Painting A27

[Sprig1]

I'm into my headliner refit. Ive run into a problem I have the whole boat ripped apart. I might as well paint it while I'm at it I will probably hopefully never have it in this condition again. Any thoughts! Spray or tip and roll what type of paint? I've painted cars before and they haven't turned out to badly. I'm not looking for perfection probably a 3 to 5 yard boat

[Northern Spy]

If you have sprayed a car then you can spray a boat. The advantage being you can use a 2 part paint that will have far more durability and hardness. The biggest limit is usually finding a place to do it at. I plan to spray my decks using 2 part. I am doing research by asking everyone one my dock what they used. Surprisingly, the best looking two boats were painted very diffrently. One is a pro job with awl grip the other a diy with rustoleum. I painted a cheap Catalina with rustoleum and it held up fine for three years till I sold it. The only drawback was it required regular cleaning to keep mold off it.

[sail149]

I have had good success with real interlux "bright side' marine paint. It's one part polyurethane. I used the no sand primer under which has to be painted over very soon after application to got a great bond.
The interlux will really lay down well. It's what most wood boats are painted with.
I would avoid painting the hull as the vertical sides get less sun damage and , docking bumps are less of an issue to clean up.
It would work great on the deck and cabin sides I think
But how to get a good color match with the fiberglass under if you do not paint everything....not sure.

[rnummi]

Roger, just my two cents: before you opt to paint. Run down to Harbor Freight, get the six inch random orbital sander/polisher for 40 or so bucks. Find an auto body supply store close to you via Google. Go buy 3M "Hookit" 800 grit sandpaper. They also sell a little foam interface between sander/polisher Velcro and the sandpaper. Allows you to not burn the gelcoat and zip around imperfections. Try this first. Mine was completely oxidized no reflections whatsoever. 2 complete wet standings later, it's like a mirror. Truly miraculous, I would ask Don and or Ben to opine as well. They've seen the results. The 800 grit sandpaper isn't cheap, but what results will insure you buy me a beer when I'm up in your neck of the woods.

[JT48348]

On a 30 year old boat--paint it and make it yours. You will never regret it and you will smile every time you see your boat. You will turn heads even with a 5-10 ft rule paint job vs a buff job. I too chased the buffed hull endlessly with nothing but a lot of wasted time and effort. It makes sense on certain boats of certain age, but unless your hull, deck, interior is Un-characteristically immaculate, it will look like a 30 year old buffed hull when your done. What you want is a new boat look. Make it the boat you want & it doesn't have to be white or off white.

+1 interlude Brightside. I did my classic 30ft sailboat with brightside using the roll and tip method and it last 8+ years through all sorts of abuse. As stated it lays down really well, settles to a nice even coat. The only problem with brightside is the cost. It can be almost 2-3x other paint options, which when you're doing a deck and hull or even interior can cost an arm and leg. Only certain colors easily come in quart size so plan ahead.

++1 Rustoleum. I recently switched to Rustoleum marine topside paint for the A27. I find it lays down as good as the brightside at less than 1/2 the cost.

My current small pilothouse sailboat was done exclusively with this. It looks like a new boat. The only thing I don't like about the Rustoleum marine paint is the coverage. I find it takes several coats and I feel like it takes a lot to get good coverage even with a dedicated primer. I'm switching to straight Rustoleum when I can.

As an aside, I painted a 22ft sailboat with latex exterior paint on the boat interior. The latex held up very well, so much so it made me a believer in using latex on a boat. There's much discussion on this online and people will cry heresy but if you research it's a viable option for a budget DIY. Exterior latex can be as cheap as 1/4 the cost of brightside so don't rule it out. It's also easy to spray with a household airless sprayer and easy to cleanup.

I also have tried Sherman Williams auto enamel paint which I used on the 22sailboat hull in dark blue, also via brush and tip. It held up very well. I painted a white hull dark navy blue and while there were touch ups over time due to scrapes and bumps it was normal wear on a dark hull. The Sherman Williams was about 60% the cost of brightside. The only down side is I found, its not as forgiving as the brightside for applying on a hot day. I ended up with a slight orange peel visable at 5ft rule. Idk that I'd use it again. It also came only in gallons so there's no economical "touchup" quantity to buy and have on hand. I prefer Rustoleum because you can get it in gallons or quarts.

I've used a version of Killz as primer with great results. It had an anti mold agent and it worked great. The disadvantage is its thick paint and it clogged my airless sprayer before I could clean it and that was the end of that.

Speaking of which, I sprayed the interior of the 22sailboat using a household airless sprayer. Fantastic. There is no better way to give a boat a facelift. The boat literally became brand new before my eyes. A sprayer gets into every cranny evenly. Excellent fool proof coverage. Fast & flawless. But your hull has to be bare and everything taped off or removed.


*****
On my A27 I'm using rustoleum and or rustoleum marine for interior, top sides & deck. I will be switching to Rustoleum enamel to do the hull red or blue. I plan to airless spray the interior with a primer, then the deck and hull.

