A Visual History
The Building of Aslan
Painting the Hull
Updated 06/10/00
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The 5 to 6 coats of epoxy, then sanding and more "skim coats" left the boat looking poor.  I was pretty much embarrassed when people looked at it, because it looked like a mess.  This picture shows the stand I made to elevate it up off the ground for the glassing and painting.
I decided on regular exterior latex paint after reading the newsgroup rec.boats.building.  Even the epoxy suppliers admit that latex works fine for coating epoxy, and the experience of other builders confirms that the paint works well for small boats.  Here, the white primer and blue, tan finish coats are put on the boat for the "adhesion test."  After the paint has cured fully, a metal ruler and razor blade are used to make a series of cuts 1/8" apart on each paint patch.  Then, another series of cuts are made at 90 degrees to these, making a cross hatch design.  Regular cellophane tape is then burnished down over each cross hatch design and quickly pulled off.  If any paint comes off on the tape, there is an adhesion problem.  As predicted by the epoxy suppliers and builders on rec.boats.building, the latex paint adheres well to the epoxy.
Final prep work includes removing the clear tape I had on the phillipine mahogany rub rails to protect them from epoxy.  However, the tape has to be removed very carefully to prevent pulling some of the wood off.  It was a bit of work, but running a razor knife along the edge of each rub rail, to break through the epoxy where the hull side meets the rub rail made it easier.
Masking tape was applied over the rub rails, and the white primer starts to go on.  The primer is not able to cover all of the underlying patches, and I end up applying two coats of it.  But when the second coat goes on, it really makes the boat look like a boat!
The blue paint starts to go on the hull!  I ended up with three coats of the exterior latex to make the paint look good, and it does look pretty good.  I was concerned that a darker color would show more of the imperfections (it does) but the final product is fine with me  just at it is.  I finally decided that a blemish I couldn't see from 4 feet away wasn't worth worrying about. 
It looks like a boat!  The "tan" between the rubrails really looks a bit more orange than I like (it doesn't look that way in this 200 dpi scan with poor lighting, but in person it has a bit of orange in it.)  So I might change that later.  We'll see.  But I am happy with the overall paint job, and now in a couple of weeks can flip Aslan over to start on the finish work topsides.
Another picture with better light.  I think it looks fine, and I'm anxious to get started on the topside now!


 
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