Single vs 2-paint?? Which one?

[Tammany]

Having never used either on a yacht what is the best one to use? Obviously the answer is 2-pack but does the normal paint fall too far behind?? My boat has had the topsides doe very poorly and I will be stripping & starting again with it next spring. It will be brush & roller painted as I don't have an oxygen system but do have a decent compressor but heard all sorts of nasty stories. Is single good enough or doesn't it stand up to wear?

 

[sailorman]

The best by far is Awlgrip.
DIY i would still go for 2 pack as it a hard finish unlike oil based paints & the latter will need refinishing every few yrs

 

[Rivers & creeks]

Best is awlgrip (hard version) but it's a huge investment, you can re engine for less!
Toplac is a great paint and ours lasted more than 20 years before it finally needed doing. Even so we could have spruced it up with a sand and overcoat. A lot of guff talked about single pack, if the first coat is scrupulously prepared the whole thing will last for years and is dead simple to touch up.
Two pack is a compromise, expensive but much less so than hard Awlgrip, not as hard wearing as hard Awlgrip but much harder than Toplac; easy to touch up but not as easy as Toplac.

At the end of the day the best route if you possibly can is repair and recondition the gelcoat, you could end up spending £5k on a paint job and actually devalue your boat as it will put off buyers because it's painted! We bought a painted boat and got it for less because it was. This year we bit the bullet and had it repainted, it's due out if the paint shed in a weeks time

 

[vyv_cox]

Best is awlgrip (hard version) but it's a huge investment, you can re engine for less!
Toplac is a great paint and ours lasted more than 20 years before it finally needed doing. Even so we could have spruced it up with a sand and overcoat. A lot of guff talked about single pack, if the first coat is scrupulously prepared the whole thing will last for years and is dead simple to touch up.
Two pack is a compromise, expensive but much less so than hard Awlgrip, not as hard wearing as hard Awlgrip but much harder than Toplac; easy to touch up but not as easy as Toplac.

At the end of the day the best route if you possibly can is repair and recondition the gelcoat, you could end up spending £5k on a paint job and actually devalue your boat as it will put off buyers because it's painted! We bought a painted boat and got it for less because it was. This year we bit the bullet and had it repainted, it's due out if the paint shed in a weeks time

Excellent summary. We have had very good results with Toplac, reasonably easy to apply and lasts well.

We hauled out at Boatyard Palma some years ago and watched some of the world's best Awlgrip painters at work on superyachts. Wonderful jobs being done but amazingly labour-intensive and skilful. It must have been costing a fortune, not that the owners would have cared.

 

[Tammany]

It's already painted on topsides, just very badly. Don't know if I could get it back to gelcoat and still look good. Not that worried about value as don't intend on selling unless I get too old or infirm to use it as wouldn't want any bigger unless I won the lottery or something lol. Hull maybe be able to polish back as no obvious damage or scratches anywhere.

Just had a look and awlgrip is over £300 a gallon, blimey thats expensive paint!

Gonna have to do a bit more research on different paints. Their are many to choose from. Toplac sounds good though.

 

[Tammany]

Plus just remembered their are several old instrument holes to fill in so paint is probably the best option.

 

[Tammany]

Here's a good picture, look how awful this paint looks. Don't know what the person who done this was thinking. All these instruments have now been removed & dumped except the engine control which I've relocated and the clipper gps which I may use.I have a garmin echomap 50s, clipper duet & clipper wind to fit to replace them over the next few months.

 

[Minchsailor]

modern paint systems are very sensitive to application conditions - substrate preparation, temperature and humidity. To the best of my knowledge the advice is not to put 2 pack poly on top of conventional paints.

Ideally you need a temperature and humidity controlled environment, so unless the boat is in a shed, forget it. A boatyard is not an ideal environment.

Unless done properly, 2 pack will blister and loose adhesion; it is then a right PIA to sand it down to a good surface. I have the T shirt........

Use good quality conventional paint.

 

[30boat]

International Perfection is formulated for roller or brush application.It will take quite a long time to cure when compared to other 2 pack systems but it smoothes out noticeably as it does. I rollered mine on and the result was very good from a meter away. It's very hard wearing and not too expensive. I would probably spray it on if I had to do it again though.

