awlgrip paint

[awthacker]

Very helpful, thank you. After the 1st coat of primer has been sanded, my question is: does the Perfection go on as thick as the PrimeKote? That stuff was super thick. I'm going to use another half-quart, or so, of primekote to touch up where I over-sanded. Then move on to the topcoat. 220 grit was the finest sanding pads I could find for my 5" palm sander. It worked good, but maybe just a little rough. If I were using 400-800 grit, would I then necessarily be hand-sanding with the block?

[BenFishin]

Yes you will need to use a sanding block. The perfection will go on extremly thin. You will need to get the brushing thinner for it as well. The primer is a high solids coating - meaning it goes on at a high dry film thickness and does not have much solvent to evaporate. However the perfection should go on as thin as you can get it without running. Youre probably looking at 3-4 coats. It will go a long way. Download the applicators manual online, it will tell you the recommended thinning percentages etc... i would highly highly recommend painting something to practice first with the entire system. Small piece of plexi with the primer and the 3 top coats. as for the orbital sander... you may have made a slight mistake as you will be able to see the places where the edge dug in especially up in that big carolina flare portion of the boat. I found this out the hard way.

[Steplift 72']

I believe you'll be way ahead by painting with any reputable paint. I painted with automotive Deltron for a couple hundred bucks....with great results. The stuff is tough and doesn't chip in years of usage. I've rubbed and waxed gelcoat for decades and then found that when properly painted, a fiberglass boat is finally trouble free. Around here the dark water stains the white gelcoat to a nasty brownish orange color, the paint just washes off with soap and water..... enough said.

[awthacker]

Again, this is Interlux Perfection, not Awlgrip. After researching I decided to roll on the Perfection because it claimed to be designed for the do-it-yourselfer and this is my first ever paint job. It has been a monumental task, but it's going well. Today, we applied the second topcoat and I believe three coats will be enough so I hope to complete the job this weekend. The PrimeKote was very thick and required alot of sanding to get it smooth. We went with one coat of primer, then I touched up the thin areas after sanding. The topcoat went on much easier than the primer. Here are some pictures today after the 2nd topcoat.

[awthacker]

I chose Cream and it's a little darker than I hoped, but I think it's the closest match to the original color - you can kinda see on the hull where the stripes protected the original finish. My plan is only to paint above the rubrail, then buff below the rubrail to try and restore the gelcoat (since there was no major cosmetic work done on the hull). The deck was a totally different story.

Some more pics of the sliding hatch, steering assembly, & console. On Sunday, I painted these parts only for my trial. Because that went so well, I attempted to paint the deck by myself on Monday because I got home early from work and was anxious to get going. That was a mistake that resulted in alot of bubbles and alot of drips. Took alot of sanding to get it straightened out. Today, I took a long lunch and my buddy came over to help. It went much better with two, and in my opinion it's the only way to go.

[dmoore]

Originally Posted by wolf

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

"show room"!!

[awthacker]

Here are some pics as I put the boat back together. The paint went pretty good.

[awthacker]

Here are the final paint pics. Floor is painted now, too. Just installed rubrail - Taco. The one that is 1-7/8" tall is perfect for the V. Gonna try and cram some rope into the rubrail tonight or tomorrow night. If it doesn't go well, I'll end up using the flex rubber tubing that came with the kit (the kit on Ebay was cheaper than the rubrail only through local vendors).

[Richie Rich]

A, that came out great! Nice job..well worth the effort.