Painted boats: to buy or not to buy?

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200 what?!? [as he braces for the answer]

Edit: Never mind, I was thinking dollars, or some multiple thereof, and you clearly stated hours. Heading back to the coffee pot.

Yeah, 200 kpa in metric for your systolic when you figure out the final tab in dollars, pesos, euros, soles, pounds yen, bitcoin or rubles.
 
When all is said and done with the boot striping, reapplying the name and hailing port, and any cove striping a professional 2 part paint job will probably run about $300/ft. That is just for the hull sides. YMMV.

Anyone have any comparative figures?
 
Greetings,
Mr. M. Well, I was quoted about $220/foot house and hull but I buy materials. I anticipate being close to budget BUT your $300/foot might be closer to reality.
 
If you are going to be outside the US, consider Trinidad or Grenada. We painted in Trinidad and the total cost excluding the name and hailing port ($150) was $4,300 US. Even though the boat had been painted before, the amount of prep would have been the same as if we had started with old gel-coat.
 
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I'll be painting my deck in the Spring (one-step poly), and removing the stanchion bases as well as the cleats. The stanchion bases will stay out, except for one on each side where I am going to install extra cleats. Question: what shall I use to fill the bolt holes?

My topsides gelcoat is still sweet! :)
 
Well I would LOVE to repaint my boat. She's 25 this year and showing some wear. I just can't justify the cost. I can buy a ton of Diesel, a warehouse full of parts and stay in a bunch of marinas if I want for the cost of a repaint. I plan on having this boat a long time and I'm really don't care about impressing the Joneses with a nice shiny boat. I'll save my cash for cruising.

Or…you can do that…it won't sink, and if resale is not a concern...
 
and if resale is not a concern...

The time to paint the boat is before resale.

Cruising will always involve a ding or two , Murphy lives!

Toplac was the best for owner , non spray repaints , but it no longer is sold.
 
and if resale is not a concern...

The time to paint the boat is before resale.

Cruising will always involve a ding or two , Murphy lives!

Toplac was the best for owner , non spray repaints , but it no longer is sold.

Not sure you are right there FF. We can still get it here Downunder. It replaced Brightside here - much better too.

Toplac Topside Paint | International
 
I think Brightside was reformulated to be better than both Toplac and Brightside of old....thus only one one-part product here in the USA....
 
I've got an OLD 17' mako I need to have repainted. Don't really want to use Awlgrip due to cost. I just want to clean it up a bit so the admiral will stop laughing at my elcheapo purchase. Any suggestions?

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Trawler
 
Do you know anybody who does auto body work? Just prep it yourself and have them spray it with say Imron or some other two part paint. They may even have some left over paint in a color you like laying around you could get cheap.
 
I'll be painting my deck in the Spring (one-step poly), and removing the stanchion bases as well as the cleats. The stanchion bases will stay out, except for one on each side where I am going to install extra cleats. Question: what shall I use to fill the bolt holes?

My topsides gelcoat is still sweet! :)

We use a 3M product called marine filler I think. Even for blisters. It's a vinylester product w micro balloons. So there's filler in the filler actually. It was recommended by our boat yard and that's what they use. We've filled hundreds of screw holes on Willy and it holds w/o any evidence of shrinking. I think the usual route to failure for fillers is shrinkage.
 
Do you know anybody who does auto body work? Just prep it yourself and have them spray it with say Imron or some other two part paint. They may even have some left over paint in a color you like laying around you could get cheap.

I've got that part dealt with. My brother is going to do the prep/ paint and we have access to a booth for free. Well kinda free. It's the actual paint selection . I don't really want to pay a $250 a gal.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Trawler
 
I've got that part dealt with. My brother is going to do the prep/ paint and we have access to a booth for free. Well kinda free. It's the actual paint selection . I don't really want to pay a $250 a gal.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Trawler

Then check around with your local marinas, body shops and automotive paint stores and see if they have any left over or mismatched paint you could pick up cheap. If you're going to all the trouble of prepping it I'd try and use the best paint you can if practical.
 
