Well Jupiter and Mars have finally came into alignment and I painted my GF16. Well most everything except the bottom. I will need to get a flipping party together soon. Some new pics are posted in the gallary under the JeffS folder.
Everything went better than expected. I used S3 wimbly white paint. This stuff was really easy and forgiving to work with. I went out an purchased a wagner fine spray HVLP spray gun for kit for $100 US. I have read all the posts concerning cheap HVLP units, but this worked way better that what I would have ever expected. I think the quality of the paint had something to do with it as well as the temp outside ~72 deg C and not very humid.
The first two coats I thinned the paing with 10% distilled water. The first coat I just started painting with out really any practice, I found that the preasure level of around 3 and a vertical spray worked best. I had a back-up plan in place just incase it went bad. I bought a bunch of those 6" extra fine smooth rollers to roll and tip with just in case. I put the first coat on a tid bit heavy, then used a roller to smooth it out. I worked in small sections; like the casting deck or one of the campartments. Covering an area of about 3'x3' then used the roller. If I used the roller too soon, I would get bubbles even on a thin layer of paint. This was ok, the more I lightly worked the paint with the roller the more the bubbles would go away. If I waited a little longer (5-10 minutes) then I could roll it with no bubbles forming. Then the paint did the rest. It would flatten out to a near perfect finish. It took about 1.5 hrs an 1L of paint to do the first coat. By this time the first section was dry and ready for the next coat. The paint did not set up in the cup of the sprayer.
Here is what I did to mix up the paint. First I measured in a metric measuring cup. 450 mls. paint and 50 mls. distilled H20. I bought a pyrex glass cup and it cleaned up easy with water. I used a plastic spoon to mix. I then strained the paint with a paint strainer into the HVLP cup.
After the first coat I shot the next coat with 10% thinned paint. In a couple of spots, under the rub and spray rails usually, I got a couple of drips. When this happened and the paint had set for 10 min or so, I used the fine roller to fix the problem. The paint would then flatten out really nice as not to notice. I was able to shoot the whole boat (excluding the bottom) in about 30 min.
Since I was painting outside, I would get a little crud landing on the paint. If I could remove it right away i would. But this stuff was setting so fast, that it was most of it would flick right off in 30 min.
A couple of days later I gave it two more coats. This time I thinned to 20% with distilled H20. I could do one complete coat with about 750 ml. of thinned paint. This sprayed nice and I would just spray it on and go on to the next section. The paint flattend out great to a nice thin coat. After this coat, I cleaned the gun with H20 and painted my last coat.
I started by painting the inside stuff so I did not have to wory about leaning on the paint. Once the inside parts were shot, I went all the way around the boat. This HVLP has a 20' hose so that came in handy. I did not have to move the unit but once on my trip around.
I did not sand between coats. Tonight me and the kids (7, 7 and 4 yrs old) light sanded the whole boat. I used those sanding sponges. One was a block style that was fine grit and the other was an extra fine sponge sheet (3M). I got a bucket of water to clean off the paint an cuple of rags to dry up the slop. We worked with wet sponge blocks. This worked great to knock off the dust specks. You could not see them but you could feel them when you rubbed with your hand. Also, since they are sponge backed, I did not have to wory about sanding too hard or through the finish. This is nice when you let the kids go at your nice finish with sand paper. No problems and everyone got some work in.
Now I am ready for my last couple of cross linked coats, Will let you know how this goes. I do not plan to sand much after this.
Anyone wax over there S3 paint instead of gloss coat. I think I would rather do this. It is cheap and I got one of those 10" car buffers that is fun to play with. Only real problem I can see is touch up years later, when I would have to strip some wax before painting. Let me know what the pros and cons of this idea is.
Oh yea, I still have 1/3 of a gallon of paint left. For those of you keeping score at home. I plan to use some bottom paint for the bottom. Any preferences for bottom paint?
JeffS
Pics of my mostly painted GF16
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nice job!!!
really nice lookin boat. can't wait to get to that point on my gf14. so far i have the sides and bottom cut out. the butt blocks and some of the frames.
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re:
It looks really good. I'm so close but still so far away from getting mine to that point. I'm really thinking hard about shying a way from the white.
I really want to get as classic looking as I can and still have her painted with no clear wood, but ideas are just ideas untill I put them in motion.
I really want to get as classic looking as I can and still have her painted with no clear wood, but ideas are just ideas untill I put them in motion.
If waves go surfing, if no waves go fishing. It's
- stickystuff
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- Location: Crystal River, Fl.
Thanks for the nice remarks everyone. It has cooled up to much to get my last clear cross-linked coat on. I am hoping for one more nice day to do that and then maybe wait for the spring to do the bottom and rebuild the carb on my outboard.
Brian, good to hear from you hope you are doing fine. Almost brought my kids around near your hood for trick or treats. I have another friend that lives about two block from you. Do not bust your boat up too much, otherwise I wont be able to tell the damage I inflict on your boat from the chicken match.
Oh, yea, the pics make the boat look really white, but it is sort of an off white. I think Brians is thermal nuclear white, but have not seen it yet. Maybe we can get together around thanksgiving and drinks a couple and tell some lies at each other.
JeffS
Brian, good to hear from you hope you are doing fine. Almost brought my kids around near your hood for trick or treats. I have another friend that lives about two block from you. Do not bust your boat up too much, otherwise I wont be able to tell the damage I inflict on your boat from the chicken match.
Oh, yea, the pics make the boat look really white, but it is sort of an off white. I think Brians is thermal nuclear white, but have not seen it yet. Maybe we can get together around thanksgiving and drinks a couple and tell some lies at each other.
JeffS
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