Painting the Sunfish
- Thread starter georita
- Start date
lakezoarian
New Member
Paint Is A Last Resort
You can get the shine back if you want. Painted boats won't look good for long. Here's what I do- Put on some old clothes and rubber gloves and scrub it down with a brush and straight bleach right out of the bottle. Let the bleach sit for 15 min. or so and rinse. Then use #600 wet sandpaper on a rubber sanding block to get down to smooth gelcoat. Keep it real wet and rinse often. Don't use a machine. Change the paper often. You'll be amazed at all the white stuff that comes off, but the gelcoat is pretty thick- you won't go through it. Then do the same thing with #1500 the same way. The white stuff will be less. Then do the same thing with #2000 the same way. There will be almost no white stuff in the rinse water. When you dry off the boat you'll be shocked how much better it looks, but then use 3M fiberglass restorer 9005 or 9089 on a buffing wheel and you'll be able to see your reflection. Don't forget to mask off the aluminum edging first as the wheel will pick up oxidation from it and deposit it on the gelcoat nearby which is more work to get off. After the restorer wax a couple of times with a good caranauba wax. Finally, mask off the fiberglass for a couple inches out from the edging and polish that up with mag wheel polish till it's bright. I think this is less work than prep and paint, much cheaper, and the result will be far better over time. My favorite Sunfish is a '78, and it looks brand new...
You can get the shine back if you want. Painted boats won't look good for long. Here's what I do- Put on some old clothes and rubber gloves and scrub it down with a brush and straight bleach right out of the bottle. Let the bleach sit for 15 min. or so and rinse. Then use #600 wet sandpaper on a rubber sanding block to get down to smooth gelcoat. Keep it real wet and rinse often. Don't use a machine. Change the paper often. You'll be amazed at all the white stuff that comes off, but the gelcoat is pretty thick- you won't go through it. Then do the same thing with #1500 the same way. The white stuff will be less. Then do the same thing with #2000 the same way. There will be almost no white stuff in the rinse water. When you dry off the boat you'll be shocked how much better it looks, but then use 3M fiberglass restorer 9005 or 9089 on a buffing wheel and you'll be able to see your reflection. Don't forget to mask off the aluminum edging first as the wheel will pick up oxidation from it and deposit it on the gelcoat nearby which is more work to get off. After the restorer wax a couple of times with a good caranauba wax. Finally, mask off the fiberglass for a couple inches out from the edging and polish that up with mag wheel polish till it's bright. I think this is less work than prep and paint, much cheaper, and the result will be far better over time. My favorite Sunfish is a '78, and it looks brand new...
There are two brief articles in the 'Sunfish FAQ' section of the Sunfish Knowledge Base (upper bar on the left side):
How do I refinish/paint my Sunfish?
How can restore the color on my hull?
How do I refinish/paint my Sunfish?
How can restore the color on my hull?
Georita, since there are many threads on painting and buffing I won't go there, but I will caution you, gelcoat is not thick and it is softer than epoxy paints. You can restore some of the gelcoats previous lustre as described or simply with a mild cut wax and polish. The problem is that the shine will be short lived. As a long term easy to maintain finish I would go with a one or two part paint such as Imron, AwlGrip or some linear polyurethane paint.
Porpoise2
New Member
If the original color was red or maroon, I wouldn't try to restore the original finish. Until the 90s saw an industry-wide improvement in the color, "Reds" would fade readily in the sun, and a restoration wouldn't last long.
I experimented this spring with spray paint, intending to use Rustoleum® "for plastic". My local store didn't stock it, so I used Krylon® "for plastic" instead, and sprayed half of the bottom of the Sunfish. (Used two cans, but barely covered a previous dark-blue paint). Although the paint is adhering fine, my unfamiliarity with Krylon's extremely fine spray-nozzle left the job a bit splotchy. (But smooth!)
Rustoleum® "for plastic" will get a "go" on the other side of the bottom next spring. (The deck is fine).
My Sunfish is not stored on the water, but it's often sailed for several continuous hours with no adhesion problem with the Krylon®. (Sometimes, it's sailed for several continuous hours—intentionally!)
I had a problem with an expensive repaint using a one-part Interlux "topside" paint. Interlux "allowed immersion" for two hours, but blistered bigtime when sailed in a warm Florida lake.