Then check around with your local marinas, body shops and automotive paint stores and see if they have any left over or mismatched paint you could pick up cheap. If you're going to all the trouble of prepping it I'd try and use the best paint you can if practical.

Good point, the big boat's at the yard for some hardtop repair. I should see if we can include this paint with the Vikings.

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Paint can be good

I've been boating almost continuously since 1952 (built a kayak) and while cleaning and doing other work on my Albin (boat at the time (2002)) I saw a guy buffing a nearby boat. I said to him "when you get through there you can buff the gelcoat on my topsides". He later came over to my boat and soon said "that's not gelcoat ... that's paint". In a moment I saw that it was obviously painted as I looked at it w paint in my mind. Had the boat for a year though and didn't know the difference. In my defense it was a very good paint job. It was just an assumption on my part.
 
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mbevins....Take a look at PPG Amercoat 450H. It is a two-part High Gloss Acrylic Aliphatic Polyurethane. It can be purchased at any PPG or Porter Paint store and mixed to any color on their standard palette. Cost is ~$100 per gallon kit. I'm doing all the prep work on our hull but yard will shoot when I'm ready.....also doing the deck prep myself and will roll and tip. Be careful with LPU's.....very harmful to lungs and mucous membranes when sprayed. Most yards use full body suit respirators with external air supply. If you want a permanent case of asthma just spray LPU with standard VOC respirator. If you Roll and Tip a standard VOC Respirator and gloves will suffice. The US Navy uses Amercoat by the tanker load...talked with several friends from the Norfolk Naval Yard and they love the stuff...and 1/3 to 1/2 the price of the popular name brands.
 
mbevins....Take a look at PPG Amercoat 450H. It is a two-part High Gloss Acrylic Aliphatic Polyurethane. It can be purchased at any PPG or Porter Paint store and mixed to any color on their standard palette. Cost is ~$100 per gallon kit. I'm doing all the prep work on our hull but yard will shoot when I'm ready.....also doing the deck prep myself and will roll and tip. Be careful with LPU's.....very harmful to lungs and mucous membranes when sprayed. Most yards use full body suit respirators with external air supply. If you want a permanent case of asthma just spray LPU with standard VOC respirator. If you Roll and Tip a standard VOC Respirator and gloves will suffice. The US Navy uses Amercoat by the tanker load...talked with several friends from the Norfolk Naval Yard and they love the stuff...and 1/3 to 1/2 the price of the popular name brands.

+1 on Amercoat, their paint is tough as nails and extremely run resistant for even the most amateur sprayers. Their hard, self polishing anti-fouling is also one of the best on the market and their epoxy bottom treatment (sealer, primer and final epoxy coat) is far more effective than Interprotect and as with all their products much less expensive than all the well known "marine" competitors.
 
Another option is to just apply antifouling up to the caprail...
 

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Originally Posted by Troubadour
mbevins....Take a look at PPG Amercoat 450H. It is a two-part High Gloss Acrylic Aliphatic Polyurethane. It can be purchased at any PPG or Porter Paint store and mixed to any color on their standard palette. Cost is ~$100 per gallon kit. I'm doing all the prep work on our hull but yard will shoot when I'm ready





+1 on Amercoat, their paint is tough as nails and extremely run resistant for even the most amateur sprayers. Their hard, self polishing anti-fouling is also one of the best on the market and their epoxy bottom treatment (sealer, primer and final epoxy coat) is far more effective than Interprotect and as with all their products much less expensive than all the well known "marine" competitors.

Troubadour & Boatpoker

What did/are you using for a primer? The data sheets for Amerlock 2/400 that the wholesaler is recommending (from PPG) doesn't mention fiberglass as a substrate, only steel. This has me a little concerned.
 
Where we don't want gloss we're using house paint on a lot of the inside of our aft cockpit. Also on our radar arch (plank).
 
I went with the recommendation of my painter, as all of the mentioned paints are good, he likes to working with Imron and knows the action of this product. This way if the job does not come out right he can not say "I TOLD YOU" etc. Remember BAD PREP WORK WILL MAKE GOOD PAINT LOOK BAD AND GOOD PREP WORK WILL MAKE CHEAP PAINT LOOK GOOD.
 

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