Paintings

Painting Boats

How to paint your boat

The aim of good surface preparation is to ensure maximum bond. This will ensure high performance and a long lasting finish. While preparation methods vary, the requirements are the same; to remove corrosion products, such as rust any soluble materials like sea salt, and any surface oil, grease or wax.

Painting on top of badly prepared surfaces is a waste of time and money

Always use the right material for the job, using cheap alternatives will cost more in the long term

Always apply the number of coats specified by the manufacturer

Only use products specified for underwater use on yacht bottoms

Always read and follow the manufacturers instructions, they are there for a reason!

Paint removal

Paint strippers have vastly improved over the last few years, and can quickly and effectively remove paint and varnish without any of the environmental and safety issues linked with older traditional methods. However, even the most powerful paint strippers can be slow or inappropriate. In these cases, sanding or blast cleaning may be the only option.

Preparing the surface

The aim of good surface preparation is to ensure maximum bond. This will ensure high performance and a long lasting finish. While preparation methods vary, the requirements are the same; to remove corrosion products, such as rust any soluble materials like sea salt, and any surface oil, grease or wax.

Matching colours

For all the shades on offer, there will always be a time when something different is required. Mixing different shades of the same type of paint is acceptable but this can be difficult.

Colour matching is a highly skilled job and best left to the experts. If you are attempting to colour match, you will need:

A clean mixing container - A palate knife for stirring

A selection of different coloured paints

Start with the colour nearest the required shade and slowly add the other colours. Remember to make a note of the amounts used and stir the paints thoroughly before adding more colours.

Temperature and humidity

Paint dries by chemical reaction and so temperature and humidity will influence this process. Traditional coatings are tolerant to poor application conditions, and most can be applied at low temperatures, although this is not recommended. Ideally, temperatures should be checked with a thermometer before painting. Remember that the temperature should be at least 4 degrees Celsius above the dew point temperature throughout the painting process.

Application

If you're spending a lot of money, and effort, on paints and varnishes, it makes sense to use the best application equipment. Picking bristles out of a newly painted surface is frustrating. And trying to achieve a good finish with a poor brush is equally disheartening. Most yacht paints are formulated for application with a brush. While antifoulings and primers can be applied with cheap and disposable brushes, all other materials should be applied with a good quality brush.

Be safe

Protect your eyes when using paints or solvents

Use the paint in a well ventilated area or use respiratory protection

Protect your hands by using protective gloves

Never touch your mouth or eyes when wearing your gloves or without washing your hands

Never use solvents for hand washing, instead use a hand cleaner from your chandler

When painting is complete, there will almost certainly be some waste paint. Dispose of the paint safely, as it's toxic and can be a fire hazard

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Is paint containing Alkyd good for painting a Styrofoam boat?

I know Alkyd is an oil, but, is it vegetable or mineral? Would either harm Styrofoam? My Snark sailboat is only 11 Ft, long, with some use wear that makes it look like it needs a little facelift. Any goooood sugestions?

This question and ricsudkai's answer really got me to thinking. There are actually 2 Styrofoam "shark" boats. There where large numbers that where simply styrofoam (EPS) , but there where in later years a Styrofoam hull clad in ABS. The key to your question is however more elusive. Most paint (lets call it a coating) has a base (such as oil) and a solvent, or plasticizers and in some cases a catalyst, even fillers. So, paint is a poor term. Alkyd based paints all use solvents, in almost all cases aromatic solvents like Xylene, a petroleum distillate. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkydv Now the problem you have is solvents will attack unclad EPS to some extent. If you pour gasoline on styrofoam you can understand what I'm getting at. On the other hand an ABS plastic is also subject to some degradation, but way less.

Latex has a water based carrier (solvent) so would be a better choice, but it's durability would be lacking.

You might try a test patch to see what happens.

I think I would use latex house paint, and repaint as necessary I think the Alkyd paints would be more difficult to apply and costly.

Another way to look at it, is what would you paint a beer cooler with, or even why would you want to.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 15th, 2010 at 3:42 am and is filed under paintings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.