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Touching Up Bodywork


nikvah

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Hi There,

although I have been hiring and sharing I am new to owning my own boat and want to touch up the paint work on my pride and joy. However my former life means I have no transferable skills that don't involve microscopes, pipettes and precision measuring and manipulation. The previous owner has left part cans of all the colours I need and I have read how to guides which start with rub down to bear metal. So I got the wet and dry paper  and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed. So here is my stupid question for those of a more practical bent: what is the best electric tool for rubbing the paint and rust down to shiny steel on a narrow boat? Thanks for any advice or recommendations.

Cheers All.

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Use a course paper rather than wet and dry, about 120 grit,  have not tried a multi tool but its on my wish list. For small stone chip (fisherman catapult?) holes then a grinding stone in a Dremmel is perfect. Go right back to bare metal, this will involve removing additional paint as the rust spreads under the paint. If its a very small repair you can use soft (east sand) body filler to bring the surface flush. I use primer first then the body filler.

Unless the paint job is new you will struggle to exactly match the colour as the paint will have faded. Adding a bit of matting additive sometimes helps.

and, if you get fully to bare metal go directly to primer (Bonda Primer?)  no need for rust removing chemicals.

Never use an angle grinder on the cabin sides, very high risk of making deep marks. (there are some cracking examples of this out on the cut)

...............Dave

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An angle grinder with a wire cup brush used on edge will do small bits down to the bare steel quickly without grinding away the steel, then feather around the edges of the wound with fine production paper to smooth them in, then prime, and level with primer, smooth with about 250 wet and dry.  Before painting the top coat rub compound ie T cut all around the wounds surrounding paintwork which will revive it and bring  back the existing colour as much as possible so that the new paint will blend in properly.

Edited by bizzard
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1 hour ago, bizzard said:

Before painting the top coat rub compound ie T cut all around the wounds surrounding paintwork...

... and be sure to use plentiful quantities of panel wipe afterwards, prior to painting. 

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10 hours ago, nikvah said:

 However my former life means I have no transferable skills that don't involve microscopes, pipettes and precision measuring and manipulation.

Sounds like you will be good at measuring Battery SG's. You could come and do mine!

I too have found a dremmel very good at doing small rust bits (and tight to access bits). Still looking for the perfect solution to the larger areas so this thread is interesting.

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The trick will be to get a good finish to the final paint. Do you intend to brush/roller or spray? If it is tiny bits only a brush will be of any use and you might want to put sufficient paint on to allow you to "cut back" the finish, to get rid of brush marks and generally blend in to the surrounding paint, as far as is possible. You can use a very fine (400) wet and dry paper (usually this grade from car shops) then bring the t cut out again for the final polish... but don't go through the paint else you will have to do it again... or live with it!

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A bit of owatrol added to the paint will help get rid of bush marks and changes the drying characteristics and the way the paint flows also when you have applied the paint and it is still wet use a good quality dry brush to "lay it off" as in go over it in light sweeps both vertically and horizontally , the brush will pick up excess paint and stop runs.

 

Rick

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I'm afraid I don't agree with adding weird Owls and additives and stuff to well known quality paints. In my opinion if the paint needed them they would have added them during manufacture. Certain oil based paints and synthetic enamels can have excellerators for cold conditions and retarders for hot conditions to aid brushing and spraying but only ones approved by the paint manufacturers, we called them ''drops'' in the motor trade.  Most vehicle paint-body shop supply shops will mix oil and synthetic enamel oil based coach paints and supply bottles of ''Drops'' if you want. And they brush, spray or roller superbly. :)

  • Greenie 1
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44 minutes ago, Johny London said:

You can use a very fine (400) wet and dry paper (usually this grade from car shops)

400 isn't really very fine, more medium, fine/very fine is more in the range 800/1200 grit or go very very at 2000.

There are some low quality papers on sale. A couple of years ago I got some from Halfords and within seconds all the grit had dropped off, 360 suddenly became rough paper :unsure:

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9 minutes ago, Johny London said:

Many car shops sell Atlas brand, that is always good. 400 is plenty fine for taking off brush marks, then as I said, finish with t cut. Any finer than 400 and you might as well use rubbing compound and/or t cut only.

