Boat Painting The Clanger Way

[BlueStringPudding]

So I decided to take the lids of a few half empty tins of paint that belonged to the previous boat owner and discovered they were in usable condition (navy, crimson and cream) so I thought I'd use the warm evenings to paint some of the smaller bits of the boat (didn't want to start any large surfaces in case I couldn't perfectly match the colour in the future).

 

So I painted the back seat, stern railing, tiller, rear sliding hatch and the exterior rear bulkhead and doors, and they looked rather nice.

 

 

And a vast improvement on the faded and peeling navy blue that was there before.

 

 

Tonight I decided since I have more of the cream colour left than the other colours, I'd paint the rear square on the side of the boat, so I could paint an image in it one day. So I prepped it and then put the cream paint on. A few hours later I put a second coat on it - and what happens!? Bugsville Tennessee happens! Little bl**dy flies decide to commit hari-cari all over the wet paint. The bloomin' thing is completely pebbledashed now! For the first four or five flies landing in the paint, I was quite cross. Once it reached double figues I just got the giggles and decided to take a photo for the benfit of everyone on this forum!!!

 

I think this might be the flies' revenge for all my Poundland flypaper and bug zapping I've been doing this week!

 

 

Edited to say: I couldn't resist adding a closeup:

 

Edited June 29, 2010 by BlueStringPudding

[Grace and Favour]

BSP - I have to admit - - there's no flies on you . . .

 

oh - - actually there are - a few - - in fact - quite a crop really - - - - - -

 

Have you thought about using the paint on strips of paper and hanging it from your ceiling?

 

 

 

 

but they are little barstewards ain't they?

[Liam]

And there was I thinking it was the beginning of painting by numbers...

[NBMike]

You've got a paint run there BSP!

[BlueStringPudding]

You've got a paint run there BSP!

 

I know - I couldn't smooth it out due to the forty-thousand protestors lying in the way! There weren't any flies elsewhere on the outside of the boat tonight - they simply flocked to the wet paint. B*stards!

[RLWP]

Let the paint harden then remove their little legs with some very fine wet-n-dry

 

Richard

[BlueStringPudding]

Let the paint harden then remove their little legs with some very fine wet-n-dry

 

Richard

 

Gross! But thanks for the advice! I shall tackle the suicidal little gits tomorrow however I suspect the same thing might happen again - and again - and again until either I run out of paint or the boat ends up three inches wider than it started!

 

Any advice how to disuade them from suicide?

[Guest]

But the first picture looks like you've done a half decent job...

 

looks well..

[BlueStringPudding]

But the first picture looks like you've done a half decent job...

 

looks well..

 

Thanks! I wire-brushed and sanded and Vactaned and painted many a coat of paint. Even redid the cream wibbly shape on the back wall freehand. It don't be perfect but I had a go. Also I used the same three colour to paint a Bucky-can style water jug I have - which'll end up well and truly rosed and castled eventually.

 

I forgot to mention that when I painted the roof hatch last week, again - first coat was done in perfect conditions. Second coat welcomed in an invasion of little fluffy white things that I think came from the reeds up a little way from my mooring... which chose to all come at once and land on the wet red paint! However once dry they brushed off fairly easily and a quick topcoat hid any traces.

 

I'm glad I'm running out of paint because if I start a second coat on anything else I hate to think what plague will rain out of the sky onto it! Probably frogs!

Edited June 29, 2010 by BlueStringPudding

[soldthehouse]

So I decided to take the lids of a few half empty tins of paint that belonged to the previous boat owner and discovered they were in usable condition (navy, crimson and cream) so I thought I'd use the warm evenings to paint some of the smaller bits of the boat (didn't want to start any large surfaces in case I couldn't perfectly match the colour in the future).

 

So I painted the back seat, stern railing, tiller, rear sliding hatch and the exterior rear bulkhead and doors, and they looked rather nice.

 

 

And a vast improvement on the faded and peeling navy blue that was there before.

