What to paint the deck area with ?

[louisderry]

Hello all - yet another paint related question I'm sorry!

The top half of my boat deck area, in-between battens etc is stained - chemical stains, rust , all kinds of marks,
I've tried jet washes, cream cleaner, brushes - nothing seems to be removing the marks and stains so I've decided I want to re-paint the deck area.

There's so many different paints and options out there I can't seem to decide which is the one for me so need some assistance.

What I'm trying to achieve
I want a robust glossy white paint that can go on deck and seating areas, and between deck teak etc.
Something that will go over the now faded and marked gelcoat,

What's everyone else using ? Epoxy paints? Gel coat

 

[V1701]

Many folk on here report good results with Sandtex or Dulux Weathershield paints. There are smooth ones and textured ones. Or if you want to spend loads more visit your marine chandler. I used some Hempel Multicoat (considerably more expensive than Sandtex/Weathershield) for the cockpit area on last boat & despite looking fine just after I'd done it wasn't impressed with its durability. personally I would only paint if really necessary as it's not easy to get a good finish and you will almost certainly have to repaint at some point whatever you use. If you do go the expensive route might be woth bearing in mind that a one pack can be overpainted with either one or two pack but any two pack has to be overpainted with another two pack. Think I've got that the right way round...:encouragement:

 

[louisderry]

I can see what you're saying about not painting unless necessary- although surely if its only Gelcoat then you just need to apply more gelcoat

The only one thing that's worked really well was fine steel wool- it didn't seem to scratch the gel coat too much but it got the marks off amazingly.
Only a problem is a few days later all of the splinters from the stainless steel wool had come off and rusted - leaving it look worse- Doh!

 

[Richard10002]

Some kind of barrier primer, then International undercoat and Interdeck Topcoat looks good on the gunwhales and roof of our narrowboat.

 

[V1701]

You could perhaps try some cutting/rubbing/polishing compounds - they should certainly help with brightening up old, chalky gelcoat. Or for the more budget conscious, some cif cream. Experiment on unobtrusive areas before the more obvious ones. Have a look at East coast fibreglass supplies for gelcoat/flowcoat type products but maybe professional application might be better if using large quantities of that sort of coating for large areas I dunno. I completely get you wanting to get her looking her best but personally I think there comes a point when the net gain for work/expense involved just isn't worth it & as long as she's clean & tidy just spend time enjoying the boat. My latest boat is a Dufour 29 (1978), she's never going to look new but she's very clean & tidy, outside wood is sanded & varnished & especially good inside (she is my home after all). What boat is it you have btw?

 

[louisderry]

:encouragement: Thanks for all of the advice- after some deep digging I think I've found what I'm after- I'm going to give what this guy has done ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W93AFB0Je_4 :encouragement:

 

[Tam Lin]

Tam Lin had a blue oxidised hull when I got her. I thought it would polish out and tried everything, eventually resorting to wet and dry paper (used wet). When I got down to the fibreglass matting in a couple of places I gave up and painted her. After her refit the cockpit really lets her down and I thought about painting it. However, I decided not to as once you start the problem is knowing where to stop. Instead it is back to fine wet and dry followed by rubbing compound, T cut or whatever is around. It works really well but you must be careful as it is taking the surface off and is not a procedure that you want to do too often!

 

[Tranona]

You can paint it - PBO ran a series of articles on painting based on their project boat. However to do it properly you have to strip every bit of trim and fittings off and paint the whole lot for it to look good. Painting around fittings and between those teak strips for example will be an enormous amount of work and unlikely to look good.

Much better to put the effort into using compounds to remove the tired surface of the gel coat - what you have been doing so far is just removing muck from the surface and the dullness is the gel coat itself. There is however a limit and you have to recognise that age takes its toll and you can't expect to get it back to new.

 

[geem]

Our gel coat was well past cleaning buffing etc. we painted with two pack poly and its lasted very well. It's almost as good as gelcoat but obviously not as thick so any heavy damage may go through the paint. We haven't had that despite being onboard for 12months and having two dogs with us. We have just replaced the teak in the cockpit and had two new coats of Awlgrip whilst the teak was off. This will now last many years