Painting my transom: roll and tip pr spray?

I need to paint my transom since I'm changing the name of the boat. I removed the swim platform yesterday and started sanding. Now I'm wondering if I should use the roll and tip method or use my compressor and a spray gun. I never used the roll and tip method and I am not convinced I can obtain a professional results. I would hate to see brush strokes on the transom. Any input?

Foto,
** Interesting conundrum.* Seeing as you already have the spray equipment you are no doubt aware of the "issues" (masking, overspray, proper paint viscosicity, runs etc... did I mention overspray?).* Since it is such a small area, you may have less problems if you roll and tip.* Quicker clean-up afterwords and depending on the paint you use, a better ability to fix "oopsies".* I think temperature and humidity are your greatest concerns in any case.** Just my $.02.

If your prep is good roll and tip will give very good results, use a foam weenie roller with rounded over edges and a 4" foam brush. Dont apply the paint too thick.. if it needs it give it a second coat in about 6 hours on a warn day. roll the paint on and let it set a few minutes as some on the bubbles in the paint will start to disappear, then drag the dry brush vertically across the surface once. Do not do multiple passes. I have been painting this way using brightside poly for years and it works well. If it is really warm use appropriate brushing thinner to slow the set.
good luck!

Why vertically?

If you use as piece of glass as a test palate to get the proper thickness to the paint you should have great results. Roll then tip the glass.
(Glass because you can wipe it off, add thinner and try again)**

When you don't have brush marks on the glass. the paint has been thinned properly.
Then follow Hollywoods advice as to the roller and method.

SD

-- Edited by skipperdude on Thursday 20th of May 2010 08:14:32 AM

Fotoman, Here is how ours turned out, we only roll, no tipping needed, with Awlgrip. The pros can't tell we did not spray it.
[url]http://tinyurl.com/yl4tks2[/url]
Chuck

Fotoman,
I hope to R & T our hull soon but consider it an alternative to getting a spray gun finish. If you are able to use a spraygun at your marina and not have overspray on other vessels then I say spray. As Phil mentioned recently your prep and primer are the keys to a great paint job.

I guess I'll try the roll and tip method. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Fotoman--- We've used the roll and tip method on smaller areas of our boat (main cabin door, aft head bulkheads) and while we achieved very satisfactory results, the technique will never be as glass smooth as a proper spray job. A friend who has the sailboat in the slip across from us used to be the chief engineer at Uniflite. Lately he's taken to repainting the topsides of his boat. He is using a very small spray gun which seems to require minimum masking and generates very little overspray and the results are best described as perfect.

He's helped us on a number of projects on our boat and when we were undertaking to repaint our aft head I asked him about painting methods. He said that while spraying unquestionably gives the best result (assuming the surface has been prepped properly to begin with) the roll and tip method can be very effective, particuarly in places where spraying can pose problems with masking, wind, etc.

He showed us the roll and tip technique he uses and this is what we did. As I said, it looks great, we have no complaints, but it's not as great as a well-done spray job. If you have spray equipment already and know how to use it effectively and if masking, overspray, and weather are not issues for you, I would highly recommend that over roll and tip. However, if you do settle on roll and tip, it can look very nice indeed but there is a learning curve. Skipperdude's suggestion to practice on a piece of glass is an excellent one--- I wish we'd thought of that before our first experience with the technique.

In the not-too-distant future we want to undertake repainting the topsides of our boat. We'll start with a small area, probably the forecabin. Based on reports from people on the GB forum we'd initially determined to use the roll and tip method but after observiing our friend repainting his sailboat, it's obvious to us that spraying is the way to go, particularly in the very controlled way he does it.

-- Edited by Marin on Thursday 20th of May 2010 02:11:01 PM

Thanks Marin. Unfortunately I have no real experience using a spray. I'll make my hand a less exposed projects first. Like the battery box I'm building.

And since it's such a small area I'll give it a try with the R&T method. I'll practice on an old mirror I have to get the hang of it first.

Fotoman,

I was skeptical when the vertical method was suggested to me. The reason is the brush will leave small lines that can form a sag, when you tip vertical the lines dont run horiz. The last time I painted my hull I "tipped" with a second dry roller... the sides of my boat are pretty tall and it gets hard to tip with a brush. The second roller is way faster and the result was great. If you roll the paint on very consistantly with the wet roller all you are doing is flattening the bubbles. The second key is the white foam round edged weenie rollers. The foam is really fine and produces minimal bubbles. dont be afraid to give it a go.

