Mirror gloss polished finish to painted topsides

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DR007

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I would like to get a mirror gloss finish to the topsides of my painted plywood boat, is there a polish I could use safely on top of the paint and if so how would one remove it in the future when repainting? I have trolled the internet and most polishes seem to be for GRP. In my travels though I have seen beautifully polished paintwork on wooden boats, is it perhaps that the paint has been sprayed on rather than hand brushed. Mine has been on for a season and is in very good condition but lacks that real liquid finish I would like to see. Could someone advise me please?
 
A coat of clear Varnish? or at least that is what the old coach painters used to use to achieve that "wet" look when hand painting Autos !!
 
The secret is in the preparation. The primer and undercoats must be rubbed back with successively finer grades of wet-and-dry emery paper. When you brush on the final gloss coat, brush it on fairly thickly, but not so thickly that it runs. This is where experience comes in; judging how thick a coat is just right. You have to give the coating enough thickness so that it can flow enough for the brushmarks to disappear.
Peter.
 
Don't go too fine with sanding the undercoats and topcoats prior to the final one - you can reduce the adhesion of the following coats.

I would finish all the previous coats flat using around 320grit paper. It is fine enough not to show through the final coat but coarse enough for good adhesion.

But Peterduck is on the money in that you do as good as you can with each successive coat.

Making the undercoats slightly different colours can help reduce the risk of going through to timber too - a tiny amount of topside colour in the undercoat does the trick.

Also the latest generation of paints can help a lot. "Brightside - has the property of the surface flattening out so the brush strokes (or from the special thick foam rollers - "little gem" used for topside painting) disappear over a few hours.

Bit disappointing that - I've spent years learning how to tweak paints to get a similar effect and now the stuff out of the can is like that!

If you go the way of the special foam rollers ... if you use too much paint you end up with bubbles. Keep spreading the paint until the bubbles disappear and then put on less paint next time.

Best wishes
Michael Storer
 
BLakes Brilliant Enamel does give good results with 4" mini rollers But it isn't a very tough finish and abrades rather easily. Not a patch on the previous Yacht Enamel.
I wouldn't mind trying Brightside to compare.

paintrollering.jpg


paintshiny.jpg


TaylorAFprimer.jpg
 
Thank you everyone for your advice, it seems as though I need to put in some more dedicated elbow grease and just hope the weather generally is not too cold even in the barn in which my boat is currently nestling!
Cheers for now, Kevin
 
Mirror gloss polished finish to painted topsides


Going back 45 years or more I was taught the following by a time served yacht ( coach) painter.

From your intitial rub down with 240 grit wet and dry, used wet, don’t throw away the ‘worn out ‘ paper keep it for later as you get through lots.

Bring the job forward to it’s last full undercoat – this could be up to 12 coats from a burn off……

Lightly rub down with your old worn out paper.

Apply one coat 50/50 u/c and gloss thinned with turps. Turps thins the coat but also speeds up the drying time.

Rub down dry

1 coat 25/75 u/c gloss thinned

Rub down

1 coat gloss thinned not with varnish ( in white and pale colours it tends to brown in the sunlight) but thinned with boiled linseed oil ( everything carefully strained of course). The oil thins the coat, and extends the drying time probably by too much so you need to put in Terebene driers to counteract this.

Last rub down – tricky this

A second and final coat of full gloss as before with more oil and therefore more driers.

Job done - No varnish in or on the paint.

The various layers become ‘see through’ with the thinning and dispersion of the pigment and so you are looking at the light being reflected back to your eye from 2 or 3 layers down – this is what gives that ‘depth’ to quality paintwork.

Time served meant a 3 year apprenticeship – what that chap didn’t know about paint wasn’t worth knowing………

I hope this helps….good luck, watch the temperature and the dust…..
 
.....and also involves traditional coach paints no doubt.

There are modern paints that are much less work and give a pretty good approximation of the mirror finish.

Unless you like lots of hard work.
 
I don't know why KM007 wants the mirror finish. It is very satisfying to do it properly. I've cellulosed cars in that way and then compounded the whole body to get it near perfect.
It's just that when I did it on a boat, I stopped enjoying using it. I was so frightened of scratching it!
 
Yes to Owatrol - to be recommended.

Whilst on the subject of 'mirror finish ' it is instructive to compare the reflections from a piece of 2mm silvered glass with a piece of 4mm and then see what 6mm looks like - there is an impressive difference in quality of reflection.

I imagine the 'many layered' (and lots of work - agreed) approach that I was taught is trying to reproduce this effect....

LS - I know what you mean by having too good a finish.
A yacht was finished immaculately in a yard I was at, owner scratched it within 24hrs and was so embarrassed he declined to return to the marina until we had ( privately ) repainted the damage !!!
 
Pleased to hear you approve of the stuff, I have invested in it, I plan to do the topsides asp. If I achieve a finish near the example in L/Ss photo, I will be well chuffed. Bill.
 
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