Thread: David Gomm - New OZ PDRacer Lug Rig Variant under construction in Perth WA

Originally Posted by dhgomm

Just for the record, when I broke my ankle, my red cast didn't come off any faster !!!, I just like red hulls on boats, if it goes any faster than any other color, it's more likeley to be because a high gloss finish has less friction than matt or seni-gloss paints ( however slight the difference may be !!! ).

Hi David

Mick is right. Red is the by far the fastest paint you can get. What he didn't tell you is that red sails also attract the wind.

These are little known facts passed on to only a select few, which is why I'm telling you so you can get the jump on your competitors. Now keep this to yourself for a while. Now that you're in the "know", you may only pass this secret on once in your lifetime.

Your boat is looking very cool by the way....

Hi Everyone,

I seem to be getting into the groove now, the first coat of red enamel has just been sanded back with 120 grit aluminium oxide sandpaper, and is getting much smoother.

I will be painting another coat on Tomorrow, hopefully I will get away with just a light sand using 240 grit sandpaper of Tomorrows paint when dry in about a week, before applying the final coat.

Here is a picture of Todays sanding back of the first red paint coat.
Attachment 142257

There will be another picture to come, Tomorrow after it's been painted again.

Hi David, My browser has gone funny, so if I have lost the paragraphs it is not me! The 120 is Ok is the paint is pretty rough. I think you will have to be around 220 the next time you sand otherwise there will probably be scratches that the next coat of paint won't quite fill. Best wishes MIK

Hi Michael,

You must have missed me mentioning that I will be using 240 grit sandpaper to sand the next coat, but your advice confirms that I made the right choice !.

Hi Everyone,

Here is the picture of the second coat of red enamel, only one or two coats left to go now !.

Attachment 142309

Hi David,

Nice even coat :). You are going to be beat me to the water - I've put my all my painting and resin-coating on hold until we get warmer and drier weather over here in Sydney (this is partly because of the materials being used - and mostly because of my neurotic fussiness ;).

Cheers,
Alex.

Hi Alex,

I am a also a perfectionist, but I try to temper this with a dose of reality, I once spent the better part of 18 months painting the deck of a 3'6" R/C model yacht I made, after 2 coats of undercoat and 10 coats of enamel heated to about 60 degrees c before application ( sanding back between each coat ) I ended up with an close as humanly possible flawless mirror finish, which looks as good today as it did over 15 years ago when I painted it with 100ml tins of "Dulux" exterior grade household paint !,

That was the example of perfectionism personified !, it was only later that I realised that to repair the tiniest imperfection ( which would have shown up like a sore thumb on a dog ! ), I would need to sand it back extensively and repaint the entire surface with at least another 5 coats of paint to even have it look close to as good as it was before that I decided never to go to such extremes again !!!.

Fortunately I never damaged the paintwork at any time, or you can imagine how upset I would have been !!!.

Although my PDRacer may look almost as good in the photograph, it is never going to have the same level of finish as the deck of that model yacht which probably varied about 1 micron over the entire length from the absolute painters idea of perfect smoothness, a sheet of glass or a glass mirror, which is just as well because full size boat hulls are far more likely to need repairs etc, and at least I will have the satisfaction that the repair won't take forever to do, but will still be able to look like it was never damaged !!!.

Unfortunately I seem to have ended up with another Sinus Infection, sanding back the enamel paint with a 1/3rd sheet orbital sander without a dust mask probably didn't help !, but I learn from new experiences ! ( I only got the electric sander to do this boat, prevoiously I had only ever sanded back anything with a sanding disk in the drill, and never painted surfaces !, I always did them by hand ).

As yet I don't know how much of a delay this will cause to my progress with the painting, but I will definitely be using a dust mask in future as the paint dust is very fine and seems to go everywhere !.

Originally Posted by dhgomm

Hi Alex,

<el snippo... >

Although my PDRacer may look almost as good in the photograph, it is never going to have the same level of finish as the deck of that model yacht which probably varied about 1 micron over the entire length from the absolute painters idea of perfect smoothness, a sheet of glass or a glass mirror, which is just as well because full size boat hulls are far more likely to need repairs etc, and at least I will have the satisfaction that the repair won't take forever to do, but will still be able to look like it was never damaged !!!. :2tsup:

Hi David,

I have to be reminded repeatedly - because I forget - that the Big Bad World(TM) out there is sharpening its teef, to sink 'em savagely into my beautiful new boat.

Funnily enough - strangely even - I checked the BoM's long-range forecast (LRF) just after posting to your thread the other day. At that stage I had a reasonable window of opportunity of several days from tomorrow (Sunday) where it was supposedly going to be both relatively warm and relatively dry. That has since change quite a bit - now the window has shut somewhat - a lot - and it is now supposedly going to be relatively colder and relatively wetter. Of course, I did the delousing of the hull surface, and evicted the dust-chucking spiders and their webs (again), before checking the LRF this evening.

