Thread: Another OZ MK2 PDRacer build in Sydney "Wood Duck"

Howdy MIK,

Many thanks for the advice :). It was fortunate that I actually did nothing on the boat at all today, as I was tidying and moving stuff in the storage area of the workshop and in the house <gasp>.

This was in part because I wanted to ponder what next steps to take with the sanding, and happily your email has done just that! Snap! I've already gone close to removing too much paint on a small section of chine - it is so easy to do, so I know where that comment of yours is coming from ;). Had I gone on with the paintwork without your advioce, I would no doubt have ended up in more of a mess than the current "patchwork quilt" produced yesterday (Thursday).

I've got quite a bit of 400-grit white AlOx wet-and-dry paper, so I'll try using that with the slightly soapy water (it was far too fine when used dry). If the 400-grit can't cut it used wet, I'll drop back to some black 360-grit wet-and-dry that I have in hand. The "added Teflon" - as it says on the "Brightside" tin - certainly makes the surface of the paint very slippery!

Hopefully I'll get more of an opportunity to do some sanding tomorrow or Sunday.

Cheers,
Alex.

I wouldn't go any finer than those ones. Too fine and you lose too much adhesion.

I think 280 to 320 is optimal getting up towards the end of the process.

MIK

Howdy MIK,

Ah... I'd already sanded the hull bottom with 400-grit before I read your email: here are a couple of photos showing what I did with some 400-grit paper late this arvo and this evening:

1. Hull after wet-sanding with cork block and 400-grit white AlOx wet-and-dry paper. The paint came off very quickly with fresh paper...





2. Better view of sanded hull bottom. Not sure whether the "pattern" is a result of this sanding or the sanding of the of the undercoat


Follow this link to my Flickr account to see these and more in glorious colour...



I'm considering taking the rest of the yellow coat right off and starting again, possibly with another coat of undercoat first, but haven't fully decided yet. And after your comment above, some roughening up with 320-grit sounds in order - so another coat of undercoat will probably be needed in case I end up baring most of the grey primer.

Cheers,
Alex.

Howdy ... don't take off all the yellow - it is telling you where the highs and lows are. The following yellow will cover it fine.

I would guess most of that is from the glassing and sanding with a block is flattening it down very nicely.

Sometimes they put different tints in the different coats of undercoat so they can see these sanding patterns and know where they are at.

MIK

Howdy MIK,

I fortunately read your post immediately above before I did any further sanding on the hull today :). I dropped back to 360-grit paper (black set-and-dry) and skimmed lightly over the hull bottom to roughen it up a bit, then did the remaining panels. I had intended that this would be a "fill" coat after seeing the scratches and so forth on the white undercoat. It looks rather "wood albino leopard" rather than a "wood duck" ;). The effect when viewed close-up is rather eye-watering! The photos show how it all ended up - although without quite the actual eye-watering effect of the real thing, fortunately:

1. "Fill coat sanding complete: port side, bow and bottom. Note the relatively colour-dense and therefore slightly flatter (because stiffer) area at the stern end of the port side...





2. "Fill" coat sanding complete: starboard side, bow and bottom. Quite a bit of yellow missing from this side - lots and lots of "orange peel" roller-stipple in the undercoat, that I hadn't sanded out earlier. For the same reason as on the port side, the area on the side at the stern has had less paint removed...





3. "Fill" coat sanding complete: stern and hull bottom. The stern transom panel is the stiffest on on the boat, because of its small size and the supportive framing. It was thus easier to get flat(ter). The sanding pattern also suggests that the panel is bowing out slightly in the centre; or it was flexing a bit in the centre as I was sanding...





4. Something a bit different: a rather murky-looking foils board. The clear timber can only be seen in relatively small patches, see also the bottom RH corner in photo 3 above for a close-up. The other side pf the foils board is just as bad. This is why the board will need sanding back to the glass, and if too much of the glass is lost in the process, I'll sand the lot off as far back to the wood as I can, and re-coat with glass when the weather is warmer and drier. The bright patch on the board the desk lamp used to illuminate (part of) the workbench, reflecting in what was going to be the final resin coat on this side...


