Mainship 2006 paint damaged see photo

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SILENTKNIGHT

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
186
Location
United States
Vessel Name
STELLA DI MARE
Vessel Make
2006 MAINSHIP 34T
the paint is damadged the fiberglass is not gouged. It rubbed against piling in heavy wind.
Can someone tell me how to do a prep & paint on this?
its hunter green, i believe its awlgrip paint?
its the size of a slice of bread.
can i do it in the water? its at the rub rail
 

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My Bacchus website has some paint info in the useful links section.
I've done some touch up on my blue hull and was pleased with the match. & outcome.
I had patching & fairing to do and primed using a Preval sprayer and the Awlcraft primer. I had a friend with quality sprayer and experience do the top coat and I helped him do his stripe w Awlcraft the next day.
Questions ask away
 
so the preval sprayer can shoot the epoxy 2 part primer out of the bottle?

1. sand 220, then clean surface then apply 2 coats of primer
2. sand again with 600 then apply another primer layer?
3, Then top coat.
its a very small area
 
The primer mix is a 2 part 1:1 mix ? roll or spray
epoxy primer awlgrip 545 quart & the epoxy primer base ( grey ) mix both and apply ?
 
It’s good to know what kind of awlgrip you have. Original is a polyester urethane and is not repairable. That means it doesn’t buff out or blend like automotive paint and you won’t get an invisible repair.
Later they pushed the more repairable acrylic urethane. It’s not as durable, but is easier to repair and you can achieve an invisible repair if you have some experience with painting.
If you use the preval sprayer, be sure to have some thinner on hand, as you’ll probably need to reduce the paint or primer to get it to come out reasonably.
Only mix as much paint or primer you’re going to use right away as it will harden. Not sure what the pot life is, usually hours though. You can slow it down by cooling the mixture. There will be data sheets for each product. (TDS) read them carefully so you understand what the parameters are for application.
 
..Mainship did use I believe it was called Awlcraft paint. You maybe in luck it could be repairable.
 
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My understanding is MS used Awlcraft on all their hulls. That may only be the later models but pretty sure all the 34T / HTs used Awlcraft. Many people refer to their paint as AwlGrip and use it as a generic term not realizing they have 2 systems.

I followed the Awlcraft instructions and as I recall did have to thin the primer a bit to spray easily. Yes I did use the Preval sprayed for primer and it did a decent job. Try it without thinning first and only add a little thinner if req'd.

With very small amounts and several coats I tried to avoid spending more time cleaning the Preval jar than painting. I found a small plastic cup worked fine to do spot spraying - just mix the 2 parts and pour into a small plastic cup and stick the dip tube into the cup and spray away. It takes 2 hands but for small spots fairly easy. Then do the same w a small cup of thinner to clean the head.

The info I got from the old Yahoo MS group was MS used Awlcraft exclusively for factory paint and was from someone that worked there. If they used anything other than Awlcraft it might have been before the move to FL??

My touch up worked and matched very well.
Only problem I had was the remainder of the Qt can did not keep and was unusable aft sitting for a year+. Its expensive to do touch up when you can salvage the remainder for future use. I don't know if the Mfg would have any tricks to keep it usable? Worth asking.

When my painting pro buddy did his stripe he coated with clear coat (Awlcraft) as the final top coat and I think that is a much better solution and should be more repairable if it ever scratches.

Only other tip was one I picked up from my painting pro.
Obviously when touching up it is best to go to a break point in the hull contour... so in your case easy to start at the rub rail.
If you don't go all the way to the bottom / stripe its tricky to avoid a sharp edge. Instead of masking off a sharp diversion line we used sheets of newspaper taped to the hull in what I'll call the reverse of what you would normally do - so the paper covers your repair area then pull it away from the repair area and form a curve and tape the opposite end of the paper leaving a curve towards the repair. When you spray that way it avoids a sharp demarcation line but does leave s gradual overspray outside the repair area. That cleans up fairly well with compound when paint is dry & cured and blends much better.

Hope it helps
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Thank i have this all set up, just trying to locate the actual color code
 
if you want to save your leftover paint, there's a couple of ways to do that. you can buy a product called bloxygen. you float it over the leftover paint to keep the paint from being exposed to oxygen. you can also just float argon from your tig torch. any inert gas that's heavier than oxygen will do the job. if it's going to sit on the shelf for extended periods store the can upside down after you put in the argon.
it should go without saying, only paint without hardener mixed in can be stored.
if you're interested in doing a proper blend on it send a pm. not sure what your expectations are for it. some things don't require the attention you'd give your new car...
 
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