What Color Should I Paint My Boat boat

C

Chris DeRonde

Member
I have a 14ft lay-out/sneak-box that I am building. I hunt in open water off the shores of Long Island NY and in the marsh grass as well. I was trying to stay away from grassing the boat completely. What color should I paint the boat? Does anyone have any suggestions.
 
I have a 14ft lay-out/sneak-box that I am building. I hunt in open water off the shores of Long Island NY and in the marsh grass as well. I was trying to stay away from grassing the boat completely. What color should I paint the boat? Does anyone have any suggestions.
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That's an easy one. Use Open Water Medium Gray and Open Water Light Gray. Easy to pull into the marsh also and hide easily with reeds....
Lou
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Lock Stock & Barrel FME medium gray gets my vote.

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Chris, I like a dark brown boat myself. I hunt the coastal bays of NJ both off of the bank as well as in open water, depending on the tide. I do grass my boats really well but a few years ago I went a few seasons without any grass and did well. Remember that if you are in shallow water the birds will see the brown bottom and you will blend in. However, if you are in deeper water then the guys who said grey are right on. It seems to me that most of the layout rigs are grey.
 
Chris ,

I know you said you didn't want to grass it , but you can do both. Here is what I did . I took some plastic snow fencing and attached it to existing lash points and added some additional small eye bolts for that purpose. I zip tie the snow fence to those points.

I then attach fast grass to the snow fencing with more zip ties. This allows me to cut just the zips that are run thru only the boat attachment points and remove the enter snow fencing/grass in one piece. Takes 3 minutes to reattach or take it off. Here are some pics.

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plain boat in Lou's FME grey

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rolling out the snow fence

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trimming it down to size. I leave it long in the back , flip it over for traveling on the water and then back up to hide the motor when I'm set.

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grass attached. mot teh back end flipped over for motoring

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Grass flipped over the motor to hunt.

Dave B
 
I am wanting to do the same(paint). I really like how the TDB's look. should I spray or roll the camo paint on?
 
Ted, there was just a disscusion about spray verses roll. It was a mixed bag but it seemed that most went with rolling. I've always rolled and brushed. However, if I had the tools and ability I would spray. With the good quality cammo paints rolling is fine.
Look for post: Spray or Brush??? posted on Sept. 30th
 
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Thanks for all the ideas, the snow fence is a great idea, Does anyone know what kind of paint I should use, it is a fiberglass boat.
 
Thanks for all the ideas, the snow fence is a great idea, Does anyone know what kind of paint I should use, it is a fiberglass boat.
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I might be biased, but I'd get paint from Lou Tisch at Lock Stock & Barrell, Inc. www.lockstockbarrell.com Flat Marine Enamel (FME).
If you want, email me and I'll email you the color chart & boat catalog...it's a 4.96 meg pdf file.

Here's a tutorial on painting boats:

Painting an Aluminum or Fiberglass Boat
1. Be sure the boat has been cleaned off well with soap and water to remove all dirt, grease, leaves, grime and all that stuff that accumulates from years of hunting.
2. Lightly solvent wipe things down with a rag and lacquer thinner. This will remove any gasoline, oil or petroleum residues that would mess with your sanding or prevent paint from adhering. When finished with the solvent rag, be sure to let it set out and lose it’s solvents before you put it into a closed container or trash can.
3. Sand the entire boat, as required, to remove and/or scuff all the paint. Be sure to remove any loose paint. When sanding a duck boat, I prefer 80-100 grit. It gives better “tooth” and, after all……..it’ll help with the dulled surface and paint adhesion. Sanding must be taken into the best previously adhered surface in order to have the new coat of paint hold properly.
4. For Aluminum boat-Spot prime any bare aluminum with ASG Primer (or AG Primer), specifically designed for use on “Aluminum, Stainless & Galvanized”. Do not thin AG Primer. A second option would be to prime the entire boat with PPG’s Epoxy Primer.
5. For Fiberglass boat-You can go right to the FME as this is a Primer-Based Paint and will serve as its own primer. If you would like, another option would be to prime with PPG-Epoxy Primer and then follow up with FME.
6. Once the primer has dried (AG, PPG or 1st coat of FME), you can base coat the entire boat, inside and out, with the base coat FME (Flat Marine Enamel-oil based) color of your choice. FME is a “primer-based” paint and requires no other primer underneath it on a properly prepared surface. You may use a brush, roller or sprayer. When spraying, the best is an airless sprayer though you can thin slightly with a high quality paint thinner for use in a regular air spray gun. If using the air-feed spray gun, we recommend the top-feed, gravity style of gun. It requires less air and less thinning to get a proper pattern. You will also achieve greater success with a couple thinner coats rather than one thick coat. Thinner coats will cure/dry much faster and more thoroughly….thus, more durable. Secret: “thin, you win”.
7. When the base coat is dry (usually overnight in good temps), you may accent with any other FME color you’d like. The options are endless……match your local vegetation.
8. We have several camouflage patterned paint schemes and colors available.
*Our 2-tone Reed Stripe was developed for the cat-tail marshes & flooded corn. Base coat in Starcraft Camo Light Brown (#26) and reed stripe with an automotive striping brush with Starcraft Camo Dark Brown (#27), thinning #27 on the palette as you work. We developed these colors through PPG specifically for us and Starcraft. You can even “green it up” a bit with Dead Grass Green (#28), O/D Green (#35) or some Olive (#18).
*Our Open Water Gray Pattern is very effective for layout hunting. You can base coat the entire boat with Open Water Medium Gray (#33) or Open Water Dark Gray (#34) and allow it to dry. Once dry, overstripe with a wave pattern of Open Water Light Gray (#32) by cutting the feed pressure down, reducing the size of your pattern to a small area and reducing the feed rate so it will be easy to control. Move the spray gun around in a lazy “wave”, walk alongside the boat and “wave” the gun to give the pattern you’d like.
We have pictures of these patterns that we can email to you.
9. You can create your own color patterns/schemes with any of the FME colors we have. All the decoy and boat paints are TRUE - FLAT MARINE ENAMELS and work well with each other. We also do custom colors at no extra cost…try us.
Lock Stock & Barrell, Inc.
123 Avery (shop)
Clinton Twp., MI 48036
Ofc.Ph: (586) 790-2678, Fax: (586) 790-2653, Shop Ph: (586) 465-0339
www.lockstockbarrell.com * duckguylsb@juno.com
 
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I can second Lou's paint. It has held up well on both my kevlar or glass boats. So the FME is my first choice.


Second would be parker paints. Its good, not quite as good as Lou's but its made here in GB so I can get it without the shipping charges or when I need some paint at a moments notice.

baumy
 
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