Thinking about painting my boat...

[zimm17]

My gelcoat has seen better days. In bright sunlight, the entire deck has little cracks all over the place- like small slits in the surface. The red stripe has been wet sanded through on a few edges.

I'm thinking about getting an IMRON paint job, so it looks new again. Has anyone done it? What's involved? What kind of costs? Do you paint just the deck and sides, or is the whole boat- interior and full bottom painted?

[gcarter]

You just might have to do something about all those cracks first...........never fun.

[Barry Eller]

Imron is very expensive. Pensacola's best fiberglass man, Elton Bowling, swears by Awlgrip. I used Imron on my engine block and accessories. 1 quart was $202.00. Activator was $202.00 a quart. $404.00 for a half gallon of paint. I have half quart of paint and half quart of activator left to repaint my bow stripe where the previous owner (female) dropped the anchor on it.
I painted my 16' Tahiti with PPG's brand of acrylic urethane.
As far as how much of the boat you paint is up to you.
As GCARTER said, do something about the cracks first.
A paint job is only as good as the surface it is applied too.
Prep is everything. Good luck.

[The Hedgehog]

I had the 27ZX (now CJMike's) shot with Awlgrip. I shot the hull of the X-18 in PPG. I think that the Awlgrip is stronger. A good bit stronger. I know that some painters don't like it but those painters I have talked to have not used it much. The guy that shot the 27 said that it was all he used and he specialized in boats. He did a dang good job.

I dunno about Imron. Formula uses it so I would think it is good. I had a 66 Mustang done in Imron. It held up beautifully but overall the car had a charmed life.

Some guys that do that type of work post here. I here that one or two of them are supposed to do some great work so maybe they will chime in.

[Tony]

I think that "Glassdave", an OSO guy in the Toledo area, has a real good reputation.

:beer:

[gcarter]

Just something to consider......if you prep the deck, you know, getting down through all those cracks, why not consider gelling the deck and painting the stripe? It would be about the same amount of prep. The gel just might be a little less $$$.

[LKSD]

Awlgrip & Imron have been around a long time, but I strongly feel that there is better stuff out there to be used. I personally prefer Basf Diamont (Donzi uses this on ther hulls with graphics) or PPG Concept (Cig uses this on their hulls)..

I like the Basf stuff for its flex properties, lusterous & durable shine. We use Basf Diamont on the majority of the hulls that we paint, otherwise it is usually gel..

However no matter what you use, you MUST repair all body work first, including cracks. If you have a lot of them it wont be the painting & paint that is the bad part, it will be all the time in fixing the body..

;) Jamie / Lakeside

[DonziNUTS]

WOW..:eek!:.$202 for a quart and $202 for activator??? Where do you live I can ship it to you cheaper and still make money off of it. I bought Imron 2 months ago and did Chris Craft X19; gallon of white w/ activator and quart of bronze (boot stripe) it cost me $307 for all.
I shoot PPG most of the time. All my cars and motorcycles. I shot my last 2 boats with Imron and they come out great and hold their shine. I have been looking at applying Awlgrip to one of my Donzi's but not knowing the system I'm bit scared. Talking to other people that used HOK on there boats love it! But they are too new to see how the shine holds up over time.
As anyone here also recommended PPG Vibrance? I believe one of the Scott's was a PPG rep??

Just my two cents.

[David Hartmann]

My gelcoat has seen better days. In bright sunlight, the entire deck has little cracks all over the place- like small slits in the surface. The red stripe has been wet sanded through on a few edges.
I'm thinking about getting an IMRON paint job, so it looks new again. Has anyone done it? What's involved? What kind of costs? Do you paint just the deck and sides, or is the whole boat- interior and full bottom painted?

I did the topside and the hull sides and bottom with imron on my 19. I was going to do gelcoat but the shop that was doing the spraying was taking forever and gel would have taken even longer. The hull looks great. I have not had any significant blistering but the boat is never in the water for more than two weeks and mostly it is in for only 4 or 5 days at a time.

Looking back I would have gone for gel coat on the topside for sure. anchor lines have already worn through the paint. and from what I understand they can not really do touch ups to it. I would look for a type of paint that can be maintained. The color quality is awsome but the durability sucks. I try to take care of the boat but I still put at least 100 hours a season on the boat.

As far as preping. The hull was some sort of sand blasting then filled and sanded and sanded and sanded and filled and sanded and sanded etc.

[p729lws]

Imron is very expensive. Pensacola's best fiberglass man, Elton Bowling, swears by Awlgrip.

I have Awlgrip on my transom done by Elton and Imron on my deck strip and hull sides. Both look damn good and are easier to maintain than gel coat. Elton is definately the man in Pensacola.

Dan

[SilverBack]

Listen to Jamie at lakeside!! I started to use that Awlgrip and Interlux Perfection stuff. I am sure it is really good if you are a pro that uses it all the time but it has cyanide or something in it that will kill you. I am not sure about that but the guy at Jamestown Distributors that sold me $900 of it said so after I bought and paid for it and got it to the shop and started using it. I scraped that idea after the paint just really didn't pop like I wanted. You only have a set number of colors to pick from also. We went with the PPG paint and I think it looks fine. I used the Prime Kote epoxy primer. I can't remember the number but PPG makes some really great clear for marine use. I am talking about top paint now. I have no idea about the bottom. Jamie does this for a living and from what I hear he turns out top notch stuff. I am glad that I talked to him even if it was after I had already started.

