Boat painting

Randall Vallee

Randall Vallee

Member
I know a lot of questions are brought up about painting boats. I have my first little duck boat ever owned and didn't have the chance to really do much with it last season since I bought it going into the hunting season. With a break in the weather I've had the oppertunity to work on it today. In the process of taking off the old camo paint with a router wire brush and then I'll sand. What is a good primer. Second, do I put a matt clear coat on after I'm done painting and lastly, what is good for covering small holes where maybe a light had been, for example. Puddy?
 
The primer will depend on what the surface is. You can use a car bumper spray can primer for plastics that works for fiberglass most of the time. Otherwise you will want to use a paint that self primes like FME from Lou, or Parker. If you use a quality base paint you won't need to use a top clear coat. If you get poor adheasion between the surface and the paint it will just peel off anyway.

For sealing screw and bolt holes nothing beats 3M 5200. It comes in black or white, but it can be hard to find the black outside of a marine store.
 
For a metal boat look at the "how to" document on Lock Stock and Barrell website. Lou details how to prep a boat for paint. It does not matter if you use his FME or another brand of paint. Since you are in the states I recommend getting FME paint from Lou. Its more than worth the up front cost as you will not be repainting the boat every few years as it flakes off and scratches.

http://www.lockstockbarrell.com/

boat painting is under the .Doc header in the lower left sidebar.
 
Need to bump this one for another question. I've been looking at the 3M 5300 as suggested for holes, but I'm wanting to get an opinion on using regular sealer, as the holes in question are from hardwarw I've taken off the the top of the boat? I'll will pick up the 5300 for some areas closer to the waterline, but for the top areas what would you guys use?
 
Randall,
If you're looking to fill holes in Aluminum, I would definitely use a product called Alumiweld. You can use a propane torch and repair is easy...once you get the hang of the stuff. I've repaired model plane engines with it. Even did like the demo guy does...poked a hole in the bottom of a beer can (empty of course) and then filled it in with Alumiweld. It can be painted over. If filling anything with 5200 (and I use a lot of 5200, sometimes the paint is very slow to cure over it since the 5200 has to loose solvents and cure.
There's some HowToPaint and A/G Primer info on my website if you need or I can email info to you.
Lou
www.lockstockbarrell.com
duckguylsb@juno.com
 
Thanks Lou, as I'm sure you can tell I have lots of questions. Getting all the paint off is back breaking too, but making good progress, even if slower than I like lol. I'll look at your link, tyvm for the help.
 
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