Painting with Rustolium Topsides.

Hi,

Was looking into various methods of painting the bottom of two of my Sunfish. Looked at EasyPoxy, Gel Coat etc. Anyway, when with what seemed to be easy to get, a couple cans of Rustolium Topsides from Menards. Used a Air-Gun and applied two coats of Rustolium fiber glass primer then the following ratio . 8:4:1 Paint /Naphtha /Valspar Acrylic hardener. Results were great and the final coat took about 2 hours to dry. Looks like the paint will be easy to sand and repaint if needed. I think this is the solution for those of us who don't have a lot of time behind a spray gun. Blast the last coat heavy and you get a nice shine as the Naphtha gives the paint a hot flash time.

I used that on a canoe and my Super Porpoise. I used a roller and brush. I found that it took 3-4 coats to get adequate coverage, and the are still some thin spots were you can see the primer. I did both over two coats of Topside Wood and fiberglass primer. I expected the canoe to get scratched and dinged and I can live with that. The paint on the SP chips and scratches at the slightest touch.. I'm not really happy with the way it came out, and it's durability. Maybe when I go to sell it I'll give it another coat or two.

leob1 said:

I used that on a canoe and my Super Porpoise. I used a roller and brush. I found that it took 3-4 coats to get adequate coverage, and the are still some thin spots were you can see the primer. I did both over two coats of Topside Wood and fiberglass primer. I expected the canoe to get scratched and dinged and I can live with that. The paint on the SP chips and scratches at the slightest touch.. I'm not really happy with the way it came out, and it's durability. Maybe when I go to sell it I'll give it another coat or two.

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The roller and brush will give slightly different results. You need to slow down the paints Flash Time my using Mineral Spirits instead of Naptha or Xylene. The Acrylic Hardener is what gives the paint it's hard finish. On my last coat the hardener cooked in the paint pot mix for 30 minutes before I used it. I can see where it is harder to brush on without getting runs and sags. All said the Acrylic Enamel is going to have no comparison to the hardness of Gel Coat. Enamal should not chip and scratch easy, this is often a problem with too thin a paint coat. I'd say try spraying next time, I got a good working syphon spray gun from Harbor Freight for about $25 and some change.