awlgrip paint
 

I'm ready to paint my boat and from what I've read I guess awlgrip is the product to get. Can anyone share their experience rolling and tipping with awlgrip topcoat. I think I will only paint above the rubrail, and buff the hull for now or wet/dry if needed. What color is the closest match to the V20? I guess I'll go look at West Marine for color guides, but on their website I was thinking Moon Dust.

for me, its easier to spray than roll and tip. I can't get the results I want from rolling, I've seen people achieve nice results doing it though, but I can't. Make sure you read the application guide, its very helpfull. They sell it at West Marine or you can down load it from Awlgrips web site. BTW, its going to cost you more than you think, it gets expensive, but its a very durable finish

The guy I bought my boat from painted the hull with white awlgrip below the rubrail and on the vertical part just above. He had never rolled/tipped before but it turned out pretty good. There are some obvious runs in some places but he showed me where he started and where he finished - he did pretty good. I love the ease of maintenance - no waxing and shines like new. No staining either. You can pretty much wipe any stain right off with a wet rag. The one thing I will say about it is it will chip, but it has not been a huge problem for me. Chips give it character. I don't own a boat so I can display it in a show room. If it looks used - it just means that it is.:hi:

Roll and tip
 

When I bought the boat the hull was painted with what I think was awlgrip. looks pretty good. I then stripped the entire interior, patched and painted the inside with Pettit Easy-Poxy using the Roll and Tip method. It turned out fantastic. I have never painted or done any glass work before this project. Once the prep is done the painted rolled out very well. I would recommend this process to a beginner. Get a right roller and a badger hair brush and go to town. The paint seems to very durable and very glossy. If you have any questions let me know..
Doug Wolf

Wow, that paint job is beautiful. Nice work!

I'll look into that Easy-Poxy. The other product I'm starting to read more about is Interlux Perfection, and I'm starting to lean away from Awlgrip. The only thing I'm sure of at this point is that I will be rolling, not spraying. Thanks.

aw, i painted a little whaler with a rustoleum product with great results. it was a 2 part system with the paint about $90 a gallon and the kicker about $55. the nice thing about this paint was i painted the outside white and took a quart back to the store and they added the blue tint so i could paint the inside, only had to buy one gallon and got several colors out of it before it was gone. i rolled & tipped also.

Interlux two-part epoxy paint
 

I bought the primer today. Decided to go with Interlux Perfection. I'm going to roll it on and backroll it. The boat is stripped down pretty good and almost ready - just took the windshield off today. Hoping for good weather this weekend.

Let us know how it turns out. I'm thinking about doing mine in the spring.:beer:

Roll and Tip
 

Couple of suggestions.

Rolling and tipping of a two component paint cannot be compared to rolling and tipping of a single component urethane such as Easypoxy.
EasyPoxy is much more forgiving. It looks great, however, its a 5year paint job, where most Two part urethane coatings are 10-15 dependant upon the up keep.

The ultimate deciding factor in your finish coat is all prior coats and most importantly SURFACE PREPARATION. I would highly recommend practiceing on a piece of plexi or similiar, smooth substrate. The primer will need to be sanded perfectly smooth. Before you sand try applying a form of a "guide coat" (guide coat is a mist coat of a contrasting color, when you start sanding every single hint of the guide coat color should be gone before you topcoat- this ensures a perfectly smooth substrate) id sand with 320 or >. Make sure you follow the manufacters Dry to recoat, envrionmental requirements to a T.

As for rolling and tipping, dont even try it by yourself. One person needs to roll and one person needs to tip. The combination of the base and catalyst mixed together causes a chemical cure in lieu of a air cure as in EasyPoxy. You want to allow the as-applied coating to have as much time to "lay-out" as possible before it starts to kick. You need to stay right behing the person rolling with an unloaded brush. (keep a thing of thinner beside you to keep the brush unloaded and dry). The idea of the tipping is to only take down the stipple caused by the roller. The brush shouldnt be drug through the paint, only enough to touch the peaks but not the valleys (if that makes sense). A huge no-no is to never go back and fix anything. if you get going and notice a run or a bug or piece of dust a few feet back. forget it! You will be able to take care of it prior to any subsequent coats. sanding with some 1000 grit will do the trick but only if its cured enough to sand (should not be able to leave a finger nail print in the coating with minimal pressure) If you are unhappy with the way the first one or two coats layed out, dont settle for less. Let it cure up and go to it with some wet sanding. Your finish job is only going to be as good as your prep work. There is no such thing as too much prep work.

Another good candidate for two part high gloss urethane is PPG Pitthane Ultra. Half the price of the Interlux product and is rather forgiving.

Oh and look at spending around $25-30 for a good quality badger hair or similiar brush. The solvents within 2 part paint will eat up a lot of brush materials and rollers. Phenolic closed cell, solvent resistant is the way to go on the roller.

I think there is a handfull of videos on youtube.com of rolling and tipping as well.

I think this should help.