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And thats just the bottom or the whole job?

Thanks

JB

Several years ago I paid $2500 to have my 32' bottom wet-sandblasted, etched, primed, and bottom-coated by a marina in Florida. I thought it was a lot at the time, but it was apparently not a bad price. They did a good job. Jeff's 6K figure is not out of line.

Make sure you read up on the etching and priming and the times allowed, since many marinas do not often do aluminum boats and they will not admit to ignorance. If the job is done wrong, it will be worthless.

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"I remember when welfare was for poor people..."

I think I have posted the steps here on the foum for doing the bottom according to the tech dept at Interlux. If you look further down this section of the forum you'll see a note on "Bottom Paint Procedure per Interlux". There are pictures with one of the posts.

I had the bottom blasted last spring and the good news was that there was no corrosion on the 20 yr old hull. The not so good news, of course, was the price - between 4 & 5K. Blasting (with glass beads from recylced glass) alone was about $1,200 and it was well worth it! Two guys worked nearly 8 hrs under a plastic tent with very specialized equipment. Before the end of the day, the first barrier coat was applied as it must be to prevent the aluminum from oxidizing, a process that prevents paint from adhering.

In all, there are 7 new coats of paint now: 4 barrier coats and three coats of anti-fouling. WIthout being scientific about it, my one and only very, very short trip this year indicates having a smooth bottom gets you a little better fuel efficiency, perhaps 10%.

WHen you mentioned painting the bottom, I assume you are talking about painting below the waterline as I just described. You said "the blue is coming off". I assume that is anti-fouling and if it's coming off in flakes, it wasn't applied properly. If it is wearing, leaching away, that could be normal wear and tear if you used the boat a lot.

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Joel Albert, Potomac MD
"Charlie B" - 32' FBS
docked Deale, MD

Your lucky to have expert help. Getting a 41' boat painted professionally and correctly would cost you well over $15,000 at my local boatyard. So get a big discount and do a lot of the work yourself. I am working on my project 32'. I got most of the topsides sprayed. Still need to do the deck. I sent the flybridge and cowls out to an auto painter to be done in a booth. I can buff out the hull sides and the bottom is OK. It only has one coat of bottom paint on it cause the boat sat for years not being used. I used a one part enamel over an etching primer from Schilling Enamel paint in Cleveland. I sprayed with a nice turbine HVLP from Fuji. I still need to sand and compound the work I did.

I also have a project 28' that needs top and bottom paint. I will use the interlux system on the bottom. I bought a Uni-ram sandblaster off Ebay that vacuums the media back into the hopper and separates out the dust. For the top I will get a paint locally. The Schilling is good paint and very inexpensive ($27 a gallon) but they don't ship.

My new topside paint system for the 28' will be selected carefully. I want a local supplier that can color match. I want as simple an application as possible. I dont need a chemistry experiment. I would like to be able to spray, roll or brush it on. I do not want to take the work down to bare metal. After one thorough sanding and etching, I want to be able to use a compatible high build primer. I didn't have one and I had to sand the old pitted and sun cracked finish over and over to get it smooth enough for my primer. I used some finishing putty. It was still a lot of hand work for something as big as a boat.

The biggest problem was doing the work outside. That slowed things way down. I had to build a shelter over the boat.

Thanks again for the info.

Yep, I want it to look as good as possible and be as durable as possible with normal application.
I would like to be able to do the top,sides and perhaps part of the bottom.
The paint on top is pretty rough but hopefully paintable.
Brush and roll may be the way.

All advice is much appreciated!

JB

"...Watch out for advice from guys like FastJeff and Jralbert. These guys are professionals, they paint cars, they put on a finish that looks like it was done by Mercedes. Listen instead to Slow Doug: your boat is not going into a show, if you try to do their level of work you will never finish. Roll, roll, roll your boat, and then get out on the water!.."
Just setting the record straight because Doug has the two J's (Jeff and Joel) confused. Joel doesn't know cookies from crackers about the fine art and sciences of painting. Jeff is the pro, the fellow who can write a book about finishing and do the real stuff. The only tools Joel uses for this work are research and the plastic thing called a credit card.

Doug correctly sums up the situation. It's a boat and they all look alike from a distance of more than 50 ft, no matter how much effort goes into the paint job.

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Joel Albert, Potomac MD
"Charlie B" - 32' FBS
docked Deale, MD

I would like to mention one other thing: at least for me, topside paint needs to be easy to repair. A one-part polyurethane can just be scratched and overcoated with stuff you can keep in your dock box. A really nice job, such as a two-part polyurethane with a nice rubout, will be very difficult to repair.

Most metal boat makers avoid shiny paint, because it highlights the little waves in the surface that are missing in gelcoat. You might consider an additive to get a mat finish, which often looks better on metal than a shiny one.

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"I remember when welfare was for poor people..."