 

[Tammany]

modern paint systems are very sensitive to application conditions - substrate preparation, temperature and humidity. To the best of my knowledge the advice is not to put 2 pack poly on top of conventional paints.

Ideally you need a temperature and humidity controlled environment, so unless the boat is in a shed, forget it. A boatyard is not an ideal environment.

Unless done properly, 2 pack will blister and loose adhesion; it is then a right PIA to sand it down to a good surface. I have the T shirt........

Use good quality conventional paint.

This was my worry too, seems single pack is really the best way to go for DIY application.

 

[Tranona]

This was my worry too, seems single pack is really the best way to go for DIY application.

The secret is in preparation. Flat down the existing finish and fill any blemishes with International Watertite. Two coats of undercoat and 2 coats of toplac top coat. 90% of the time is in preparation as applying the final coats takes very little time. Choose a quiet warm day to do the final coats. Doiung the cockpit and decks is nowhere near as easy as the small areas and shapes are difficult to do cleanly.

Get the PBO book on renovating their Project boat as it has a good section on painting old GRP boats.

 

[Tammany]

I've got that book, they did a cracking job of renovating that boat.

 

[macd]

Just had a look and awlgrip is over £300 a gallon, blimey thats expensive paint!

Even more expensive than you think, since that's a probably a US gallon: equivalent to £375 for an Imperial one.

 

[Ceirwan]

I painted mine this year with Single part from Teamac. The results where excellent.
If I did the cockpit area again I would use 2 part though for extra durability.

 

[NickRobinson]

I painted mine this year with Single part from Teamac. The results where excellent.
If I did the cockpit area again I would use 2 part though for extra durability.

Leaving aside the discussions around H&S, be sure the existing paint can take 2pack without a barrier coat.
Synthetics (for example) react to higher solvent paints as if Nitromors has been applied. Not pretty or cheap..

 

[Rivers & creeks]

Good call Nick. You can't put 2 pack on single pack, well you can but it's a special set of circumstances that don't apply here. That paint job is appealing - no wonder you want to redo. My suggestion is sand; fill; sand; Toplac; Toplac. It will transform the boat and cost you about £200 for the whole boat. Google YouTube for videos and practice tipping off.

 

[sailorman]

Even more expensive than you think, since that's a probably a US gallon: equivalent to £375 for an Imperial one.

A Gallon US or IMP will coat about 5 30 footers

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

International Perfection is formulated for roller or brush application.It will take quite a long time to cure when compared to other 2 pack systems but it smoothes out noticeably as it does. I rollered mine on and the result was very good from a meter away. It's very hard wearing and not too expensive. I would probably spray it on if I had to do it again though.

I agree 100%. That is what I used when I did the cockpit except that I used only a brush. The result is quite good it you time the tipping correctly, as in DON'T wait too long and DON'T go back again to 'improve'. However, if I ever do it again I shall try a spray gun.

 

[Tammany]

So far I've used teamac bilge paint, good stuff and coats in one go. For the interior renovations I've been using Jotun. Seems too be sold mainly for the commercial market. Happy with it and will use this externally too.

Here I used the primer & white satin topcoat, the blue is lining carpet.

 

[jwilson]

As others have said, two-pack is far superior but can be difficult to apply well. I once had a disaster with International two-pack, dew got at it before it had cured - it then went cloudy and stayed sticky for weeks. It did eventually cure and I had to wet-sand it all back and put Awlgrip on top, which worked well even hand-painted, but I am a tolerably good painter when I try.

98% of the work is sanding: putting the paint on is the last 2%. A hull in poor condition may take a week of sanding and filling: painting is a couple of hours. And hulls are generally easier than awkward areas like cockpit wells and coamings.

I have seen good results with Toplac (a really good painter can make you think it's been sprayed). Also stuff called Tekaloid made for hand-painting cars can give a lovely finish. Nothing beats sprayed Awlgrip though: after a typhoon caused damage whilst moored in Hong Kong my deep blue hulled boat got yard-resprayed Awlgrip and the result was far better than the original gelcoat had ever been - glossier and tougher.

Your cockpit finish looks lets say less than perfect. How much hard work are you up for to get it looking immaculate?