Cost effective painting

[bigeasy1]

Ditto what abl111 wrote.

I'm also an amateur but Have had good luck spraying my last three boats.Ive used Sherwin williams (automotive division) Sunfire and Epifanes two part urethane.
The sunfire is best when sprayed and its recommended that you use an air supplied respirator as its high in isocyonates. It has a very high shine and its a incredibly durable and is used on fleet trucks, aircraft etc.
The Epifanes works great either rolled and tipped or sprayed, its a two part catalyst cured urethane that also is extremely tough with a very high gloss.I used it on my 23 Tsunami.It been over eight years now and it still looks great.

Im doing a little 17' aluminum starcraft over now and am going to roll and tip it with the interlux perfection, the mix ratio of catalyst to paint is a simple one and they have large supply of pre mixed colors available.
As mentioned by others the end result is due in large part to the time you take doing the prep work.Interlux has a pretty good site with details on their products which ones to use and how to use them

Can an amateur achieve the same results as a pro? Probably not, but if you use the right paint and pay attention to details and do your prep work you'll be surprised how nice it will look. Good luck

[flyingfrizzle]

Good point, Prep Prep Prep. That's the name of the game. 95% is prep work and the other 5% is spraying/rolling. I prefer to spray my self but think you cant go wrong if you do the prep right. Take a water hose and wet the boat down after fairing it out. IF you see ANY mistakes or imperfections then they will be worse once painted. The more times you block it down in primer the nicer it will be done when finished. I think on my 20 hull I blocked it down 5 or 6 times just to get all the print threw of the roven lay up to go away. The ones that have been in the sun will have bad print threw. Don't be afraid to buy plenty of sand paper and change it out often. Cost a little more but will save your arms latter....

Also stay away from the single part paints. The 2 part urethane or polyurethane paints are far superior

[Bushwacker]

Originally Posted by bigeasy1

Ditto what abl111 wrote.

I'm also an amateur but Have had good luck spraying my last three boats.Ive used Sherwin williams (automotive division) Sunfire and Epifanes two part urethane. . .

Signature Finish paint is basically SW Sunfire. I've bought the thinner ("Flow Fluid") for it at the local SW store where owner Tom buys all his stuff. Difference is that Tom can mix up any color you want and will only sell you the quantity you need so you don't have to buy it in quarts. It's also the only urethane I know of that will hold up below the waterline! He mixed the green and ivory colored paints I used on the bottom to match my Sunbrella canvas and the boat's gel coat. Tom painted his pool with it and it's worked fine on the bottom of my boat for 7 years, having been in the water for as long as 2 weeks at a time. Unlike Awlgrip, it's also easily repairable, so can be touched up, compounded and buffed just like gel coat. I think this is a big deal for a boat that is actually used a lot!

As Bigeasy says, you probably need an air supply type respirator if spraying it, but I've rolled and tipped it just using a good 3M NIOSH approved respirator bought at a professional paint store. (They advised keeping it in a ziplock bag when not using to preserve the effectiveness of the carbon filters!)

[Ed]

I had really good luck spraying my Mercury cowlings with Engineered Marine Coatings line of Quantum paint. Never sprayed anything before and they came out pretty good.

EMC also sells a do it yourself kit (paint, rollers, etc) that shows you how to roll and tip their paint. It is called a "Genius Bucket"

[gofastsandman]

Originally Posted by Ed

I had really good luck spraying my Mercury cowlings with Engineered Marine Coatings line of Quantum paint. Never sprayed anything before and they came out pretty good.

EMC also sells a do it yourself kit (paint, rollers, etc) that shows you how to roll and tip their paint. It is called a "Genius Bucket"

That`s pretty funny.
They`ve never seen me paint before.