Topside Boat Painting: Tips and Tricks

#boat #painting #sailboat #epoxyprimer

Here I am painting my boat's topside. After preparation of the surface, I used a grey epoxy primer, then a white primer, and finally a enamel gloss paint. I used the epoxy primer as a build coat. The color allowed me to see high and low spots and also if I was getting my coats too thin on the coverage. The gray color allowed good contrast. Following the epoxy primer, I used a standard single stage white primer. I was going to paint the boat topside white and didn't want tinting from the grey primer. Between coats I sanded, both wet and dry, with 120 and 220 grit paper to get a flat and smooth surface. I mostly brushed the paint but also rolled and tipped. The final paint was a single stage enamel paint. I ended up doing 3 thin coats. Overall, I used about 1gallon grey epoxy primer, 1/2 gallon white single stage primer, and 1gallon final enamel topside paint. Overall, the hardest part of the project was prepping of the surface for paint and tapping of the edges. I found that it was much easier washing the boat. I really like using the epoxy primer. As a note, I would have preferred gelcoating the topside but because it had been previously painted, I had to go with paint.

It's been 3 years since I painted the topside and it is still doing well ! The boat is a 1970 Pearson 39, Hull #1.