New Paint -Faded Hull

[msparks378]

I have a 1997 A28 with a blue hull that has faded beyond buffing. Has anyone had their 28 painted that would be willing to share how much it cost? I'm in South Forida.

Thanks,

Michael
Sails Call
Albin 28TE

[RicM]

Are you sure you need to paint? I would try wet sanding first. If you go through the gelcoat there's nothing lost, they'll need to sand for the paint job anyway. Try a small area and wetsand/3M extra duty rubbing compound/3M finesse it/good wax. Awlgrip is going to cost around $5K.

[RobS]

I believe it was approx. $200 per ft, including all materials, striping, etc. That's the boats LOA, not running feet of hullsides and transom all added together

[jcollins]

200.00 per ft. is about the norm around here. (Maryland) Some places include striping and some don't. I'm up for paint next year but several have mentioned wet-sanding. I followed information that was in another thread about compounding, Finesse-it, then wax. There was an noticable improvement but I still have some very shiney oxidation. My issue is to go through all that work and in 3 months it's back to the way it was.

[RicM]

My point is that wetsanding is not going to hurt anything if you are resigned to awlgrip anyway. If it works, and once again, I would test on a small area first, you've saved $5K. You can pay a refugee from an autobody shop to sand and buff for a lot less than $5K. Awlgrip is not forever either, and once you do it you have to keep doing it every so many years.

[Bob_Lee]

I have a blue 32+2 that is a 2001.
The blue was all faded and ugly. I think they muffed the UV stabilization in the gelcoat.
I tried compound, Starbright, NuBright, paste wax, and it all still looked shiny but faded.
Then I tried Turtlewax F-21 polish in the green bottle and it went from bluegrey mottled to deep blue again. I put the F-21 on fairly thick, and then buffed it out with a towel. What a difference, people in the boatyard were stopping by to ask what the stuff was. Last year, same thing, but by August it was faded again, so I stocked up on the stuff this year and will do a midseason repolish.
I tried other Turtle wax products to see if they worked as well, but the F-21 polish was the only one that made the blue deep again.

I have a 1997 A28 with a blue hull that has faded beyond buffing. Has anyone had their 28 painted that would be willing to share how much it cost? I'm in South Forida.

Thanks,

Michael
Sails Call
Albin 28TE

[Don]

I have an '89 A32 sportfisher which I purchased in Florida in 2005.Apparently the previous owner never compounded &waxed the hull or the topsides. The boat was badly oxidized.I compounded the hull and then proceeded to apply the POLY-GLOW system on the hull & topsides. The system consists of scrubbing on the "poly-prep " first and hosing it off. Then apply the "poly-glow" in 3 to 5 coats. This year I only had to wash the boat , and apply 2 to 3 coats of "poly- glow. This lasts all season long and the boat looks great !!! A32 SPORTFISHER-'LAST FLING'

[spwhite]

I have a 1995 TE28 on Lake Champlain in Vermont. The dark green hull was getting quite oxidized, even with compounding and waxing. A friend with a dark hull recommended a product called Vertglas, from marinestore.com that he had used. It is a copolymer multistep process that is quite easy. I put it on this spring, and so far, it looks almost new. Cost for the entire 4 part kit of compounding, cleaner, vertglas and remover, with applicators was around $150. It took about 4-5 total hours to complete the process with 6 coats of vertglas. They recommend reapplying a coat or two each year, as needed. I found that their basic kit was more than enough to do the hull on the TE28, although they recommended getting an additional bottle of the Vertglas. We'll see how it lasts up here, but so far so good. The person who recommended it has had it on his boat for 2 years, and it still looks good. We call it poor man's Awlgrip.

[Parker]

Another vote for the Poliglow option. I put a post on this board here a couple of years back and my boat still looks great after a couple of maint. coats each spring.

[Mariner]

One of the things that a lot of people miss is that if you want a buffing job to look good without many many hours of tedious and painful labor, you need to use a mechanical buffer. And I'm not talking about one of those low-rpm random orbital buffers they sell at the auto parts store.

I'm talking about a 6,000+ rpm angle grinder/buffer with a wool bonnet and copious amounts of rubbing compound.

After you've buffed it out, use the low speed guy to apply a fresh coat of protective wax.

I highly recommend doing this work on the hard. Trying to do it while the boat is in the water is not only dangerous, but infinitely more difficult.