Then again, "chance of a shower", "a shower or two" and "showers developing" seems to be BoM-speak for "we've got to say this even though it's not going to rain at all, in case someone sues us for not forecasting rain when in fact it does".

I'll stick my snout in the morning and see what it thinks about the weather, and proceed from there...for the hull painting that is. The resin is a completely different bucket o' snakes, and that is being deferred until at least a suggestion of much warmer and drier weather.

Cheers,
Alex.

Hi Everyone,

My Sinus Infection has not responded to the first lot of anti-biotics, so my doctor has given me a different lot to continue with !.

The weather has not been helpfull either, with occasional showers falling Yesterday & Today, with at least the possibility of continuing for another day or more !.

So I will need to wait untill, at least, the middle of next week to continue the painting etc. on my PDRacer, at least the rain is really needed.

Hi Everyone,

I have just completed the painting of the 3rd red enamel coat of paint, it is still not blocking out the patches where I sanded back a bit too vigorously, nor is it as smooth as I would like, so I will have to keep painting on another coat at least untill it is a solid red all over. the picture makes it look much better than it really is.

Attachment 143720

Hi Everyone,

Please remind me never to paint something while I have a Sinus Infection, there are several patches of dust evident in the finish and to save time I just dusted with a microfiber mit, instead of washing down the hull with a damp cloth as I did on every previous coat.

There are even a few minor dribble patches on one side, at least there is nothing that won't sand out reasonably well prior to applying the next coat, that's at least some consolation.

Since about last Friday, I have been very sick, but am over the worst of it, hopefully by sometime next week, I will be well enough to fix the painting problem, and apply another coat of paint.

This time I will definitely wait until I feel better than I was when I did the last coat of paint, before going anywhere near the boat again !!!.

The important thing is to at least learn from mistakes !!!.

I can truly sympathise with the problems, and frustration Alex has been having with his PDRacer recently, hopefully others won't also have these sorts of problems, after reading about ours.

Originally Posted by dhgomm

<snip...>

I can truly sympathise with the problems, and frustration Alex has been having with his PDRacer recently, hopefully others won't also have these sorts of problems, after reading about ours.

Hi David,

I trust that you are a lot better - stay off the paint fumes and the dust .

You've got a very good excuse for slow progress - I don't, as most of the problems are self-induced. The one exception is faulty goods, i.e., disintegrating foam rollers while using International Brightside marine polyurethane paint. My painting tent works well though, and keeps the heat in and the dust out .

Keep up your good work .

Cheers,
Alex.

Hi Alex,

Having faulty, or substandard rollers to paint with is hardly your fault, If a product is sold it is reasonable to expect it to at least do what it's designed for !, I have been using the cheap Uni-Pro rollers, ( Little Ripper 85mm Baby, yellow foam roller covers intended for doing trims around doors and windows etc. ), for my acrylic undercoat, they work fine with that, I applied all three coats, with a week between coats, using the same roller without problems ( but is was showing signs that it was about due for replacement, it kept slipping off the handle for the last quarter of the 3rd coat, but not showing any intention of disintegrating ).

When used for the fibreglass resin, after 1 coat ( without letting the roller dry out ) they were finished, but at least lasted for the full coat without disintegrating, using them again caused them to disintegrate after applying resin over less than 1 metre square.

The label on the twin pack said the rollers were suitable for all paints ( fibreglass resin is not a paint ! ), and because I have never used enamel paint with a roller, I did not even try with these, as paint brushes ( other than the cheap black bristle variety ) are so much easier to clean up in turps, than rollers, and last much longer, while still producing quite good results provided you remember to brush in multiple directions ( to remove the brush strokes as much as possible ), with lighter strokes for each direction change.

It is possible to get a better finish with a paint brush than any roller I have ever seen, either by heating the paint, or thinning it slightly to make it flow better, which can completely eliminate all visible brush strokes with practise ( I have not had nearly enough practise recently to consider using this method reliably on my PDRacer.

I hope everything else goes smoothly, and without any further problems, as you have had more than your fair share, let others have some of them too ! ( not that I would wish any problems on anyone else either ! ).

Hi David,

All the Uni-"Pro" rollers I've used have either delaminated and/or disintegrated in use with either epoxy, and disintegrated with paint (and I class Brightside PU as a "normal" paint). You are right - the rollers should do what they're advertised to do on the box ("For all paints" - yeah, right). I'll never use a Uni-"Pro" roller again.

Regarding brushes, I was able to get a mirror-smooth, brush-mark-less finish in polyurethane with a brush some years ago - and am tempted to go back to the brush. The thing is that I've got a bee in my bonnet about mastering the roller now, and therein lies my problem ;). Well, one of them...