How Not To Paint Your Own Boat: A Step-By-Step Guide.

[Biggles]

And that's why the professionals charge £100 + a foot.

 

Great post.

[mrscloudinspector]

Glad it's not just us

[Theo]

When SWBO painted Theodora while we were on the 9 month cruise in 2008 there was not an awful lot of disaster and it still looks pretty good, but rather worn after all this time. The thing that most impressed me was the sign writing. We used to stop in random places when the weather looked good. Looking at the photos of the trip the paint job gradually developed over the months.

 

N

[tree]

Starry, just what bush were u hiding under when Tree and I attacked my boat????

I feel sooo much better knowing it is not just me that had these thoughts. In fact you are ahead of me, I am still waiting for new tiler to be made, and decided to dazzle with the brightness of colour to avert the eye from the quality!

oi cheeky pink dragon lol...'avert the eye from the quality' hmm... moi as you know has a touch of OCD adn moi bits were more passable than yours LOL..

[Athy]

Blimey, the lass has garnered 17 greenoes - is this a record?

Time for a return to the waterways press, I reckon, Starry.

[pquinn]

bang on.

[BruceinSanity]

Blimey, the lass has garnered 17 greenoes - is this a record?

Time for a return to the waterways press, I reckon, Starry.

No way, the highest greenie count is 87 for a post entitled "The things that nobody thinks to tell you…"

 

Guess who by?

[KenK]

Starry, Funny as always. My boat has just emerged from the paint shed after nearly three months, delayed somewhat because they closed the shed, went home and in the morning found the perfect gloss finish on the roof had to be started all over again as a bird had flown into the shed and walked all over it. It even happens to the professionals.

 

Ken

[junior]

1. Wake up one morning in March and think, “painting the boat! Epic idea, and I’ve got that long weekend in April.”

 

2. Decide on a complex and highly convoluted colour scheme that involves lots of panels, coachlines, stripes and contrasts, because that dude in the marina did his boat last year and it looks awesome.

 

3. Buy tins of paint, brushes and sheets of sandpaper, optimistically congratulate yourself for being ready to start as soon as the long weekend in April comes around.

 

4. Eye up the outside of boat appraisingly every couples of days, thinking about how that rust will just sand right off and how easy it’ll be to follow the existing coachlines.

 

5. Tell everyone you’re painting the boat next month, and stand basking in their impressed if slightly sceptical mutterings.

 

6. Get advice from ten different people on how to go about it. Wonder at the maths that says ten people times boat painting advice = 15 answers.

 

7. Realise you might have been over optimistic in your belief that you could just wave a bit of sandpaper at the rust and slap some gloss on top. Buy paint scraper, Fertan and undercoat.

 

8. Nod sagely at your foresight in realising the potential problems with your original idea, draw out running order of how painting will go and how simple it all seems now that you are so much wiser.

 

9. Eagerly await long weekend in April. Should be able to get the bulk of it done over the three days, right?

 

10. Long weekend in April dawns to torrential rain, biblical flooding and tornado-style winds. Keep picking up paint scraper at every break in the weather, put it down again muttering angrily. Read the forum for a bit instead.

 

11. End of April. Scowl at people who ask how the boat painting is going, while your tins of paint and new brushes collect dust.

 

12. Mid May. OMG! Sunshine! Paint all of the things!

 

13. Figure you can sand and undercoat at least the roof and one side in one day, get to work.

 

14. End an eight hour day of blood, sweat, rust and tears with one gunnel just about acceptable enough to put undercoat on.

 

15. Wait two weeks for the next break in the weather.

 

16. Scrape, sand and generally beat the crap out of the boat, until it’s no longer fighting and all of the rust and remaining paint is cowering in fear.

 

17. AWESOME! Now you can do the undercoat. It’s a bit grubby from all of the shed rust though, so hire a pressure washer to clean it up with first.

 

18. Have an amazing time playing with the pressure washer, then aim it at the sanded, smooth keyed paint remaining after you prepped it.

 

19. Watch in abject horror as the pressure washer lifts whole strips of previously stuck fast paint off in layers.

 

20. Spend a long time crying in self pity, then even longer drinking the pain away.

 

21. Re-sand and prep the worst parts.

 

22. Re-pressure wash now that you are absolutely positively certain that there is NO loose paint left to come off.

 

23. Repeat points 20 through 22 a couple more times, before deciding that you’re never going near a pressure washer again and you’re just fecking well painting it now, regardless.

 

24. Undercoat boat to within an inch of its life. Smile tightly at passing boats that all, to a man, say either “you’ve missed a bit!” or “you can do mine next!”

