A skiff

[cracked_ribs]

Well, first coat's on:

I found one section with about eight pinholes, and a couple more little flaws on the other side.

But it's pretty good. I'll sand it down today and see how it looks but I'll be painting soon, I think.

 

[Gong Show]

 

[cracked_ribs]

Second coat of primer. Wasn't much to fix after the first; might have used two oz of Quikfair. It's funny, I bought a 1.5 pint pack three boats ago, then, before my previous boat, bought a second 1.5 pint pack because I figured the next boat would require more than I had left.

I think it's possible I'll finish this boat without ever opening the second pack. I really try to have things fair at the glassing stage and I guess this is the result.

Anyway here's the boat in primer. Oh, I also glued down a wear strip since this thing will get beached constantly. I live on a big island and then my summer home is on a really small island with no docks or anything, so for loading stuff on and off you either drive onto shore, or you row everything in on a dinghy. I'm sick of rowing everything in from my big deep-draft boat so I am building this little low power skiff to use as a runabout, and I put the wear strip on the keel or skeg or however you want to think of it so I can beat it up on the oysters and barnacles and when it gets wrecked I can replace it for about 30 ice pesos.

 

[cracked_ribs]

Finally something worth photographing: rather than just layer after layer of primer as I prep for paint (I used 3/4 of a gallon of kilz to get it where I wanted it, so however many coats that is, maybe a billion?) I was finally satisfied with the surface and rolled on some blue. It's not done, I'm doing thin coats of a single stage enamel so bear with me as it evens out.

Here's one coat:

And here's two:

I'm blocking it with 320 between coats. It's sitting nice and flat. I just wanted to get a couple of coats on her to seal up the primer nicely, and then I can roll it out of the garage for an afternoon to get everthing vaccuumed out. I don't really care that there's dust in the first coat or two, A) because they're getting sanded between coats, and B) I'll probably put another five on top of these two. At this stage I'm not even tipping the paint, I'm just rolling it on and walking away.

Still, you can see it's sitting pretty flat after a couple of go-arounds:

I mean yeah, there's orange peel to deal with, but it doesn't take much to buff it down with 320. A couple more coats and it'll really start to get smooth, I think

So far I've used about one pint of paint. I have a gallon, so no shortage here. Actually, I might have 5 quarts, I'll have to look. I forgot I had this paint, but it was the colour I wanted to this boat anyway, so I figured I'd use it up.

Bit of "mahogany" (presumably sapele) trim, now that it's nicely saturated in epoxy. I loaded on a pretty thick coat and heated it with a paint gun until it was 90% absorbed into the wood. Should pop pretty nicely once the paint is done and the stem is all varnished up etc.

 

[cracked_ribs]

Today all I did was haul the boat out of the garage and clean everything up so I could take a step without choking on primer dust. There was probably an eighth of an inch of dust on the floor, no joke. I swept everything down, moved everything, vaccuumed everything. That doesn't make for great pics but you know what does? Having the boat in the alley for a bit.

Note that the child has grown slightly since the beginning of the thread but is still very small, ergo I am not that far behind schedule.

Of course the downside is that in good light you can see I need three more coats of paint to even up that surface but I found all the paint and I do indeed have about 4.5 quarts left so I can layer it on for as long as I want, really.

Oh, here's the garage, post-clean. I realize it doesn't look very clean but if there was a good before picture, well, it's a big improvement.

Okay, back to gratuitous boat pics:

And finally I had to stuff her back in the car hole.

Oh, I did also decide to treat the boat to what I call "the Australian Flip."

Now we can picture her right side up!

 

[Dorman Point]

Looking really good. She’s going to be rock-steady and will be able to handle a lot of freight comfortably. Perfect for island cabin-life, I think.

And I’m partial to her colour.

 

[cracked_ribs]

Looking really good. She’s going to be rock-steady and will be able to handle a lot of freight comfortably. Perfect for island cabin-life, I think.

And I’m partial to her colour.

Yes, I thought you might appreciate that... it'll darken as I keep laying on coats but in the end I think you'll still find the colour scheme pretty familiar.

I think she'll do what I need her to do!

 

[Gong Show]

Really like that colour. I think it will have great depth once you get the 'right' number of coats on her.
Must feel good to see her outside.
Almost time to show your motorcycle some love and take her on a rip to gold river for a beer.

 

[Rain City]

I have to ask why didn't you use a tinted primer? Or better yet a candy base coat
Oh and when does the flake go on? @ChilliSpoons YOU GOTTA HELP THIS GUY!

 

[cracked_ribs]

Really like that colour. I think it will have great depth once you get the 'right' number of coats on her.
Must feel good to see her outside.
Almost time to show your motorcycle some love and take her on a rip to gold river for a beer.

