Topside Paint

[jneely]

Our Cape Dory 27 Troika was damaged during this week's Nor'easter when another boat got loose at our boatyard. Deep gouges in the gelcoat over a 3 foot portion of the topsides. I have a wonderful fiberglass guy here and I know he can repair the gelcoat. But matching the color of the gelcoat on a 40 year old hull may be difficult. The suggestion was made that inasmuch as the boat will be stored indoors this winter I should consider having the topsides painted. I would welcome any information members might send regarding experiences with topside paints and their longevity.

[csam57]

I do not know much about painting boats. However, I did recently admire a classic Seafarer Meridian 25 that had been recently painted with Epifanes paint. I don't know which type of Epifanes was used, but the finish was fantastic. I stopped my car and got out on several occasions to admire it. In general, I hate the idea of painting over original gel coat, but if I had to do it, I would not hesitate to use Epifanes. The only problem was that while the topsides were painted, the deck was not, and the difference between the two surfaces was very noticeable.

[Steve Laume]

Paint is a major commitment. Once applied it would be hard to go back to gel coat and it will never look better than the day it goes on. Gel coat can be polished forever when it is as thick as it is on our boats.

A fresh, quality, paint job is beautiful. It also involves a lot of work in preparation and application.

If I was in your situation, I would give your guy his best shot at matching the gel coat. If you couldn't live with the color match, you could always paint over it. The gouges are going to have to be filled anyway, Steve.

[John Stone]

Jneely
I agree with Steve. As someone who has painted his boat twice with Awlgrip, stay with gelcoat as long as you can.

[Nebe]

Epifanes 2 part is great. I just helped a friend do the topsides of his westail 42. Fare and sand the gel coat, prime with awlgrip primer, fare with 220 until the gel oat just shows in places. Ad a 2nd coat of primer and fare again. Then 3 to 4 coats of epifanes. Roll with a fine foam roller and thin the paint so it flows nicely.
I had considered doing my cd 27 and estimated it would cost about $500 in supplies if I remember right.
It comes out beautiful.

[John Ring]

Dinghy.jpg

I rolled & tipped this one ten years ago, using Interlux Perfection (2 part polyurethane). Since then it's spent most summers upside down in the sun, and has weathered it well. (ok, it's New England sun, so it's only 6 months of dim lighting per year at best).

The key to these paints is to sand/fair the hull and the primer perfectly smooth before you roll & tip the paint. Thin the paint, and roll/tip several thin layers. Forget about trying to spray it - you'll need a very high pressure compressor & professional grade spray gun to get the very fine atomization required for a good sprayed polyurethane finish.

It's a lot of work, but these two part polyurethanes look great and last much longer than older one part paints. That being said, I'd stick with gel coat as long as possible. It's always easier to polish gel coat than it is to do a proper job painting a boat.

John Ring
CD36 Tiara.

[tjr818]

Our Cape Dory 27 Troika was damaged during this week's Nor'easter when another boat got loose at our boatyard. Deep gouges in the gelcoat over a 3 foot portion of the topsides. I have a wonderful fiberglass guy here and I know he can repair the gelcoat. But matching the color of the gelcoat on a 40 year old hull may be difficult. The suggestion was made that inasmuch as the boat will be stored indoors this winter I should consider having the topsides painted. I would welcome any information members might send regarding experiences with topside paints and their longevity.

This seems as though it would be the other boats fault, is their insurance paying for the repair? If so I would insist on gelcoat.

[sgbernd]

I have on two occasions had gel coat damage repaired using the Cape Dory factory color matched gel coat. I was concerned that the new fresh stuff would be differently tinted than the old faded colour, but several years later, even if I told you the boat had been repaired, I doubt you could figure out where from the colour. It matched about as good as could be hoped.

Cape Dory used the same colour for a long time and I am not aware of any gel coat tint changes between years. My boat is 1983, so it is possible that there were different tints earlier.

I mail ordered it from a custom gel coat company in Seattle and they will mix to factory specs for most major manufacturers. You just tell them the boat manufacturer (Cape Dory), and if you want paste or spray, with wax or without, and they will mix you a can and mail it to you. It was not cheap but worked very well. Do a search of the posts for Custom Gel coats and you will likely pull them up.

Steve Bernd

[swhfire21]

Between modern computer color matching and a good fiberglass guy you should be able to get a near perfect or unnoticeable repair. Myself, another previous Ty owner/friend and one of his relatives had several repairs done by PF Customs (previously in Waretown,NI ) with great results. Even trained surveyors could not spot the repair of sandy damage on aft quarter of my Ty. True craftsman can make the repair disappear.