Follow this link to my Flickr account, wherein reside these and many other marvels of modern technology. Or something...



I popped the foils board photo in because I'd remembered to take a photo of it this evening, and thought I might as well include it before I forgot. The chines and other edges, plus the filleted area under the gunwales, still need sanding back - I'll use some of the used 360-grit paper as you advised. But that's tomorrow...

Cheers,
Alex.

Let's try again - Opera kindly crashed when I tried selecting some text in the previous version of this post. Time to go back to Firefox, this has got ridiculous.

Today was rather light-on for work on the boat, as I needed to do some preparatory cleaning of a ceiling prior to painting and getting some desperately-needed book shelving installed before we're driven round the twist with the current slum-like "living" conditions.

Hull-panel edges all sanded as well: chines, gunwale/side intersections, and all transom edges. Some extra sanding was also done on the hull bottom where it was still a bit of a mess - the starboard aft quarter in particular. You'll be hard-pressed to tell the difference between this photo and those above in my previous post, though ;)...


Follow this link to my Flickr account, where you not only find this exact photo, but lots and lots and lots and lots of others, all very much the same. And some that are a bit different...



The hull was cleaned of the sanding residue fairly thoroughly, wiped down with a microfibre cloth and left to dry. The next colour coat will go on tomorrow morning, hopefully. The next post will no doubt be via Firefox.

Hardworking guy Perfection is your domena Alex!!! I was really unpatient on this etap than my painting's result is realy worse...

Hi Rob,

If I'd been more hard-working and less impatient with sanding the grey primer and undercoat coats, I wouldn't be playing "catch-up" using the top coats...

Cheers,
Alex.

Anyway, here's what it looks like with another coat of yellow on it:

1. Hull recoated with "Brightside" Yellow. The camera is being kind in this photo - the real thing looks a lot blotchier. At least the port chine and bow transom side-edge are looking a bit better than previously





2. Re-coated hull viewed from the other side. Try as I might (overalls, shower-cap, chasing off the dust-chucking spiders, etc.), I'm still getting fluff and hairs dropping into the paint. There's an unbelievable number of hairs from the Dreadful Dog embedded in the new coat... I'm going to see if I can find a Tyvek(R) suit or similar at the local Rabbit Warren





3. View of the re-coated hull from the stern. Don't be taken in by the appearance of the reflections as shown here: the surface is actually quite lumpy from the roller stipple. I don't think that - apart from spraying - I can avoid it. The white patch in the centre of the stern transom is the reflection of the camera flash, not a miss with the roller ;)





4. Foils again, just for something a bit different (again). I did some sanding on the board using the "torture board" with 120-grit paper yesterday, before cleaning off the hull. Note the small-scale ripples in the surface (cloth), and the larger-scale dips (shaping). Lots and lots and lots of work to be done on this piece yet...


Follow this link to my Flickr account to see these photos and many more. WARNING: Flickr have finally switched over (unannounced, gee thanks Flickr) to their new format - you have been warned...



This most recent coat can set up for 24 hours or so then I'll whisk the sandpaper over it dry to remove any protruding pieces of dust, fluff and hairs, then it will be on with the next coat (after removing the dust and allowing the surface to dry). Hopefully by that stage we should start to see the darker patches beginning to recede under the yellow a bit. I'm going to have to acquire another tin of "Brightside" Yellow - if it's still available - as I will probably need at least one more coat than what is remaining in the tin. And some for patching the myriad chips, bangs and dents that the boat will no doubt acquire on its first and subsequent outings (not to mention "hangar rash")...

Note to MIK - I got the heater under the boat this morning :). Ambient temp in the workshop is about 16 degC - at the moment anyway - which alone should help kick the setting along a bit, and the heater of course will accelerate that still further.


