Fiberglass Painting

[Belligero]

Hi All,

Been wanting to do up the boat for awhile now however I have been too busy using it!

Now the colder months are coming I don't mind having the boat out of the water while it's being worked on.

Wondering how hard it is to repaint fiberglass? And what process needs to be taken? or does anyone know of a company that handles boat painting, pref around the central coast? The top half of the boat it's the old nautiglass organge and it's pretty horrid looking.

Also looking to have my windscreen redone as it's very scratched on worse for ware. Anyone know of a place that will handle the repairs / new windscreen?

Thanks

[antonywardle]

hey, im in narara too!

no idea about painting though

[Marlin01]

Basically the same as prepping a car for respray. Lots of time bogging, sanding, sanding and then a bit more sanding followed by a guide coat, some sanding, etch primer (this is the key, use high quality high bond etch primer) sand again then top coat.

All in all I did my little 445f and spent over 300hrs on mods and prep and paint, so a lot of time.

Cheers

Marlin

[Belligero]

hey, im in narara too!

no idea about painting though

Fair few of us narara blokes around, See you at Woy Woy wharf!

Basically the same as prepping a car for respray. Lots of time bogging, sanding, sanding and then a bit more sanding followed by a guide coat, some sanding, etch primer (this is the key, use high quality high bond etch primer) sand again then top coat.

All in all I did my little 445f and spent over 300hrs on mods and prep and paint, so a lot of time.

Cheers

Marlin

That much effort hey, Might start to think about upgrading instead !

[Guest Aussie007]

pretty sure etch primer is only for aluminium boats

Belli, u have to be careful which paints u use most will use 2 pack or gelcoat/flowcoat both are bad for your health sprayed from a gun the two pack is a carcinogen and i think the MEKP in the gelcoat/flowcoat is also dangerous to your health however it can be rolled or brushed safely as the nasty's are not airborne from the atomization from compressed air in a spray gun

maybe try a enamel paints

[Crossfire63]

Norglas make brushable finishes for just this purpose

[Guest Aussie007]

have seen a guy roll flow coat with a roller and a women stockings tied over the roller than polished the job and it looked like it was sprayed

[Marlin01]

High etch primer is a reference to the adhesion effishency (pardon the pun) of the primer. The primer I used was an automotive two pack from Germany and has high etch actually on the packaging (in English as I'm not multilingual). Sticks very well To fibreglass as I can attest over ten years later.

Certainly employ all PPE possible when spraying as two pack is wicked s##t. I had my shed completely lined with plastic with forced flow ventilation, high quality cartridge respirator, disposable overalls ect.

Cheers

Marlin

[Rud]

I tried Polar White Flowcoat on my upside down boat (after reinforcing weak areas with fibreglass) with a brush and then a roller (high density foam), I believed you couldn't coat over Flowcoat so I sanded just about every atom of Flowcoat down to get rid of brush/roller marks, then just in time for the fourth coat I was told you can Flowcoat over a previous coat as long as it is reasonably soon (days I think) so I did it again and had to sand it again, that's over $100.00 worth of Flowcoat and ditto for sandpaper and ruined mouse sanders so I found in Bunnings the newly promoted Rustoleum enamel (I have seen US people paint cars with straight out of the spray can) at $10.95 for 425 gramme spray cans promising to cover 4.5 square metres per can and it will stick to anything as it has the primer mixed in so I bought four (4 metre boat by 1.8 metres wide, allow for sides and get about 12 square metres) and of course had to buy two more cans later. The problem is I can't help myself and painted in the wind and maybe lost half the paint or it dried before it hit so it is very patchy and I also tried to put on a little more here and there and ended up with a lot of runs and wrinkles. More sanding. Now, I think it will finish up allright after polishing but if you are going to use it be aware that it says on the cans apply a second coat within minutes (more like seconds) or wait 24 hours (maybe 48 would be better). But work this out, a litre of enamel in a normal can costs around $40.00 while four spray cans of Rustoleum comes to 1.7 kilos ($43.80) what is that in litres? And it has the primer in it, dries to the touch in about 20 minutes and YouTube video makers love it. Two pictures attached, One where the boat is shiny because I just washed it down after a light sanding and one trying to show the patchyness.

What's happened to the time? it says posted at 12:08 am but it was 11:08 pm Friday night

Edited April 24, 2015 by Rud

[fredflathead]

I just painted my Caribean Crest Cutter 38yrs old with Norglass 2 pack polyethane in air-sea orange only did the hull. I have used enamel and had not much sucess this paint is terrific.

You must prep the hull by sanding and removing the old paint off and using an undercoat which was a 2 pack as well. This took about 4 days( leave 24hrs between coats) in total and at a cost of appr. $400 we sprayed the hull.

The result was terrific but be careful that you dont use too heavy sandpaper as the small scratches will show in the finished result.

You leave it for about 1 week to harden then you can put it in the water.

If you have any question pm me.

norm

[Guest 4myson]

How's the frame around the windscreen ? If it's reusable I've got a bloke here in Sydney that I use who is quite cheap as long as you have the old Perspex as templates . I'll send you a PM in regards to painting