Only a few hours up the road... might indeed do just that as the weather begins to get us all outside!

 

[cracked_ribs]

I have to ask why didn't you use a tinted primer? Or better yet a candy base coat
Oh and when does the flake go on? @ChilliSpoons YOU GOTTA HELP THIS GUY!

You know I thought about it and I think the primary answer is laziness, although I did ask myself (knowing basically nothing about paint) whether putting a bunch of coats of enamel over a uniformly white surface was something I'd once heard classic car guys talk about as a way to get a paint job that really pops. So I thought about it, but ultimately just decided to go with white just in case it was a good idea.

And once I realized I already had this paint I knew I was going to put on 5-7 coats so I just focused on getting the primed surface really uniform.

Flake would indeed take outside assistance, unless they make it in brushable format. I'm in over my head as it is.

 

[Gong Show]

Did you mention somewhere what the plan is for the transom?
If so, can you repeat yourself.
Looks like a blank canvas, for Sir Mix A Lot.

 

[cracked_ribs]

Did you mention somewhere what the plan is for the transom?
If so, can you repeat yourself.
Looks like a blank canvas, for Sir Mix A Lot.

I have purposefully not mentioned it and I guess this will give it away, but the only comment I am going to make is that while some guys insist that the carpet match the drapes, personally I much prefer bare floors. You may therefore expect something that matches, without much to cover anything up.

 

[ChilliSpoons]

I have to ask why didn't you use a tinted primer? Or better yet a candy base coat
Oh and when does the flake go on? @ChilliSpoons YOU GOTTA HELP THIS GUY!

I think she’s looking awesome in blue. But ya, metal flake and candy paint would have looked killer.

 

[cracked_ribs]

I think she’s looking awesome in blue. Buy ya, metal flake and candy paint would have looked killer.

That's out of my league, I can barely paint a house! If you ever get sick of the mainland and want to change your name to VancouverIspoons and you want to work some magic I'll happily trailer it over to you though

 

[ChilliSpoons]

That's out of my league, I can barely paint a house! If you ever get sick of the mainland and want to change your name to VancouverIspoons and you want to work some magic I'll happily trailer it over to you though

Lol, my skills aren’t up to speed with the quality of work your doing on that skiff of yours. She’s gonna be a beauty.

 

[cracked_ribs]

Not much to update beyond saying that I keep layering on blue. I might do a couple more coats, but I plan to stop painting this week, and then leave it alone over easter weekend to cure. It's just an alkyd enamel that I'm using, although I have been cutting in a bit of Valspar hardener that chemically crosslinks the paint so it should be pretty tough in the end. I've used the same stuff on other boats to good effect.

I am getting pretty happy with the overall appearance. The first pic is two coats ago, the other two are this afternoon. It's very uniform in tone now, and starting to pick up a bit of depth. Once I start smoothing out the surface I think it'll have a lot of shine to it.

 

[Rain City]

Not much to update beyond saying that I keep layering on blue. I might do a couple more coats, but I plan to stop painting this week, and then leave it alone over easter weekend to cure. It's just an alkyd enamel that I'm using, although I have been cutting in a bit of Valspar hardener that chemically crosslinks the paint so it should be pretty tough in the end. I've used the same stuff on other boats to good effect.

I am getting pretty happy with the overall appearance. The first pic is two coats ago, the other two are this afternoon. It's very uniform in tone now, and starting to pick up a bit of depth. Once I start smoothing out the surface I think it'll have a lot of shine to it.

Looks like an old Ford blue. My dad has a Fairlane that color. Mind you I have no idea if it's stock.

 

[cracked_ribs]

Well, I'm off to my cabin for a bit so there won't be any progress for a week or so, but here's the current state of things: I think I'm happy with the paint, I just need to wet sand it to get it nice and glossy.

Colour is nice and even and I think I have enough on there that I won't lose anything by hitting it with 1000/1500/2000 to clean it up. If I do start to see through the topcoat, I'll throw some more blue on, but I think it'll be fine.

Then I have a little bit of transom work to do, and a few miscellaneous little tasks, but I expect to flip her pretty quick now.

 

[ChilliSpoons]

Well, I'm off to my cabin for a bit so there won't be any progress for a week or so, but here's the current state of things: I think I'm happy with the paint, I just need to wet sand it to get it nice and glossy.

Colour is nice and even and I think I have enough on there that I won't lose anything by hitting it with 1000/1500/2000 to clean it up. If I do start to see through the topcoat, I'll throw some more blue on, but I think it'll be fine.

Then I have a little bit of transom work to do, and a few miscellaneous little tasks, but I expect to flip her pretty quick now.

Looks fantastic