[tego]

Roger, I'll verify what Rick (rnummi) had to say. His hull and house looked like new! When you finish sanding and then compounding it, you'll be amazed. I've done the same on my Pearson 424 ketch except I used 1000 grit and a large 7" polisher about 15 years ago. These boats (our 27s) have a lot of gelcoat on them and it can be brought back pretty well. If you do paint, "epifanes" has a two part paint that is designed for roll and tip. Check out their website. Good Luck. Ben

[Sprig1]

Thanks you everyone for the replies. Rick your boat sure looks great in the pictures thanks for telling me what you did I was meaning to ask. I think I might do a combination of the two paint the topside and buff the hull. But I'm taking of the swim platform to caulk and I already have all the above and below water thruhalls out. I have a friend that has racing boats he wants me to paint it that's what started all this. He can't under stand an albin 27 his cruises at 80 Mph.

[rnummi]

Thanks Roger, I'm just a sucker for OEM and as little work as possible. I buffed the heck out of the boat, it took 2-3 rounds of wet sand. I ultimately transitioned to 1000 grit Hookit foam sandpaper... Amazing stuff. When I got to the pilothouse, i was getting off-white patches. Turns out the PO had painted the pilothouse w brightside. Impossible to remove the brightside. Sooooo, i too am using a "combination" of painting and buffing. the pilothouse cant be buffed out because of the paint. I'll have to remove the windows, trim etc. to bring it back. On a different tack, as was pointed out, the painting method will allow you to fill in the myriad of imperfections, gouges, holes, dings etc.if you have them. If the hull is in decent shape (mine had a couple of deep scratches and piling gouges), the wet-sanding allows you to bring it back to OEM time and time again. Also, FYI: none of the "bring back the shine" chemicals/coatings, etc. worked. Not West, not Island Girl, rubbing compound, waxes, nada. I figured, I could always, paint... lemme see if I can make it look like the day it popped out of the mold w/o paint. The logic behind my reluctance to paint is the little electronic sensor you see the used car manager utilize when you trade in a car: "what's that says I? He says, it senses if you have had any body work or repainting done....nobody wants a repainted car" I always thought I would do bodywork before trading it in. Not so sez he. I take that same prejudice to the boat. Some day I'm going change the hull color, two part painting etc. Just not today. Object was to get it in the water expeditiously, the best it could be, painting would have been another epic project (swallowing more boat units) which I had no previous experience (and the family was getting increasingly restless). The ONLY thing that brought this back was the big gun of random orbital plus 3M hookit 800 sandpaper. P.S.S. They don't sell or distribute Hookit at the big box stores. ONLY auto body supply shops (and every one of those stocks it). Its designed for 3Ms little expensive pneumatic tool. Pah! Harbor Freight and one solid day of hoisting the sander/buffer to the rescue.

[JT48348]

Wait.....Your logic about not painting a 30 year old boat is a used car salesman has an electronic device that checks for body work? Lol

[DesertAlbin736]

FWIW I've heard good things said about Rustoleum's marine deck paint. Comparable to Interlux but at a fraction of the price.

When you're talking about headliner you mean the "overhead" inside the cabins? The P.O. of our boat did something like what you're talking about, but I'm not sure what type of paint he used. Knowing him it was probably regular gloss white Rustoleum, since he did a lot of things on the cheap. He had removed all the joinery out of the cabin down to bare hull & painted all the interior of the cabin trunk in white gloss (or semi gloss?) from deck level up. He also painted the bilge under the floorboards. The overheads are the structural fiberglass chopped mat, not a liner insert, so the surface is not purely smooth like the outside of the hull. I'm not sure what sanding would do there. The P.O. did line the ceilings below deck level, which in nautical speak the term 'ceiling' refers to the interior side walls, with a sort of white naugahide type spongy vinyl material about 1/8 inch thick.

By the way, that "Classic Boats" pillow on the seat is available from Zazzle.com & can be customized with "Welcome Aboard/[your boat name]". But they only have them for Albin 25's. Our wood work is getting a little dinged up, so that too is a future project to strip the solid trip pieces & re-stain & varnish. Always something with 'this old boat'.

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When I did my hard top project I rolled & tipped it with one part Interlux Brightsides deck paint. The rest of the wheel house needs repainting, but that's a round tuit project for next year.

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[Sprig1]

I have another question. What is the best way to paint all the storage lockers? Wash it down with acetone and try to sand it? It's pretty hard to sand the ruff fiberglass roving smooth. I'm painting the bilge too and the engine. All suggestions appreciated. Thanks

[rnummi]

I'm sure there's a "right" way. That being said, I used a wash down w Dawn, a base coat of Killz spray primer followed by a coat of rolled white bilge paint. Bulletproof....(and stark white).

[WillieC]

rnummi (The 'r' and the 'n' and my old eyes make it into 'm') Rick!

You suggested back on May 14 a 6" random orbital/sander from HF. This style? See pic.
I went round and round last spring trying to buy decent grade discs for my cheap 5" ROS. Well the good ones are 6" and use air sanders. I really don't need a mondo compressor. Anyway, finished my top, with Brightsides, roll and tip. Not great but it passed the ten foot rule, only to have it bubble when it gets rain on it. Hmm... Hood Canal.... no rain...
Next coat will be Bilgecoat, this is an outdoor toy. (Bubbles go away in sunshine, so I'm good...not).

I want to try cleaning the boat sides as you suggest before creating another paint fiasco. This Harbor Freight is a 7". Is this what you are suggesting?

Thanks!

[rnummi]

6 in. 5.7 Amp Heavy Duty Dual Action Variable Speed Polisher

Is the one you want.

[WillieC]

Saw it. I agree. Thanks.