We had left off at the point of raising the boat from each side to finish up the removal and sanding of the bottom coat. With the bottom layer of ablative coat pulled from the fiberglass, it was time to lay down some Ready Strip. This would remove any remaining paint particles and clean up the fiberglass.
A small can of this bad-boy can be found at most any marine parts supply store. In our case we found it at West Marine for right around twenty five dollars.
We went to work by laying down a thin coat of Ready Strip all over the bottom of the boat, building it up thicker around the edges of the keel trunk and underneath where the bunks were laid across the hull. Once set in after a couple of hours, a quick pressure wash removed both the applied stripper and any other bottom paint left behind.
The next step in our process was to apply an epoxy barrier coat to the bottom of the boat.
Again, out came the West System Epoxy and hardener. We used the same 5:1 ratio for the epoxy to hardener mix, this time adding the 407 Low Density filler to thicken up the mix. This powder-like filler is simply poured into the epoxy mix until it achieves a melted chocolate-like consistency, and creates an amazing fairing surface.
Once mixed, I simply rolled the epoxy coat all over the open surfaces of the hull.
When it came to the keel areas, I simply brushed on small amounts, building up layers over time. After the barrier coat dried, we simply ran over it with 320 grit on the Dewalt random orbital sander to smooth it out in preparation for painting.
After sanding down the bottom, Anthony carefully laid down some painter's tape to mask off the area where we would be applying the bottom coat. In this case I chose to go with the Interlux Bottom-Kote NT bottom paint. The manufacturer described this as the perfect combination of both hard coating and ablative coating paints.
I have to admit, much like the Pre-Kote primer, Interlux's Bottom-Kote paint went a very long way, and dried in only minutes. By the time we had reached one end of the boat, the bottom was ready to go back and lay down another coat. We ended up rolling three coats over the bottom of the boat.
Once the tape was peeled up, the lines came out extremely straight. With the bottom now finished, it was time to move on to painting the hull itself.
A buddy of mine has recently picked up an inexpensive HVLP spray gun from Northern Tools, and was anxious to try out its first use on the Clipper. Who was I to argue? I had four quarts of Interlux Brightside paint that needed to go on, and what better way than to spray?
After spending a couple of afternoons masking off the hull with tape and plastic and running over the primer with acetone to remove any contaminants, it looked like we were ready to give it a shot.
My buddy Rob started by taking the paint straight from the can, and laying down a thin coat to check the consistency of the paint, and the patterns of the spray gun. For a first coat, we check for any splotching.
After seeing a few thick spray marks, we then thinned the paint a bit with Interlux 216 Special Thinner. It only took a couple of ounces per paint can, but it seemed to mix very well and allow the paint to spray on very evenly.
The next coats that were laid down were almost as smooth as glass. There would be a couple of spots it looked like we would need to buff out, but for the most part victory was ours.
After a couple of weeks of drying and curing, we pulled back the tape and started masking off the boot stripes. This particular job looked like a simple roll and tip with Pettit's Easypoxy topside paint.
The original color on the Clipper was something close to a Sapphire Blue, but we chose to go with Pettit's Burgundy for the boot strips.
Again, this particular brand seemed to go a lot further than I ever expected. We rolled and tipped a single coat all the way around, waited a couple of days, and finished it off with a second coat. I was pretty impressed with the self-setting ability of the paint to eliminate most of the brush marks.
With the boot stripes now finished off, we decided to go ahead and varnish and recover the trailer bunks.
The kids helped out with the first part, spreading a light coat of varnish along each trailer bunk. For about thirty dollars, we picked up some black indoor/outdoor carpet that looked perfect for covering the bunks.
Carefully cutting out the pattern, and using some 3M spray adhesive, we stuck the carpet strips to each bunk, stapling it down along the sides and bottom. The resulting product, although not perfect, would be perfect for our newly painted bottom to rest on.
A few touch ups would be needed along the front of the bunks, but it looked like we were ready to re-attach the bunks to the trailer and lower the boat back on to our newly soft-carpeted bunks.
The next step in the process would be to fine sand and buff down the paint on the hull in preparation for gel-coating.
As always.. more to come.. stay tuned.
fantastic work! she looks wonderful, and i can't wait to see the final product. staying tuned
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