I still have no notion of when the boat might be finished - it keeps on being something of a moving target.

A trip to the nearest Wabbit Wawwen to get some ceiling paint also resulted in a couple of polyethylene overalls with integral hood. They'll get a road-test tomorrow.

I'm currently back on Firefox - FF 4.0 beta 1, for some added thrills - until Opera gets its act sorted out. It's a lot quicker, but I'm not sure that that isn't because almost all the very large number of addons that I've installed over time have been disabled for compatibility reasons (including the tab manager) and I've got a much smaller subset of tabs "running". As to whether FF 4b is less crash-prone than the current crop of Operas remains to be seen - it is a beta version after all ;)...

A quick check of the hull again this morning made me decide to give the whole thing a moderate wet-sand at 360-grit. It won't be nearly as extensive as the previous sanding (er, removal) - just enough to knock the tops off the hair, fluff and dust mountains. So the next coat will go on tomorrow instead - with me wearing my new polyethylene painting suit...

Howdy Alex,

On the advice of my friend David Wilson at Duckflat I started using the Brightside unthinned, straight out of the tin.

Was quite amazed how the small stipple from the special foam rollers would flatten out overnight.

Is that happening for you?

MIK

Howdy MIK,

Having just got in from a relatively gentle sand of the hull bottom an transoms - mostly - I would say "yes" with the riders that 1. the stipple flattens out in the places where there is more paint volume on the surface (i.e., thicker ;) - my paint application is still very uneven), and 2. the stipple in the thicker spots does decrease but still highly visible to my eye. It may be that the cold weather is keeping the stipples from flowing out, even with the heater on under the boat after - not before or during - the painting.

I might try adding a few drops of mineral turps to the next coat (tomorrow) to see what happens - assuming that turps is OK for thinning the paint that is applied to the boat (it's fine for cleaning up :).

While sanding there where a lot of "scritch-scratch" and "scratch-crunch" noises when the sandpaper hit the various patches of muck - and the roller ridges. I paid special attention to getting rid of these when painting, but they were still present...

NOTE: the sides of the boat, on the other hand - when viewed with a strong light - are almost stipple-free. They're there, but you have to concentrate quite hard to see 'em :). And as the sides are the bits that are most seen...

Cheers,
Alex.

Some snaps of today's work. Not very much, but I was also working on a ceiling upstairs...

1. Lightly-sanded hull. Well, mostly light - some patches were thicker than others and required a little bit of slimming as well as having the rubbish removed from the surface. Note where I've gone through the paint - this was mostly a very thin coat (except where it was thick ;)





2. Sign of things to come: a large chip on the chine! I don't know what I whacked it with, but it certainly post-dates yesterday's coat of paint. It goes right through to the glass-covered resin, removing colour, undercoat, primer and high-build in one fell swoop. In fact I think it may have even lifted the resin off the glass cloth, looking closely at that photo... This does not bode well; I'm going to have to avoid launching/beaching on anything other than very fine sand!


Follow this link to my Flickr account, where you too can study the chip in the second photo in all its gory detail :(...



I'm now pondering what to fill that hole with. Straight resin? A blob of high-build primer? Some car body-filler? I might try the last, although it would need some primer and undercoat over the top. At any rate, this is going to mean deferring the next top-coat until the patch is done. Bother!

Hi Alex,

While it's unfortunate to have a chip in the paint so soon, if you try to look on the bright side, learning what works well to repair it now will save lots of dramas later, if it ever happens when you go sailing.

It may even help to know what you accidentally hit it with, as it may prove to be something you will never encounter while sailing.

Hi David,

It's also jolly annoying and sets things back yet another day <grumble>. I thought that the high-build was going to be tougher and more flexible than that, and not as it has turned out, behaving like - in fact worse than - a polyester gel coat :(.

I really can't remember what it was that I hit with - I got a real shock when saw it, as I usually remember when I've banged something. It will probably wake me up in the small hours of the morning, knowing the way my brain works.

Cheers,
Alex.