Or a damp lettuce leaf.  :D

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2 hours ago, bizzard said:

I'm afraid I don't agree with adding weird Owls and additives and stuff to well known quality paints. In my opinion if the paint needed them they would have added them during manufacture. Certain oil based paints and synthetic enamels can have excellerators for cold conditions and retarders for hot conditions to aid brushing and spraying but only ones approved by the paint manufacturers, we called them ''drops'' in the motor trade.  Most vehicle paint-body shop supply shops will mix oil and synthetic enamel oil based coach paints and supply bottles of ''Drops'' if you want. And they brush, spray or roller superbly. :)

Agreed. Good quality paints are designed for the job and adding things to them to improve flow will only degrade other properties. Unless you know a certain additive will have no detrimental effects then I wouldnt use it.

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14 hours ago, bizzard said:

Certain oil based paints and synthetic enamels can have excellerators for cold conditions and retarders for hot conditions to aid brushing and spraying but only ones approved by the paint manufacturers, we called them ''drops'' in the motor trade.  

thats a great word, obviously meaning an excellent accelerator, contact OED immediately.

Edited by LadyG
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3 minutes ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

Talking of words, in view of the recent scandals, ought the mods to change the title of the thread? :rolleyes:

At least one moddy did wonder if the thread pertained to recent parliamentary accusations, but then decided that such thoughts were unworthy and banished them from his mind.

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Thank you All,

for all your helpful advice (esp. bizzard and Halcyon). I think adulterating the paint might be out of my league.

However in light of recent allegations I feel I must further clarify my initial question and state that any rubbing down mentioned was a long time ago and no bare surfaces were exposed.

Ooh, er, Mrs.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

how good is the paint he left behind ? if the seal on the tins wasn't too good it could be a bit 'lumpy' and not produce the finish you might of liked. Might be best to get new tins with good quallity paint in. Anyway, it's a bit late for painting this time of year so would be best to leave this till the spring ?

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4 minutes ago, Bloomsberry said:

how good is the paint he left behind ? if the seal on the tins wasn't too good it could be a bit 'lumpy' and not produce the finish you might of liked. Might be best to get new tins with good quallity paint in. Anyway, it's a bit late for painting this time of year so would be best to leave this till the spring ?

When our boat was repainted I bought a load of small tins from ebay and decanted the paint into them, I found it kept really well http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250ml-500ml-1L-2-5L-5L-Empty-New-Lever-Lid-Tins-Paint-Tin-Metal-Paints-Varnish/222480559456?hash=item33ccdfed60:m:mNjgbNDkP8JvR62Lo8EGYug

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 23/11/2017 at 21:48, ditchcrawler said:

When our boat was repainted I bought a load of small tins from ebay and decanted the paint into them, I found it kept really well http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250ml-500ml-1L-2-5L-5L-Empty-New-Lever-Lid-Tins-Paint-Tin-Metal-Paints-Varnish/222480559456?hash=item33ccdfed60:m:mNjgbNDkP8JvR62Lo8EGYug

 

I've done similar with jars from a pound shop and store them upside down. When opened the paint was as good as when the paint was transferred to them. But if you use them again and paint gets in the threads and the jars become impossible to open. I think tins are the best way to go as they can be prised open.

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I have a non slip coating on my roof which has been painted over. This has various rusty patches, if this is rubbed down to bare metal is there a coating that can be applied to replace this so as not to have smooth patches.

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It is probably sanded.

Paint a coat of primer onto bare metal.

Paint a coat of the desired colour onto the primer.

Sprinkle kiln dried sand onto the wet paint, through a tea strainer, until the texture is as close as you can get to the surrounding area.

Let it dry and gently brush off any loose bits of sand.

Finish with 2-4 coats of paint over the sand.

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5 minutes ago, cuthound said:

It is probably sanded.

Paint a coat of primer onto bare metal.

Paint a coat of the desired colour onto the primer.

Sprinkle kiln dried sand onto the wet paint, through a tea strainer, until the texture is as close as you can get to the surrounding area.

Let it dry and gently brush off any loose bits of sand.

Finish with 2-4 coats of paint over the sand.

This is what I thought, I was going to mix some sand into the topcoat and paint it on but this method looks the right way to go.

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22 minutes ago, Rickent said:

I have a non slip coating on my roof which has been painted over. This has various rusty patches, if this is rubbed down to bare metal is there a coating that can be applied to replace this so as not to have smooth patches.

If I'm there in daylight I will have a look!!

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