paintin a nautique

[Andrew]

hey everyone (i think this is my first post lol) anyway, i'm in the middle of restoring my '86 sn2001 and was wonderin about the paint.

how much difference is there between painting a boat and a car?
gel coat what exactly are we talkin about here?
(is it like a clear coat or special paint)
finally how many coats are needed on a "nautique" cause they are so much better. lol

[ffmedic74]

RE: paintin a nautique

I have heard of people using gel coat. The downside with gelcoat is that it is very sticky and takes quite a bit of time to dry. Many people use imron to redo an older boat. If you use imron you should not leave it in the water for long periods of time.

[Nates78Ski]

RE: paintin a nautique

We painted our's with AwlGrip2000, looks great, durable, the only thing is that you should have a boat lift because it is not recommended that you leave the boat in the water for extended lengths of time.

[Andrew]

RE: paintin a nautique

where did u buy the awlgrip?

[efox]

RE: paintin a nautique

Have you tried just sanding and color polishing to restore the color? It's harder work, but I think the results would be more durable. Gel coat is generally pretty thick and can take quite a bit of polishing. Another option is to sand and apply a clearcoat finish.

Eric

[Nates78Ski]

RE: paintin a nautique

we got it from one of our suppliers, i think it was marysville marine

[JAG]

RE: paintin a nautique

Awlgrip and Imron can be purchased at any automotive paint supplier. The big difference to consider when choosing between awlgrip and imron is that imron can not be touched up if it becomes chipped or scratched where as awlgrip can.
Gel Coat, if cured properly, should not be sticky. When gel coat is sprayed a sealer such as PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) must be sprayed over the uncured gel coat to seal it from exposure to air. This is left on for only a short period of time then is washed off. Any of the above processes are very costly. Unless your gel coat is very deteriorated and porous I would recomend wet sanding and then polishing. There is a wealth of information on the internet on how too. There are aslo several products such as Vertglas which are designed to restore faded gel coat. Clearcoating the finished product is also an option but I think, and maybe someone else knows more about this, unless the clearcoat has UV inhibitors in it the gel coat will eventually fade.

[Nates78Ski]

RE: paintin a nautique

yeah & with paint vs. gelcoat, paint you'll get a certain "depth" to the paint that just isn't possible with even the nicest, newest gelcoat, the color just seems to pop a bit more

[Andrew]

RE: paintin a nautique

i don't want to restore the old color lol. i'm ready for somethin new.

so is everyone sayin no to gelcoat? isn't that what they use from the factory?

[DRAGON88]

RE: paintin a nautique

Yes, but the thing is that boat's are built from the outer shell in, meaning the gelcoat is actualy the first they they spray in the mold. It is pretty expensive to have done, a whole boat anyways, and I'm not sure that it's something that is really easily mastered.

[Nates78Ski]

RE: paintin a nautique

From my understanding, gel coat is essentially used, or in the beginning was used primarily as a release from the molds, while it is very durable, spraying it yourself in comparison to painting your boat requires alot more man hours to look, form my understanding, when you spray gel coat after it dries, there is tons of "orange Peel" throughout the boat. Which requires hours of wetsanding, and if any of you have done any sort of wetsanding on a large scale you know this is not a fun task, also i believe that upon finishing wetsanding the first coat you would have to spray a few more coats to get the desired thickness which would entail that much more wetsanding... no fun!

[Andrew]

RE: paintin a nautique

wow, that sounds like sore arms hands elbows fingers etc. that awlgrip is soundin a lot better now lol

[1time17]

RE: paintin a nautique

fill in a cracks and paint it and save alot of time and money but like everyone has said if you paint it dont leave it in the water for a long time, the guy who painted mine said 3 days max..

[82tique]

RE: paintin a nautique

sweet rig 1time17

[Andrew]

RE: paintin a nautique

that looks pretty nice, what did it cost