Boat Paint Fiasco

ssshield

Member
So the priming/fairing/glass/etc portion of the bottom paint job went flawlessly.

I got to the part where I'm painting with Epifanes topside paint and pretty much it all went wrong. Thought it might be interesting to see what not to do, since we only ever see jobs going well here.

1) My wife asked to "help". Mistake. She was going to roll, and I was to tip. The first thing we found out is she is not coordinated enough to both hold a roller tray with paint, and use the roller. She dumped 1/4 quart of $50 yach enamel right on the garage floor, somehow missing the drop cloth.

2) She kept rolling and dripping the paint around the boat so she wouldn't "waste" the rest of the paint in the pan as it would dry by the time we cleaned up the floor mess.

3) She started rolling it on with a foam roller. It created a "skipping" effect in the paint as she rolled it on that I couldn't correct with tipping with the brush.

4) I used a foam 4" brush to tip. It didn't work and just smeared paint around. Switched to a nice bristle brush and then was able to tip out the bubbles.

5) She switched to a knap roller instead of the foam roller and that helped to get even coverage, but created a ton of bubbles that had to be tipped. It also sponged up about 1/8th of the can of paint, which is a lot to waste.

6) We ran out of paint because between switching brushes and spilling so much, we only had enough to do one and 1/4 coat.

7) She was stressed about messing everything up so she was just slapping it on heavy and the whole boat is just one runny unusable mess.

8) I finally sent her in the house, stopped everything and spent an hour and a half gallon of thinner cleaning up the garage. The lesson is not that she's incapable of painting, but that I have practice painting things over the years, and she's only ever done arts and crafts projects, etc. It's a different skill set.

Conclusion:
I let it dry and will sand it back down to the primer and do it myself with new paint. Ordered another $50 can today.

Questions:
Anyone know what the proper type of roller is for rolling this paint on? I'm thinning it lightly and that seems to help, but I suspect that the right roller would make things easier.

The paint = EPF-YE021750
EPIFANES YACHT ENAMEL #21 ORANGE
750ML 6/CS
ordered from Jamestown distributors.


- Shane
 
in her defense, i had a really tough time holding a tray and rolling at the same time. no major spills, but there's some drips all over the garage haha. I bought a smaller tray at walmart for my second coat and it was way easier (see pic)

I tried both a 9" "fluffy" roller and a 3" foam. the foam one worked WAY better, and saved a lot more paint. the fluffy one soaked up and wasted a ton. I got it at the dollar store, best $1 i've spent on this project.

just fyi tipping should be done very lightly. the most important thing i've found is to do it once right away and then leave it alone. The paint will smooth out as it cures, and tipping as the paint is starting to thicken will make it look really bad.

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Thanks for the info. That foam roller looks different than mine. Foam brushes look look identical though. I'll see if I can find a roller like that!
 
I know rollers like that are meant for super smooth surfaces. If you look at home depot, walmart, wherever, you'll see diffent rollers for different surfaces. I would think anything for smooth surfaces would work well. Could you post some pics of your paint disaster? I'm curious as to what went so wrong.
 
I tried both a 9" "fluffy" roller and a 3" foam. the foam one worked WAY better, and saved a lot more paint. the fluffy one soaked up and wasted a ton.
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Use a standard grocery bag to squeeze the paint off the roller, and back into the can. :cool: The standard thin "produce bag" can be placed over the surface of the paint in the can to prevent the remainder from "skimming-over".
 
We had good luck with Rustoleum Marine Topside paint, about half the price of other Marine paints, and it went on real nice. 13 bucks a quart on Amazon, and our local Lowes carries it.
 

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We had good luck with Rustoleum Marine Topside paint, about half the price of other Marine paints, and it went on real nice. 13 bucks a quart on Amazon, and our local Lowes carries it.

How much did it take you to do the hull? Also, did you use the Rustoleum marine primer or just sand the gelcoat down and paint it? My local hardware store has the Rustoleum topside paint in oyster white that appears to be about the color of my hull but they do not stock the primer.
 
I have used the Rust Oleum both without and with primer. I definitely recommend the primer. Without primer your stress cracks show through. With the primer the small hairline stress cracks disappear. Well worth the added expense.
 
How much did it take you to do the hull? Also, did you use the Rustoleum marine primer or just sand the gelcoat down and paint it? My local hardware store has the Rustoleum topside paint in oyster white that appears to be about the color of my hull but they do not stock the primer.

One quart did two coats.
I sanded and used the paint as primer, but as mentioned stress cracks will show through. My father in law, the old salt, walked by the boat and said "paint won't fill cracks..." and went to look for a cup of coffee. I feathered those with MarineTex before the second coat, next time I'll do that before the first coat, or maybe try the Rustoleum primer. I tried Interlux primer but I may have done something wrong, it was way too thick, showed a lot of brush marks and I ended up sanding all of it off.
 
I did one coat of Rustoleum primer along with two coats of Rustoleum Topcoat. I went over the bottom before priming with a sandable paste made by bondo, filled the cracks and sanded it all smooth. I also sanded with 220 between each of the coats. One tip I can give you is to do it early in the morning, before the heat of the day.... I tried the first Topcoat on a warmer afternoon, and it dried before I could come along behind the roller with a paintbrush to smooth it out. So I had to sand to those areas a little more. Cooler temps gave me much better results!IMG_1745.jpgBottom 2.JPG
 

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