[Barry Eller]

I am sure it is really good if you are a pro that uses it all the time but it has cyanide or something in it that will kill you. .


Isocyanates...

http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/isocyanates/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isocyanate

[gcarter]

I used BASF products on the Minx sides and stripe. In this case R-M UNO HD.....you CAN do touch up with it. The local dealer sold me the proper reducer to use and it turns out COMPLETELY undetectable. And it's not all that hard to do. Great shine. Any color you want to use. Can be matched to anything. So far it's been on for four years and Dan hasn't had any complaints since I sold it to him.

[The Hedgehog]

Isocyanates...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isocyanate

I think I tried that stuff one time when I was in college and....

[BUIZILLA]

I think I tried that stuff one time when I was in college and.... quickly figured out that schroom's were better...

[The Hedgehog]

quickly figured out that schroom's were better...

They were but did not last as long as that paper with the peace symbols that gives me creative thoughts on how to mod a 22!


And no Poodle, I did not encounter any musical instruments at band camp! But then I did not go either:shocking:

[BigGrizzly]

I am not an expert, I did my Corsican, myself. It was my first big job that wasn't a house. I used Interlux two part stuff It has been on there since 1993 and is still shiny. I used immoron on my race bike fairings also, it is also good. did the ppg on one fairing it was also good. Now I painted my dad's 40 foot Owens top with Interlux with a fine nap roller and it turned out almost glass smooth, and lasted 15 years before we sold it.I am not a good painter to say the least. I can follow instructions. When I did the Interlux I followed the instructions and called their techline first. The big question is would I use it again-YES. If you are going to use a profesional paint shop use what they suggest. My uncle was a color designer and later worked for American paints. He claims the is so little difference in the GOOD paints that it doesn't matter who you use, regardless of the sales pitch.

[Conquistador_del_mar]

My gelcoat has seen better days. In bright sunlight, the entire deck has little cracks all over the place- like small slits in the surface. The red stripe has been wet sanded through on a few edges.

I'm thinking about getting an IMRON paint job, so it looks new again. Has anyone done it? What's involved? What kind of costs? Do you paint just the deck and sides, or is the whole boat- interior and full bottom painted?

I have painted around 100 boats with Imron in the past when I did restorations. Imron is "the wet look that lasts" as they say. It will not change color with the weathering of sun (mostly ultraviolet rays), rain, or mild chemicals. It is an activated polyurethane enamel like Awlgrip. I contined to use Imron since I had such good luck with it and I was used to shooting it. Just like some others have stated, you will have to prep those minor gelcoat cracks before applying whatever paint you end up using. My experience was that epoxy primers would look good until the top deck was exposed to enough heat, then the minor cracks would reappear. I would try to sand back much of the original gelcoat and then apply a coat of activated resin followed by PVA for the cure. This is a good time to really get the deck straight with an air file. You can then sand back the surface for an application of primer before spraying on the finish coat. You can use fine line tape to mask the stripe area, painting the two colors with at least two heavy coats. When you finish, there will be almost no difference in the height of the stripe vs deck paint. I always would wet sand the intersection with 1000+ grit and finish by compounding it to a fine gloss. Usually, the sides require much less prep work since they are not typically crazed with minor gelcoat cracks, but they will need to be sanded past the finish gelcoat and cleaned with a good prep solve to remove the wax before painting. The sides do not need to be primered if the prep work is done properly. I wish I had some pictures of some of the many boats I painted, but you can see some examples here in this forum. Done properly, a painted boat has a better look with almost no need of future maintenance than a gelcoated boat. By the way, you can color match any color you want, but you can usually find a suitable factory "can" color to use. Be sure to keep some of the leftover paint for future touchups to have a perfect color match. One of the prettiest ones I painted was a 22' Donzi which I changed from black to a very dark blue - gorgeous in the sun! Bill

[LKSD]

Listen to Jamie at lakeside!! I started to use that Awlgrip and Interlux Perfection stuff. I am sure it is really good if you are a pro that uses it all the time but it has cyanide or something in it that will kill you. I am not sure about that but the guy at Jamestown Distributors that sold me $900 of it said so after I bought and paid for it and got it to the shop and started using it. I scraped that idea after the paint just really didn't pop like I wanted. You only have a set number of colors to pick from also. We went with the PPG paint and I think it looks fine. I used the Prime Kote epoxy primer. I can't remember the number but PPG makes some really great clear for marine use. I am talking about top paint now. I have no idea about the bottom. Jamie does this for a living and from what I hear he turns out top notch stuff. I am glad that I talked to him even if it was after I had already started.

Thanks.. :) Jamie / Lakeside

[VetteLT193]

On a boat that's used, nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, holds up better than Awlgrip or Imron...
Might explain why lots of the big yachets use it exclusively...


I agree... but, I've had both and Awlgrip always seems thicker. Imron always seemed more paint like and seemed easier to wear off/scratch.

I'm planning on doing mine with Interlux Perfection (supposed to be awlgrip repackaged for easy use rolled/tipped)

Cleaning also seemed easier with awlgrip over imron, but both are so much easier than gelcoat it's probably a moot point.

[detroitdonzi]

I have painted 4 boats last summer with interlux perfection and the name speaks for it.I have used both awlgrip and imron they both are a pain and expensive.Perfection can also be repaired very easy and holds up very well, up here in Michigan.