Prep for paints

[GB]

Any tips on prepping for new bottom paint and new top side paint?

[Chris L]

Follow the directions from the manufacturer to a T. I used a Petit product on another boat and found great info on their website, followed the instructions and was very happy with the result.

Other than that, what are you looking at doing? Stripping, recoating, etc?

Chris

[GB]

The bottom paint is flaking off pretty good. So maybe just a good scrape and new bottom paint. I have no idea what was on the boat before, might be able to find out but probably not. The top side is some type of one part I'm sure. It is a few years old, not in bad shape. It just looks like the last owner who painted her used a wisk broom for application. Maybe here just sand with orbital sander until smoth and repaint. I'm not sure if I would have to prime or just go over the sanding previous finish?

[Russell]

The problem you have here is the lack of knowledge of what the previous paint was, in both cases. Bottom paint compatability is definately an issue (you dont want a few hundred dollars worth of bottom paint just falling off once you splash due to incompatability!). Likewise with the topsides paint, incompatability can be an issue, for instance you cant use a 2 part paint overtop a 1 part paint.

The ideal situation is of course to strip and start from scratch, but thats a huge undertaking. The easy thing to do is just to paint with appropriate primer before application in both cases.

[GB]

I know that I just want to "roll and tip" with an one part. I not interested in getting crazy, just getting the boat in the water for a full season (short season on Lake Superior). Last year after buying the boat in the spring I spent the summer doing a major fiber glass repair on the keel line. I only got a couple of sails in Sept. and Oct.

[Jim Davis]

With Brightside You can sand it smooth with the orbital (150 grit), then hand sand with 150 wet to an even surface and paint. You can use 220 wet after the first coat. I would recommend cleaning the topsides with lacquer thinner before sanding, and before each coat of paint. This will get any wax off and keep you from grinding it into the surface.

For roll and tip I wipe the surface with lacquer thinner before each layer of paint. This gets any oil off the surface, evaporates quickly and is cheaper than the specialty products. It also does just as well. Also I use the yellow West Epoxy rollers cut to 4 inch length and black foam brushes for tipping. Also add some Penetrol to the paint, it makes it lay out better.

[Russell]

If you are going to go with one part, I think you can put that overtop of most finishes. If you know that the previous finish was one part then you should not need a primer, but a primer would be safe to ensure good ahesion. If you are sure its one part though, good sanding and surface cleaning with mineral spirits or similar should give you good results. If the previous finish though was poor, in that you said it looked like it was applied with a wisk broom, your new finish is going to show that same texture, unless you seriously sand or strip the old finish, primer will help here too to some degree with faring the old paint.

I do agree with the statement of following the manufacturers directions to a T. With one exception though, to get the smoothest possible finish with fewest brush marks, depending on climate, you may have to thin the pain considerably more then recommended. It will take some experimenting to find the right amount of thinning for the paint you pick and the climate you apply it in.