sanded again with 220 grit. Got it to a nice, smooth finish, and wiped the hull down again with a damp rag. Now before I get into the finish coating, I want to say I have always been confused by the phrase "roll and tip". This makes it sound way more complicated than it is. The definition, as far as I know, of the word "tip" has nothing to do with what you actually do. For the amateurs out there, I think the process could be more clearly described as "roll and brush". This is the best YouTube video I've found of how to roll and tip/brush: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-SGcSlNmoo The helpful guys at my local West Marine told me to paint a full section of the boat at one time - IE the whole transom, or all the starboard topsides, so it's harder to see the lines between applications. I found this to be good advice. I started at the port stern and rolled on the first finish coat of Brightside with a foam roller in a 2' section. I then took my much-too-expensive Purdy brush and lightly brushed from right to left - starting at the bottom in the air off the transom, going lightly over the applied paint, and lifting off as the brush went forward into the non-painted area. If you apply too much paint, it will curtain and run down when you move on to the next section. Too little paint, and it doesn't cover. You just need to do it a few times before you get the right amount. I repeated this process all over the boat, overlapping each painted section slightly. The next morning I found my much-too-expensive Purdy brush under my boat and covered in hardened paint. I had left it there by accident. Instead of getting some solvent, working the heck out of it to get it clean, and probably ending up with a gnarled brush, I went to Home Depot and bought a bag of cheap foam applicator brushes. I then very lightly sanded the whole hull again with a 320 grit sanding block. I started on finish coat 2 with a new foam roller and this time tipping (brushing) with one of the cheap 3" foam brushes. I actually liked the finish I got with the cheap foam brush better than the expensive Purdy. Then I applied another coat. By the time I had finished the third coat of Brightside, I had used only 5 quarts of my 8. I don't think I applied it to thinly, but maybe I did. Time will tell. I then taped off the C&C stripe and stars and applied 3 coats of White Interlux Brightside there. In the end, I was happy with the results. I'd give my paint job a B+. It doesn't look like a new boat's finish, but she sure looks a heck of a lot better than she did. I'm curious to see how long three coats of this stuff lasts. I plan to wax the hull before I put her in the water for some added protection. My biggest problem now is that the deck looks dirty in comparison to the hull... So I'll be painting that now too. Here are photos of the finished product: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8g8d5sXYVWGMzhwcmV5bTRZLUU https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8g8d5sXYVWGVmQ3ejZvT3hOZGc https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8g8d5sXYVWGU2ZRZVJhVm1yVkE https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8g8d5sXYVWGeXh6UVBWR1lXTm8 https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8g8d5sXYVWGS0NqS0oxSV9KTGs I hope some people find this post helpful. Ryan
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