 

25. Wake up following weekend planning to put on first layer of gloss. Observe undercoat isn’t actually dry, and really, should it be both the thickness and consistency of chewing gum?

 

26. Survey says “no.”

 

27. Wait another week for the undercoat to become more putty than chewing gum. Decide to paint over it anyway. Know that this is Incorrect but stick fingers in ears and hum, studiously avoiding eye contact with anyone who looks more closely.

 

28. Wonder how in the name of all that is good and holy you’re supposed to paint the underneath of the handrails, when however convinced you are that you’ve covered them, they are still clearly not done from certain angles.

 

29. Realise how shitey the roof looks due to your painting technique best being comparable (unfavourably) to a finger painting toddler, resolve to do better on the rest.

 

30. Paint sides and gunnels with surprising ease, due to surface being less pizza-like than the roof.

 

31. Measure out in precise distances how far the average person with reasonable eyesight has to be from the boat to miss the shocking workmanship and flaws, address areas that particularly stand out from eight feet away in dim light with no glasses.

 

32. Wonder why two weeks later there are still very slightly tacky patches of wrinkled paint on the roof that appear to be at least a couple of mm deep. See the light that paint shouldn’t be slapped on at the same consistency as glue. Too late.

 

33. Cover roof in plants and solar panels, then half-heartedly sand back and re-paint any areas not now covered in boat tat.

 

34. Decide against the painting in of panels and contrasting colours, start secretly wondering how ashamed of yourself you will be if you get vinyl stick-on coachlines.

 

35. Try masking up a tiny bit of coachline to paint. Observe result. Decide, not that ashamed of vinyl at all, actually.

 

36. Buy vinyl coachlines, apply, stand in shock at how well they worked out. Start eyeing up particularly bad patches of paint, wonder what else comes in vinyl that can be stuck on to cover it.

 

37. Acquire set of stick-on decals, apply artistically to various points on the bow and front of the boat where the paint is the worst.

 

38. Realise this actually looks ten times worse, but oh well, they’re there now.

 

39. Lose will to live and become increasingly frustrated at how however many times you undercoat and then paint contact areas (such as where the cover goes on or where the mooring line passes over the bow) and leave them to dry, the paint just rubs right off within days.

 

40. Decide to concentrate on the tiller, because it looks shocking and an elaborately painted tiller will really draw the eye.

 

41. Use all acquired wisdom of paint prepping, thickness of paint and technique to paint fracking AWESOME stripes on the tiller that impress even your neighbours, in the middle of the driest week of the year so far.

 

42. Hear rain two hours later. Learn what paint “blooming” is. Consider getting tree branch and going a bit Basil Fawlty on it.

 

43. Run out of ideas as to how to reach and prep/paint the tunnel bands. Leave the job there for a considerable amount of time, while “thinking.”

 

44. Decide you’ll actually just black up to the gunnels. One day. No, it still has not been done.

 

 

 

 

http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=58718

[Guest]

How to paint a boat?

 

Buy really good paint, when on cheap offers. You may have to compromise on the colour you paint your boat.

 

Buy cheap brushes. Not crap cat hair brushes, but cheap brushes.

 

Wash boat down.

 

Paint boat.

 

Stand back and admire.

 

 

International Paint is superb, and covers a multitude of sins. And doesn't turn you into a nervous wreck anytime another boat gets within 20 feet.

Best "cheap" brushes I have used (house and boat) are Wilkinson's own (red handled ones). Affordable and very good.

[Starcoaster]

No pictures, "it's still not done."

I in no way begrudge the rates that pro painters charge and did know that my own painting was going to be a bodge job. Not all of us can afford to drop several grand on something aesthetic though, and honestly, my boat with a back-to-metal mirror smooth see your face in it pro paint job would look, well, odd.

 

 

They paint boats in the wet dock near where I am at the mo... There's a large amount of swallows (or swifts?) living in there. I dunno how they resolve this issue! Strangely, no birds shit on my boat at any crucial points. I did have issues with the paint flies though:

 

"Dear Mother nature

 

I'm hitting you up about the memo I sent you last week, advising you of my intentions to use blue paint today.

I know you got the memo, because my compulsory consignment of paint flies arrived today, right on schedule. However, there's been an error somewhere along the line; I requested the complimentary blue paint flies, but instead I've received the starkly contrasting black ones and yellow ones.

Can you sort this out for me before I carry on tomorrow please? Thanks."

Edited July 30, 2013 by Starcoaster