Round Ten

After a couple of weeks of fine sanding it was time to use some heavy doses of acetone to clean up the old latex coating on the deck.

I spent most of my time running the sander across the edges of the deck to clean up any scratches in the fiberglass.

 The nose of the Clipper needed some additional loving before we would be able to paint it.  While I sanded away on the edges, my buddy Rob used the acetone to clean up the remaining late in between the non-skid surfaces.

 These spots were the last remaining areas on the deck that needed clean up before the initial application of the Interlux Brightside paint.  Once cleaned up, we set out to start painting.

The old 1970's Largo Blue was now being replaced with a fresh coat of Interlux Interdeck gray.

The paint itself turned out to have a consistency of molasses, requiring a slow and meticulous application.  The instructions and website did not recommend thinning it at all, so we took outr time spreading the first coat as evenly as possible.

 The results were immaculate.  Once dried, the paint resembled a rubber mold that adhered to the non-skid texture of the fiberglass.  It seemed it was going to be near impossible to slip off the boat while walking on this surface.

The cockpit proved quite a bit more challenging to paint, as there was not a lot of room with which to work.  Working backwards towards the stern mounted ladder gave an exit point, but the floor was to remain unpainted for a couple of days until the benches could dry.

The very next weekend to get the Brightside paint started, we decided to try and cut down some limbs from the Arizona Ash tree that was dropping leaves and seedlings all over the deck.

  After taking down the limbs hanging directly over the boat, we propped up a small tarp canopy that would hopefully keep the debris away from the deck of the boat.

This proved to be moot, as the wind picked up and blew Ash Tree particles anyway.  The tarp only helped to trap the debris under it and guarantee that the paint would get tarnished.

As Rob grew ever so tried of picking tree pieces from the boat, I decided the best move was to hook the boat up and drag it elsewhere to be painted.  Only one spot came to mind:

The parking garage of the company for which I work.  I rolled right in dragging a 26' Clipper as the security guards gave perplexing look.  We headed straight down to the lower level, and set up shop.

 With no trees, wind, or rain, we were able to proceed with  the first coat of topside paint.  This was going to be fairly quick and easy.

Within a couple of hours, Rob had worked back from the deck of the bow to cover the cabin top.  The coat was turning out to have a very smooth and even finish with the fine bristle Wooster brushes we had picked up.

Again, the resulting finish far exceeded my expectations.  We worked back to the cockpit area, which would have to wait until another day to get its topside coat.

Because of a few work-related complaints about the boat taking up needed parking spaces, we had to move the boat out of the parking garage and into the upper parking lot.  Of course, this also helped to further cure the paint into the fiberglass.

Next weekend, we will focus on painting the cockpit and refinishing the bow hatch.