Hull Painting and Bitumen

[HelleborusPhil]

Hi all, please can I have some guidance on hull painting. I wish to do a good job and understand that Bitumen is not a rust inhibitor. I wish to paint the hull in black above the water line to smarten up the boat and give a bit of protection. I paln to lift the boat out next winter to do a full blacking but in the meantime wish to give a coat of protection.

 

Thus:

 

I paln to wire wool back to create a binding surface and use a degreaser on the steel then apply red lead or rust eater and an appropriate top coat. What are the best paint treatments to apply??

 

Is this the right way to do this??

 

Many Thanks Phil

[DHutch]

Hi, i was expecting someone else to reply to this, but as they havnt, here goes:

 

Bitumen, along with many other paints, doesnt not provide any chemical rust inhibition. It simply works by being water proof, hence keeping it dry and preventing rust.

- People paint boats with all sorts of thing, from two pack epoxy aluminum, to pound shop drain pipe paint. Its a mind feild, and really, personal choice as much as anything else.

 

Preperation wise. The area your talking about is realy very large, so it has to be something fairly scalable. And usally its faily primative compaired to normal domestic paint prep. We usally just presurewash it the first day, and roller it on over whatevers left.

- Unless its really bad, in which case the best option is the get it shot/sand/grit blasted back to bright steel, and start again.

- Out boats now 17 years old, had been repainted about every 3-4 years. And is fine. One day it will be taken back to bright steel. But for now theres no real point.

 

If you must paint it, just stick a coat of a compatable paint over whats there down to the waterline and be done with it. That bit doesnt really rust anyway!

- However, its usally considered that that part of the boat looks less tidy than the upperhull/cabin stucture anyway, so i would proberbly leave it, unless there is bad rust. In which case i would just patch it till you next do the blacking. Its the waterline you want paint on!

 

 

Daniel

[saltysplash]

Hi

 

For the patches of metal that are rusty, give em a scrape and then apply Vactan. You can then put on top of it any coating you wish...IMO the hull is worth looking after even the baseplate which very rarely seems to get attention on Inland waters.

 

 

I have considered slapping on my favourite Antifoul....Jotun....but as this is a 'wet' substance maybe it will rub off too easily so ill probably stick to the usual bitumin or comastic when LE is next on the dry

[Breals]

I agree with Dan, I would just paint over the existing to the waterline to smarten things up, and save your effort for when you do the proper blacking next year.

 

At that time you can pressure wash and scrape the old blacking off, have a good look, apply vactan where necessary, and then apply new blacking. Last time I just used paint scrapers from the pound shop, which was hard work, but effective! I don't think people generally go over the hull with wire wool. Any unsound, rusty bits will shed their old blacking readily - and these are the bits you need to concentrate on.

 

I used B&Q standard bitumen paint last year, and it has stood up very well so far.

[Guest]

I agree with Dan, I would just paint over the existing to the waterline to smarten things up, and save your effort for when you do the proper blacking next year.

 

At that time you can pressure wash and scrape the old blacking off, have a good look, apply vactan where necessary, and then apply new blacking. Last time I just used paint scrapers from the pound shop, which was hard work, but effective! I don't think people generally go over the hull with wire wool. Any unsound, rusty bits will shed their old blacking readily - and these are the bits you need to concentrate on.

 

I used B&Q standard bitumen paint last year, and it has stood up very well so far.

Is that Aquaseal? My friend swears by that and I seem to remember it was 11quid for 5 litres.

[Iceni]

Is that Aquaseal? My friend swears by that and I seem to remember it was 11quid for 5 litres.

 

So is it worth paying around £50/gallon for such as Rylard's Coflex VT? We're just about to do ours for the first time and are getting a tad confused about what to use!

[tidal]

Ok so WHY bitumen rather than other treaments?

[Guest]

So is it worth paying around £50/gallon for such as Rylard's Coflex VT? We're just about to do ours for the first time and are getting a tad confused about what to use!

Don't know to be honest. I use Rylards Rytex at close to 30 quid a can, but the stuff my mate was using from BandQ looked little different. Not sure if the price is more than doubled because it is marine stuff, or if it is genuinely better.

[blackrose]

Don't know to be honest. I use Rylards Rytex at close to 30 quid a can, but the stuff my mate was using from BandQ looked little different. Not sure if the price is more than doubled because it is marine stuff, or if it is genuinely better.

 

In my experience all the bitumen based stuff is crap! My 4 coats of Rylards Premium has lasted one and a half - two years around the waterline - it's all coming away. I know it's only supposed to last that long, but I've hardly moved during that time. If you can paint the front door of a house and it still looks ok after 10 years surely we should expect a bit better from so called marine paints. Most of us aren't in salt water after all.

 

I don't know about vinyl, but the only really decent stuff which lasts seems to be two part epoxy. Unfortunately that requires grit blasting first and costs a fortune.

Edited June 15, 2008 by blackrose

[DHutch]

In my experience all the bitumen based stuff is crap! My 4 coats of Rylards Premium has lasted one and a half - two years around the waterline.

So of a sample of one, there all rubbish?

 

On a more serious note, if 90% of people use it it, you could do worse than follow.

- That said, you do see a lot of boats with a good rust-line going. And boat slipping far more often than us looking a lot worse for wear.

 

We where epoxy blacking, on epoxy zinc primer, on twopart shotprimer, on bright steel, within half an hour of shotting. And its dont very well.

- Leighs then stopped doing epoxy, and suggested we went onto there vinal blacking which they said was as good, compatable, and easier to apply. And we seam to agree with that. Its certainly less work to apply, we still only drydock every four years, and we still get no rust when we do drydock.

 

 

 

Daniel