Painting boat with 2-pack paint - few questions

[KAM]

I gave up trying to tip off the paint was just drying too quickly. Thinning didnt help. I just rolled it on and rubbed down and polished. It gave a nice uniform appearance but probably not as good a gloss if tipping off had been practicable.

 

[rib]

Some practical advice from having painted three boats several times with 2 pack. The paint is usually wonderfully smooth to apply but tack dries too quickly to go back over any of it, so your plan must be to keep moving ahead once you start. Get some scaffolding in place so that you can move quickly the whole length of the boat. Use big brushes – I used 4inch – with quality bristles that won't be eaten by the solvents. Have several brushes because paint will probably harden on the bristles and scratch the coat before you finish one side. Once you start you will only be stopping to mix more paint and add necessary thinners. Get the consistency right at the start and then expect to add thinners as you progress along the hull. Keep the wet edge moving. Do not go back for holidays or runs – you will snag the paint. Leave them till the next coat. Do not try to remove flies with your brush (or at all). Leave them even if they are large and staggering about in your wet paint in their death throws. The brush snag to the paint will be worse than their foot prints. Leave them till the next coat. Have a helper to move scaffolding ahead of you, to have the two paint parts and thinners ready, to have spare brush to hand, to be shouted at when the tension gets all too much. Paint only with long and easy, smooth vertical strokes. You cannot paint horizontally and then flatten off vertically because the paint may go off before you complete your finishing stroke and you will be snagging. If painting outside, choose your weather. Try to get a good spell of several days. Start as early as the day allows so you never risk the evening dew. Make sure you have done all the prep before you put brush to paint. Use masking tape to get clean lines around fittings. The paint itself should give a wonderfully hard and smooth finish but don’t expect to be free of brush marks when you look closely.

Can't one get a slower thinners (retard thinners)

 

[KAM]

Easy when spraying cellulose but I couldn't find a way of slowing down the 2 pack. However I found the rub down and polish method meant you could just slop it on quickly with a roller with no stress about brush marks. After a (was going to say quick but maybe not) rub down and polish. No brush marks at all. It's really hard working outside as the temperature keeps changing wind blows and you have sunny side and shady side. Then it rains!

 

[Keith 66]

I started in the boat trade back in the early 80's, I have painted a lot of boats with oil based, single pack poly & 2 pack poly, i have sprayed quite a few too.
First thing to know about 2 pack poly is that it reacts with single pack paints like paint stripper so you have to remove all single pack products.
Its got car paint on it? what sort? same thing will apply unless its 2 pack acrylic.
On a small lowish value boat it simply isnt worth it, Sand it down give it a shot of Toplac or Epifanes monourethane & enjoy the thing.
Finally the health risks of two pack paint are very real unless you have full air fed respirator dont even think about spraying it.
A friend died a couple of months back he had severe copd directly attributed to 2 pack paint use without proper ppe.
I wont touch the stuff these days.

 

[saab96]

Can't one get a slower thinners (retard thinners)

yes. Get the thinner for the conditions but expect that it will still evaporate as you work along the boat.

 

[MagicalArmchair]

Not for the faint hearted - great result though when its done. Triolas 2 pack paint write up is here, I tried to include as much technical detail as I could: Paint your deck outside in winter - Triola - Albin Ballad #50

 

[Tammany]

Mine is 2 pack painted by roller and it's a bitch of a paint to get right. I wouldn't do it again except by spraying. It's tough though and wouldn't use any other paint on the boat except 2-pack but if you want smooth than it has to be spray. Mines ok at viewing & photo distance but up close it does have a 'texture'. I used jotun paints throughout my refit, good paint used by the commercial marine industry thats a fair price. All bought from SML paints.

 

[PCUK]

I brushed my previous forty footer with two pack and it was still good thirty years later. As said, Get a good build up and cut and polish. If done well it will be as good as a spray job.

 

[Corribee Boy]

Some of the 2 packs in the SML paint range have been specially formulated for application by brush rather than spray, which might be worth investigating (if it's not too late)
I'm waiting for the right weather to attack my boat but I'm finding it quite hard to get some consumables, such as jenny brushes and sanding pads, presumably because everyone's doing similar projects.