 

 

Tonight I decided since I have more of the cream colour left than the other colours, I'd paint the rear square on the side of the boat, so I could paint an image in it one day. So I prepped it and then put the cream paint on. A few hours later I put a second coat on it - and what happens!? Bugsville Tennessee happens! Little bl**dy flies decide to commit hari-cari all over the wet paint. The bloomin' thing is completely pebbledashed now! For the first four or five flies landing in the paint, I was quite cross. Once it reached double figues I just got the giggles and decided to take a photo for the benfit of everyone on this forum!!!

 

I think this might be the flies' revenge for all my Poundland flypaper and bug zapping I've been doing this week!

 

 

Edited to say: I couldn't resist adding a closeup:

 

Looking good!!

[PhilR]

I can sympathise with BSP (I'm in the middle of a frustrating re-paint myself). Without going into boring details, I now know why it is best to use a fully enclosed dock. The British climate is not conducive to doing a decent paint job. Outdoors it is either too hot, too cold, too damp ................ and when it is perfect the bl**dy midges and bugs arrive. Otherwise it is airborne seeds or falling leaves....................... or even those bl***dy anglers throwing ground bait.

 

The best thing is not to think about trying to get a perfect paint job........... just be happy that the rust is kept at bay for a few more years and the boat will survive just as long whether it has a perfect paint job or a *good job in the circumstances* You will also enjoy more quality time/boating too.

[gilby]

I can sympathise with BSP (I'm in the middle of a frustrating re-paint myself). Without going into boring details, I now know why it is best to use a fully enclosed dock. The British climate is not conducive to doing a decent paint job. Outdoors it is either too hot, too cold, too damp ................ and when it is perfect the bl**dy midges and bugs arrive. Otherwise it is airborne seeds or falling leaves....................... or even those bl***dy anglers throwing ground bait.

 

The best thing is not to think about trying to get a perfect paint job........... just be happy that the rust is kept at bay for a few more years and the boat will survive just as long whether it has a perfect paint job or a *good job in the circumstances* You will also enjoy more quality time/boating too.

 

Agree totally. Fancied a new look to the boat last autumn so stripped it back. Should of kept it simple, one colour plus coachlines. Would of been done long ago!

[BlueStringPudding]

I sanded the cream paint and fly zombie combo down yesterday and repainted it in the cream. The flies still swarmed around it, and round the open tin on the ground, and I noticed a cloud of the flies over the white spirit jar about 6ft away - I think they're attracted to the spirit! A few still hurled themselves into the new wet painted surface - maybe about 30 of them over the space of an hour, but I waited outside so I could winkle them out with a kebab stick and quickly dry brush the area smooth again. Seemed to work. Greatly improved (I estimate there were between 100 and 150 flies on that 2m square area of paint!). You can still slightly see the textured areas where the underlayer of paint had fly corpse prints in it, but the main pooey-lookingness comes from the few dribbly bit from the previous coat - where i wasn't able to smooth the paint out with a dry brush before it dried, due to bug traffic! Oh well, it's only the background for an image, so it'll do.

 

I enlarged a photocopy of a tiger picture which I simplified into two colours and transposed to painted area before it was 100% dry by tracing over the image with a biro so it left the outlines of the image in the paint as dents. This I'll colour in (when it stops raining!) either with my newly found mysterious tin of black paint, or I'm tempted to use a permanent black marker (both contain Xylene, interestingly enough). Once the second colour goes on after the black, I'll probably varnish the picture too. Hope it'll look okay - I won't really know till I try.

 

If it doesn't I'll get the sandpaper back out and start again!

[romarni123]

I painted the gunnels when i was in statford

The council then cut the grass

it looked like flock wallpaper till i could get it all off

[Christine]

Re: Your yellow paint problem. I think it was because oof the yellow colour which attracted the blighters

 

Quote from Yahoo Answers:

"Insects are attracted to colors associated with whatever they eat. Mosquitos eat nectar, so if nectar is generally associated with yellow (either the nectar itself, or it's surroundings, are yellow), then yes, they would be most attracted to yellow.

