Thread: Painting guide/help

Start at a place that's not easily seen and work your way out. By the time you get into the highly viable areas, you should have it down.

In all honesty, it's practice and prep work. In fact an extremely high percentage of a good paint job is the surface prep. The actual brush, roller or sprayer in hand time is minimal. There are a number of good books, but paint technology changes frequently enough that you'll want a fairly current book.

The trick is to work clean and if the surface is smooth, the paint will prove this in the reflections. Of course the other side of the coin is also true.

You might find the two end sections here useful.

Q&A - How to Repair, Restore and Painit Wooden and Plywood Boats - Michael Storer Wooden Boat Plans

Also the article on fixing up the sabre dinghy.

If the boat is kept out of the sun (a very good idea with plywood boats) the varnish is little extra maintenance. Almost no difference. But if you leave the boat outside there will be a lot more maintenance of everything and the varnish will be a large part of it.

If you ever have to store a boat outside the best thing you can do is put it upside down and up on bricks so there is some ventilation under and cover with a polytarp.

Best wishes
Michael Storer

I have started to attack the hull with a heat gun and a scaper. The older paint is coming off quite easily, as i have read in the past your fingers do take a batterieng.

The only little thing i can see so far is that where the side stays attach to the the hull, the small brackets have caused a widening of the slot in which they sit. This has caused a bit of water ingress at some stage and caused a discolouration of the timber.

Didnt get a chance to take pics yet.

Does anyone have any recommendations for marine paint and primer? What sort of costs are involved?

Cheers

Originally Posted by highace1

I have started to attack the hull with a heat gun and a scaper. The older paint is coming off quite easily, as i have read in the past your fingers do take a batterieng.

The only little thing i can see so far is that where the side stays attach to the the hull, the small brackets have caused a widening of the slot in which they sit. This has caused a bit of water ingress at some stage and caused a discolouration of the timber.

Didnt get a chance to take pics yet.

Does anyone have any recommendations for marine paint and primer? What sort of costs are involved?

Cheers

In Newcastle you have a number of great choices for your plywood NS14. Firstly you need to decide whether you want a two pack or a single pack. Can I suggest that the modern single pack paints are excellent value, are easy to apply with a roller and dry hard, smooth and lustrous! I think this is the way to go for your project.

There are quite a few brands around the paint shops such as Hempel, Norglass, International, Altex and others. I'm using the Aussie made Norglass Weatherfast Marine Enamel one pack, and am really impressed with it. It's a lot cheaper than the equivalent International and equally good. Being Aussie made it is designed for our higher UV conditions, so I tend to trust it more than I would the imported stuff.

Thanks for all the info....

Finally i have some pics of the project so far. I tell you what, stripping this paint by hand (heat gun and scraper) is killing my hands and still half to go!

I think i have settle on the Norglass range of paints. I still have to find a colour range somewhere as im still unsure of what colours.

Woodeneye...Where did you buy the Norglass products from in Newcastle?

Thanks

Ace

Originally Posted by highace1

Thanks for all the info....

Finally i have some pics of the project so far. I tell you what, stripping this paint by hand (heat gun and scraper) is killing my hands and still half to go!

I think i have settle on the Norglass range of paints. I still have to find a colour range somewhere as im still unsure of what colours.

Woodeneye...Where did you buy the Norglass products from in Newcastle?

Thanks

Ace

Hi Ace

Hoo yeah, this is hard yakka alright. There are no shortcuts in this

Norglass products and the latest colour charts are available from Bias Boating.

Howdy,

Are you going to put the rear buoyancy tank back in? The boat will be hard to get upright after capsize if you don't.

The boat looks like it is in good shape fundamentally.

MIK

The flotation tank will be going back on, still trying to find some 3mmply to replace it with. Im still unsure of how im going to form the ply to the shape of the tank, hopefully 3mm will be flexible enough. I am pretty pleased with the boat, especiallyfor $120 including a regod trailer.

Ace

Do you know what thickness it was originally. Whatever was there before will very likely go on again. The grain has to be in the right direction of course!!!

MIK

It was 3mm ply that i took off, its not easy stuff to find. Most of the thinnest stuff seems to be about 4mm which i think would be too stiff.

Boatcraft has it but shipping is $36. Ill see if i can find it locally but if not ill have to put an order in.

Ace

I have another lot of questions regarding some repairs i may need to do. It seems that the centreboard case has a bit of sideways movement. At some stage there were some supports that ran from the rear top edge of the case to the forward flotation tank (they have been removed for now).

1. How do i go about resealing the slot in the centreboard case? A view from the top shows peeling paint.

2. Is it possible to remove the case without major surgery, is it simple as sawing it off then replacing it when finished?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Originally Posted by highace1

2. Is it possible to remove the case without major surgery, is it simple as sawing it off then replacing it when finished?

I think that depends on how it was built. A mate of mine is doing a similar job to you (with a different design) and he just removed a few screws ... then spent aeons removing a pitch like sealer. On my Sixpence, she's epoxied in place with added screws just to make life &*^%^$ difficult.

Keep at it mate, they're a fine craft and at the end of all this mucking about, you'll have a great wee boat ... and plans to build something from scratch (yeah, it's addictive )

Richard

Originally Posted by highace1

I have another lot of questions regarding some repairs i may need to do. It seems that the centreboard case has a bit of sideways movement. At some stage there were some supports that ran from the rear top edge of the case to the forward flotation tank (they have been removed for now).

1. How do i go about resealing the slot in the centreboard case? A view from the top shows peeling paint.

You mean inside the case? Just clean it up and repaint it as well as you can. Boats of this era often had bare wood inside the cases after a couple of seasons. So just do the best you can with sandpaper on long blocks and putting paint on thin coat by thin coat. If you try to get too much paint on at once it will run first and peel later and maybe jam the board.

2. Is it possible to remove the case without major surgery, is it simple as sawing it off then replacing it when finished?

Too much trouble for a bit of painting. If there are structural problems it is worthwhile, but part of the trick of doing older boats is to think of the reason you are doing them.

Is the purpose to make a perfectly gorgeous boat, or is it to get something that is already functional on the water.

If it is the second then you can't start to think of things like replacing the case just to fix peeling paint inside. Some people do it and find they never finish the job as the boat gets pulled apart more and more.

Best wishes
Michael

I do mean inside the case, giving it a good sand and then paint sounds like a lot better idea.

I guess i could be getting wrapped up in the job at hand. One thing is for sure, im having a great time with it.

Cheers

More questions to come, no doubt

Ace