After finishing with the primer, it was time to get down to business on the topcoat. The first thing I did was tape off the lines where the bumper rails will go using green frog tape. I wonder if they call it frog tape because it's green or if they made it green because they wanted to call it frog tape. Hmmm.
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| Ribbet |
After that, I used the blue painters tape to tape wax paper along the same line as the green tape.
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| Wax Paper |
I wanted to minimize the amount of dust and bugs that could land on my wet paint before it dried so I hung a tarp over the boat about the same level as the top of my fence. It made for a nice little enclosed area to do my painting in when I closed the gates. Here is the tarp.
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| Tarp Ceiling |
I rolled the paint on then followed that up immediately with the tip of a brush to smooth out any bubbles. Here is how it looked after the first coat.
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| 1st Coat |
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| Transom 1st Coat |
I wanted to keep the drips down to a minimum so I put several thin coats on rather than one or two thick coats. Here is what it looked like after the second coat.
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| Transom 2nd Coat |
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| Bow 2nd Coat |
I allowed the paint to dry at least 24 hours between coats. Here it is after the third coat.
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| 3rd Coat |
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| Transom 3rd Coat |
One more coat ought to do it. I was trying for a 10' finish which is pretty ambitious for an amateur boat builder. The quality of the finish is determined by how far away you have to get from the boat in order for it to look good.
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| 4th Coat |
I pushed it out from under the tarp so that I could see how it looked and to identify the areas that still needed touching up.
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| All Painted |
Here is how it looks from ten feet away.
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| Ten Feet Away |
And here is what it looks like from twenty feet away.
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| Twenty Feet Away |
The ten foot picture shows some of the flaws but the twenty foot picture is pretty good. I think I'll call it an 18 foot finish. Pretty good! I am pleased with the Rustoleum paint I used. It went on easy, flattened out nicely and dried to a glossy finish.
It started to get cloudy and I knew we were about due for our daily rainstorm so I got everything ready to push the boat back under the tarp. I almost made it.
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| Rain |
You can see how well the rainwater beads and this is before I put any wax on. It's good to have a boat that repels water.