I've always used the roll and tip myself. Last weekend my brother and I did the hull of his 41' baybuilt boat. I rolled using a good epoxy, short hair roller, and he tipped using a 4" china bristle brush. We have always done a 2-3 foot section at a time with the roller and he tips horizontally with the plank seams. Came out nice with no brush marks. Thats what we have done for 20 or so years on wood and steel.
Larry

Been doing this for a lot of years and I have found for me, if I use the right roller and fine tune the technique, no tipping is needed at all for Awlgrip or Sterling, as a matter of fact the finish turns out less than desirable. These same paint will not do well trying to tip with a second roller. Other types of paints , it may work fine and some one part paints will have to be tipped no matter what you try. I have found no difference in going horizontally or vertically, I think it comes down to what works best for you. Since most all paints will require at least two coats and preferably three, consider the first or second coat practice and concentrate on getting the last coat right. Chuck

I had a chance to do one coat over the weekend. The resuslts are pretty good. We can still see the shadow of the old name (when you know it's there really). But I'm guessing by the 3rd coat it will look pretty darn good.

Also be aware that spraying 2 part paints is a quick way to die unless you absolutely know what you are doing. It is not for most of us. Brush and tip is the way to go.
The interlux perfection paint is what I would use, and was going to use on my endeavour hull. For the deck and topsides interlux britesides a one part urethane.
You transom looks good already. one more coat and it should look sweet.

Bob

The owner of the sailboat across from us who I mentioned in an early post to this discussion used Brightside (thinned appropriately) and a small spray gun to paint the topsides of his boat. So you don't have to use a two-part paint with the spray technique.

Roll and tip can produce a very nice finish, and if done correctly it's a finish that will make 99 percent of boat owners very happy including me. But no matter how well it's done, it is not as good as a properly done spray job. Based on what I observed our friend doing on his boat, when and if the time comes that we decide to attempt to paint our own boat, we will use the small-gun spray technique he used rather than roll and tip. The surface-prep effort is the same for either technique, but given the minimal masking required for his small-gun technique, the actual painting takes less time and produces a better finish than the roll and tip method.

Marin wrote:

The owner of the sailboat across from us who I mentioned in an early post to this discussion used Brightside (thinned appropriately) and a small spray gun to paint the topsides of his boat. So you don't have to use a two-part paint with the spray technique.

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one thing to keep in mind is few yards and almost no marinas will allow a owner to spray their own work. The yard where I live is pretty easy going but they say " no tent no spray". I do agree that the spray method will produce a better more consistant finish, but as mentioned there is probably only 1% who will see the difference. You can also use a rubbing compound on a polisher after the finish is cured to really get a great look.

*

hollywood8118 wrote:one thing to keep in mind is few yards and almost no marinas will allow a owner to spray their own work.

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That, I think, is one of the advantages of the method used by our friend on the dock.* By using a very small airbrush, there is no noticeable overspray and the whole operation is very "low key" in terms of attracting attention.* It's nothing like the higher-volume spray operations typical of a paint shop or yard.

Our marina is (so far) pretty tolerant of people working on their boats.* Sanding,varnishing, painting, boat washing,*even metal grinding seem to be okay.* Perhaps one reason is that due to*the marina's location, with a high volume freshwater*stream dumping into it and a strong tidal current that sweeps through on its way in and out of the bay, anything in the water doesn't stay in the marina very long.* So "evidence" doesn't hang around long enough to be seen. So it might be a case of "what we don't see doesn't matter" attitude.* I don't know.

But in a marina that was more stringent about things like painting and whatnot, if they saw a spray gun being used, even a very small one, I suppose they could clamp down.

I knew a guy in our marina that would do all of the prep work in the marina and then watch the weather for a hot, dry, windless day. He would go out and anchor and spray his boat.... hot weather is your friend while painting a boat.

And I have used both Brightside and Awlgrip. While you have to mix Awlgrip(you end up having to thin Brightside anyway so there is still mixing involved), it is MUCH easier to work with than Brightside and I ended up with a much better result.

-- Edited by Baker on Thursday 27th of May 2010 10:50:30 AM

The finished job.

C'est sharpe ca...

RT Firefly wrote:

C'est sharpe ca...

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lol

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