 

If you are trying to figure out which colors to wear or not wear, to minimize the chances of being bitten, you should stick with light sahdes of khaki, beige, and olive. These colors are the least likely to attract them, but you want to avoid dark shades that might absorb more light (producing more heat), because mosquitoes are also attracted to heat.

(As a side note, mosquitoes don't need blood as a food source. Only the female ones suck blood, because they need components of the blood for the development of thier eggs.)"

 

My Ma hangs strips of yellow sticky stuff in her greenhouses to catch flies - end result looks like your side panels! I remember the yellow painted boat from Legard Bridge - I guess it went around with a permanent swam of flies over it.

[WotEver]

I wore a yellow T Shirt to a car boot sale one summer. As I left the boot sale I had a mottled black T Shirt - everyone else was okay; I think I'd cleared the field of the blighters.

 

Tony

[Grace and Favour]

I wore a yellow T Shirt to a car boot sale one summer. As I left the boot sale I had a mottled black T Shirt - everyone else was okay; I think I'd cleared the field of the blighters.

 

Tony

 

I can well recall being ata Silverstone F1 Grand Prix - - -

 

All the Ferrari fans flying their predominantly yellow n red flags . . . . . .

 

Every time the sun shone - the flags were blackened with sand flies

 

When cloudy - the flags were yellow again

[BlueStringPudding]

The flies also seemed to enjoy the company of the jar of white spirit with brushes soaking in it - and that was surrounded by navy blue paint rather than cream paint! I think their solvent sniffers.

[Grace and Favour]

The flies also seemed to enjoy the company of the jar of white spirit with brushes soaking in it - and that was surrounded by navy blue paint rather than cream paint! I think their solvent sniffers.

 

 

So - - you have the answer . .

 

At the furthest end of your boat - place an open tray of white spirit for the flies, a jay of sugar water for the wasps, a bowl of limpid water for the mosquitoes, a few cans of Stella for watchful boaters . . .

 

That way all the pests are at the furthest point away from your arts n crafts experience!

[madcat]

Love it Grace n Favour,good plan but what sort of pest drinks Stella ?

I put sticky traps in the greenhouse and the first catch was .......me.

[BlueStringPudding]

The weather been good towards the latter end of the day, so I painted the image I wanted onto my newly resurfaced cream paint. It's taken me most of the evening but I'm please with the way it came out:

 

 

From a distance you don't even noticed the wibbly wobbly dribbles in the cream background, and the exhumed fly burial chambers!

Edited July 2, 2010 by BlueStringPudding

[PhilR]

I've got a top coat of Blake's *warm cream* on one side of the cabin today. The colour is now discontinued, probably because it is more yellow than cream! I've only had 3 insects land on the paintwork, but I have been bitten 4 times by horse flies. You can't knock off a horse fly quickly when you have a paint brush in one hand, a can of paint on the side deck and the other hand gripping the boat handrail because the landing stage is dangerous. The b*ggers certainly drew plenty of blood. But, the rain held off, so a successful day.

 

 

 

The weather been good towards the latter end of the day, so I painted the image I wanted onto my newly resurfaced cream paint. It's taken me most of the evening but I'm please with the way it came out:

 

From a distance you don't even noticed the wibbly wobbly dribbles in the cream background, and the exhumed fly burial chambers!

 

 

Nice job BSP.

 

But your cream looks a sandy/orange colour and my cream looks yellowy. I'm wondering if I need to adjust my computer settings or accept that I have a cream colour - blindness

[BlueStringPudding]

Nice job BSP.

 

But your cream looks a sandy/orange colour and my cream looks yellowy. I'm wondering if I need to adjust my computer settings or accept that I have a cream colour - blindness

 

It's not creamblindness - just a dark photo. Even the red border round the cream square looks almost black in this photo - it's coz took it with my phone which doesn't have a great camera.

[RLWP]

 

Do you know, you really are a very talented clanger!

 

Richard

[BlueStringPudding]

Do you know, you really are a very talented clanger!

 

Richard