Saturday, May 14, 2016

Painting the Hull, Prep round one

The initial plan for painting the outside hull was to take it to a buddy's auto paint booth, prime it with an ultra high-build primer and then shoot some coats of PPG or some other 2 part polyurethane paint.

Ending up with something that looked like my old '55 Chevy pickup, after hours of Bondo and prep.

Spoiler alert here.

Well, after meeting and discussing the project, it became rapidly clear that maybe the surface wasn't ready for that type of finish.  Plus the cost of the materials was way higher than I expected, even with wholesale deals, and the labor costs (this is assuming I would still be doing most of the work) would be pretty steep too.  Maybe this was a statement on the actual quality of the boat fiberglass surface.  But as I've said earlier,  it's a boat.  Not a Barrett's auction car.

I really should have expected this, having gotten used to many earlier setbacks/changes, but it was a disappointment, esp after making two trips down to the auto paint store to pick out colors.

So, smart boat builders know where this is going.

Yep, more prep work.   And sanding.

On a nice weekend day, I gently rolled the boat back outside (with Kevo's help) since the rear frame was broken and jury-rigged (see Dory Visitors and Frame Tragedy). We made it outside in one piece, which was kind of a shame since the next step was to power up the Makita auto sander and my Bosch RO sander and go after it.  And after it.  And more sanding.  Went through about 20 discs of 40 and 80 grit paper.  They just don't make the PSA stick on adhesive like they used to.

After about 3 hours, polluting the entire neighborhood (thank God for the strong wind which cleared the area) with a cloud of epoxy dust, (that was until the thunderstorm came through and washed things down briefly),  I decided enough was enough.

It felt smooth to my hand, considering the earlier, "it's just a boat" mantra. And we gingerly rolled dory and broken frame back into the garage.  I'm hoping the next time it goes outside it will be to transfer to the waiting trailer.

No pics here. Was too miserable and covered with dust to take them.

Better times ahead.




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