Painting Scheme

After finding a few small areas on the hull that needed a bit more filler and attending to them I removed the masking tape that had been on the hull for far too long.  I was a nightmare to get off and now the topside paint needs patch repairing at the waterline but there are other areas that also need attention.

Bizarrely I put new masking tape on the waterline ready for the next step, about which here is the work schedule.

Click to enlarge

The bootstrap will be painted with Trilux 33. The antifouling is Cruiser and the paint for the topsides is Toplac. They and Gelshield are all International products while Light Primer is a Hemple paint. I may put the Cruiser over the Trilux because Trilux is the harder wearing paint.

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Update:

• I found extra Gelshield in the paint locker, I must have bought some in 2011 I forgot about, so there will be 7 coats. Two green, grey, green, grey, green, grey, in that order. So much for the work schedule.
• I wrote to International Paints and got a very quick reply, as on previous occasions. They recomend putting the Trilux bootstrap on top of the Cruiser, that's the plan then.

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Hull

Before the first coat of Gelshield below the waterline was sanded with 180 paper using various power sanders and by hand. Any holes identified were filled and sanded off again. Then she was washed down with Supercleaner, hosed off and when dry cleaned off with lint free cloths and acetone.

After the first coat of Gelshield, the second coat was also green so she looked just the same.

After second coat of green and this, the first coat of grey, any pitting found was filled with Watertite epoxy filler. Gelshield is epoxy so the two should bond well.




Before the start of stripping down to and then repairing the gelcoat it had been my intention to use Primocon antifouling primer and I had purchased two tins to do two coats with, then I found the cracks (http://littlegracealacrity.blogspot.com/2011/06/cracking-up.html).

Given that I had two tins of Primocon it occurred to me that it might be a good thing to use them even if it is not strictly necessary. An e-mail to International paints confirmed that there was no downside and it would add to the overall protection.

Seven coats of Gelshield completed - this is the first coat of Primocon.

After two coats of Cruiser

Bootstrap marked out and taped. It took two peope to do this using a meter long flexible ruler. We markd from the top of the old boot strap to make a new bottom line. 15cm wide at the stern, so that the outer edge is at the very edge of the stern. 8 cm at the bow and 5cm when above the keel.

Three coats of Trilux 33 later here is the bootstrap before the strip

and the reveal

Deck, coach roof and cockpit

Much of this work was carried out concurrently with the work below the waterline.

Ready for the first coat of Light Primer on the deck and cockpit.

Actually the first coat of Light Primer (Hemple's epoxy primer undercoat) was applied in the summer 2011 before the project came to a holt, so this was the second coat.

Before painting, the deck, coach roof and cockpit was sanded with 180 paper using a rotary sander on the larger flat surfaces but otherwise by hand. Little Grace was then vacuum cleaned and holes that had been missed were filled with Watertite. This was followed by final sanding, vacuuming and then wiping down with lint free cloths and acetone.

The morning after the Light Primer was applied 1

The morning after the Light Primer was applied 2

The morning after the Light Primer was applied 3

Here you can see a coat of International's Perfection Undercoat, which was added after sanding with 240 grade paper. It was then sanded with 320 grade paper and cleaned with Tack-Rag. The edges of the non-slip areas have been masked ready for painting the shiny bits with Perfection.

After two coats of Perfection. Sanding between coats was with 320 grade and the dust cleaned away with Tack-Rag.

All the taping moved and two coats of Interdeck applied. The coats were 24 hours apart but it will take 2 - 3 days to be dry enough to walk on as the temperature is only just getting up to 10 c in the middle of the day.

 Tape removed after 36 hours

I will keep adding updates to this page until painting the outside is done.