Painting Bass Boat

[jc05442]

I'm looking to paint my bass boat and have no clue where to start. I have never done anything like this. It's a fiberglass bomber bass boat. I'm wanting to do it myself because I can't really afford to have someone do it. I'm not wanting to it to be a perfect job just something I can do myself and still have it look decent. I've read where some used a tractor and implement enamel and had it look ok but not sure how that would work out on my boat. So can anyone shed some information on what I need to do or a good link/website. Thanks any information will be helpful.

[Fishing Rhino]

Clean it up.  Fill any diggers and blemishes with bondo.  Sand the surface and use a body wash to clean the hull.  It can be found at any store that sells materials to body shops.

 

Then spray it with something like featherfill.  It's a polyester primer that will fill tiny scratches and pores in repaired areas.  Once the surface is sanded and smooth, apply a good coat of fiberglass primer.  After that, sand, and apply a good automotive enamel, followed by more fine sanding.  Apply a clear coat to finish the job. 

 

Be sure to use a wet or dry sandpaper.  Check with the place where you get the materials to find out what grits to use for each step.

 

A good vendor who sells to auto body shops should be a reliable source of information.

 

Keep in mind, Corvettes have fiberglass bodies.  You should paint your boat using the same techniques.  Many replica auto bodies are also fiberglass, so it's nothing new to any established vendor.

[jhoffman]

You could give this a shot, guys have some pretty good results if you do a little searching on the subject "$50 Paintjob"

 

http://www.rickwrench.com/index79master.htm?http://www.rickwrench.com/50dollarpaint.html

[jc05442]

Thanks for the replies guys! Keep the information coming!

[jc05442]

After reading about that 50 dollar paint job I'm going to try that and see how it holds up on the fiberglass. I have pretty high hopes for it because if it looks anywhere close to some of the people who have painted cars following that 50 dollar paint job it will be well worth it!! Love a good summer project anyway!

[(='_'=)]

we did it last year to our boat...it ended up costing maybe a little over $100, and i think the outcome was good enough for being the first time... the harder part was removing the old paint.... we even put small flake on the paint, you can do a search under "restoration" and it should come up.... unfortunately we didnt continue the restoration, we just painted and recarpeted the boat....

[jc05442]

Awesome you have any pics of the paint job after you finished it? Now I'm trying to decide which colors to do...

[jhoffman]

  On 5/21/2013 at 3:54 PM, jc05442 said:

After reading about that 50 dollar paint job I'm going to try that and see how it holds up on the fiberglass. I have pretty high hopes for it because if it looks anywhere close to some of the people who have painted cars following that 50 dollar paint job it will be well worth it!! Love a good summer project anyway!

 

I am doing my trailer soon, although I have full intentions on spraying it via HVLP rather than roll it on, im also going to introduce some enamel hardener into the mix.

[jhoffman]

word of caution, rustoleum doesnt have UV protection, the base stuff you buy at walmart anyhow. They DO make a paint called Topside thats a marine paint which has UV protection, its about double the cost.

[(='_'=)]

i found it. you can see pics of the process and the end result throughout the thread but specially on pages 7 and 9...

 

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/102050-my-restoration-thread/page-7

[jhoffman]

If I were you and doing an entire boat, IF you have a compressor and gun.... I would check eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeebay and search for

 

enamel paint kit

 

 

You can get a full gallon kit with the reducer, hardener and paint in WAY more colors than rustoleum. Sure its going to cost you $80 for the kit but I can almost bet its going to look A LOT better.

[jc05442]

I have a compressor but no gun. Guns aren't to expensive I don't think but if I did that and got the kit does it take just one application over the boat? Also, how hard would it be to spray, I've never spray painted anything other than my duck boat with a hand held camo canister haha....

[jhoffman]

Youre going to thin it no matter what. How big is the boat? Takes roughly a gallon to do an entire car with conventional car paints. Youll thin it, add hardener and spray it. Id spray as many light coats as possible rather than try to put it on thick. Its not going to be a one day deal. To do it in one day you need an auto type paint that will flash dry almost instantly based on temps(activator)

 

The gun is controllable, you control the amount of air and the amount of paint coming out of it at the same time with different dials on the gun. Like I said, id only mix what I need to shoot in one shot, clean the gun, let it dry a couple hours, shoot the next coat.

 

You dont know if you dont try, its not rocket science, they teach it in vocational school lol. If you wanna practice find a junk metal cabinet or car door and see what happens.

[jhoffman]

Also keep in mind that light colors hide imperfections. White no matter how you spray it will look better than black if you have any dings in the boat.

[jc05442]

Won't be able to use spray gun method brother sold his compressor. So now I'll be going with the roll on method. Another question is will the rustoleum adhere to the fiberglass as well as it does with metal. If not, I can afford to buy the rustoleum marine which is only about 7 bucks more but it specifically says you can apply that to fiberglass....

[jhoffman]

I assume it does being that this started on car forums and they use lots of fiberglass. Still, id pay the extra $7. I did some more reading on it again today as I have been looking at this for awhile.

 

I would suggest also that you forgo the mention of thinning it with mineral spirits because it leads to a really long drying period. I would buy an automotive enamel reducer. Ive actually found a place on the bay I can get the paint thats automotive, the correct reducer and a hardener for $50 a quart so thats the route I am going to go. I plan to spray my motor hood at the same time as it needs some paint work and new decals.

 

Looked into so much that I saw guys buying tractor paints from tractor supply and thinning it with gasoline.

 

At bare minimum I want it to dry properly.

[jc05442]

Once I start wet sanding how far do I need to wet sand to able to apply a primer to the boat and what grit would be best to get it there? I think it's kinda common sense once I actually start the painting and then wet sand but knowing how much to wet sand to begin with is giving me some trouble...

[jc05442]

I was thinking of using a 220 grit or MAYBE lower to rough it up and and then apply a coat of primer. Then wet sanding with something like 320 and applying a second coat of primer. After that applying first coat of paint and wet sand with 600. And repeat the paint and wet sand until it starts to look pretty good probably 2-3 more times. Then wet sand with a 1200 grit to get a good sheen. Then buffing it out. I don't know if this would work just throwing it out there.

[jhoffman]

You just need to knock any shine off that it has and then make sure you use an epoxy primer. If you shoot epoxy on something not epoxy you will likely have a wicked reaction.

 

Id start with 320 knock all the shine off. Shoot a coat of primer, wet sand with 600, shoot another coat, wet sand with 1000, wipe down clean, clean it with a tack rag after it dries then start the paint.

 

Wear disposible gloves, you dont want oils from your hands on it before you paint.

[jhoffman]

Shoot in your situation = foam roller in light coats.

 

Make sure any 320/600 scratches are long gone before you lay paint.

[jhoffman]

My FINAL wetsand on the actual paint if I were doing a boat would be 2000