Spinnvill total make over! – Hull paint job

Dette innlegget er skrevet under Vedlikehold og merket med 2019 How to paint your boat Maintenance Paint job Spinnvill Vedlikehold den av

It has been quite some time since last time we published something on the blog! This time is not a travel video, but more of a how-to video and blog post 🙂

We have done a full paint job on Spinnvills quite worn blue hull! This has been a fantastic experience, and we are very happy with the result. Since it was a lot of work to find out how to do this, I thought it could be useful to others that are thinking of doing the same to get some tips 🙂 We used the paint system «International Perfection Pro», and we have never seen such a paint before! It was a dream to work with! It is quite heavy stuff, so be sure to use the right safety equipment. Since we did this out side, we used half masks with A2 filters, gloves and protective glasses.

In the video below I have summed up most of what we have done.

 

 

How we did the job

In short terms, the job can be broken downt to these steps (after a thorough research on how to do the job)

  1. Rinse the boat with plenty of fresh water.
  2. Cleanse the hull with a good de-greaser, we used acetone
  3.  Removing all taped details with hot air gun, and acetone. We also tried to use methylated spirit, but this made the sanding dust later fill ut the sanding paper a lot quicker.
  4. Sanding of the old paint. In our case the paint had started to come off the old primer in flakes, so we desided to sand of all the old paint and primer down to the gelcoat. The sanding was done with a sircular wall grinder fro Biltema ø215 mm. We used 160 grid paper to get through the stone hard Awl Grip paint, and most of the primer. Then 240 grid paper to remove the last of the primer and smoothen of the surface. The machine was connected to a hard-tool vacuum, and this was super efficient. Almost no dust escaped. NB! be super light on the grinder. It eacely goes through the gelcoat an in to the laminate if you are not careful. Also USE protective gloves, glasses and and a half mask with particle filter! You do not want to breath the dust.
  5. All «roses» in the gelcoat was opened up with a Dremel tool (see pictures under). This is done to prevent the «rose» to open up after you have painted the boat. It will not look good.
  6. After all the paint was gone, we hosed down the boat with water to get most of the dust off. Then we dried it off after the water had evaporated with a microfiber cloth to get the rest of. To be sure that no airborn pollution could have contaminated the hull, we clenced the hull again with a cloth with some acetone on it. This prosess was done between all the paint layers.
  7. NB:When dealing with all the diferent paint, use at least a half mask with A2 filters! This is quite dangerus stuff. Spessialy the 2-component-polyuretanlacquer. It can badly damage your airways and lungs.  
  8. The first layer of Internasjonal Gelshield200 was put on. This is a epoxy primer that is put on to ensure that the gelcoat is completely sealed. This prevents «pin holes» in the paint. To be shure that all the layers of paint has full coverage, all the different layers has different color (except the top coat). This first layer was grey. This primer is quite challenging to work with. For all the painting we where 2 persons. The first person used a Jordan Perfect roller to apply the primer, and the the second would tip it off as soon as it was layed on with a wide lacker brush. It dries super quick, so be «hands on». The primer should not be thinned.
  9. All the «roses» and other damages on the hull was filled with International Watertight filler. Then sanded. Filled again if necessary. Sanded. Until a even surface was established.
  10. Sanding and cleaning of the hull as described in step 5. Many places we sanded through the second layer of primer to ensure a even surface.
  11. Second layer of Gelshield200. Now in turquoise. The drying time between the layers was about 20 hours in 22 degrees C. This mostly because of all the sanding.
  12. Sanding and cleaning of the hull as described in step 5. Many places we sanded through the first layer of primer to ensure a even surface.
  13. Wait at least 72 hours before you apply the polyurethane primer. The epoxy has to be allowed to escape all its gases before an other product seals it inn.
  14. First layer of International perfection primer was applied. This was a lot easier to apply. Used fine foam roalers to apply it. We also found some 150 mm foam roalers from Ahlsell, these where great. The same appliance procedure as for the Gelshield200. Do not thin this either. We applied the paint in about 22 degrees C, and waited about 16 hours before we sanded it. This was on the border of to early, but it went fine.
  15. Sanding and cleaning of the hull as described in step 5. Only using 240 grid paper. Many places we sanded through the first layer of primer to ensure a even surface.
  16. For the second layer of Perfection primer, we added about 10% of the top coat paint in the primer. This made it light blue, so that we could that we had full coverage from the first, white, layer. And it made it even easier to apply the primer. Be sure to mix the two products with their respective curing agents before you combine them.
  17. Sanding and cleaning of the hull as described in step 5. Only using 240 grid paper. Many places we sanded through the second layer of primer to ensure a even surface.
  18. Building a complete tent around the boat to avoid bugs and dust in the paint. Hoasing down the tent it self after we had sanded the boat. Also, for the top coat, we did all the wiping of the hull the day before the painting to prevent static electricity to be present on the hull, and attract dust.
  19. Aplying the first layer of topcoat, International perfection Pro RAL5003. This was aplied in 20 degrees C. It was thinned 12% with International Thinner nr 100. The paint was amazing to apply. It did not need tipping, but we developed a technique where the first person applied a rich first roll-on of paint, and then the second person came after with a quite dry roller and, with a very light hand, rolled off any excess paint. In this way we avoided getting any running paint on the hull. There was no bubbles when applying the paint. Magic. On the full boat we used about 1,5 liter of mixed paint per layer. The painted area is abut 28 square meters.
  20. For the last sanding we only used a Oscillating Sanding machine with 320 grid paper. It was necessary to sand the first layer quite a lot to make sure the surface was perfect.
  21. The second layer was applied in the same manner as the first. NB: Remember to use newley washed clothes when painting the last layer! Your «sanding» clothes will emit a lot of dust that will find its way into the surface.
  22. FINISHED! We used exactly 1 month on the project, about 120 hours. It was done while I was in full work, and i had to commute 2 hours each way to get to the boat. Also we had to cancel painting 2 times due to the weather. So –

If you have any questions to this, please do not hesitate to send me an email and ask 🙂

 

The inspiration
This summer we met SY Hvalodea in Skagen (Denmark), and they had just painted their hull. This is where we got the inspiration to use «International Perfection Pro», and also a lot of tips on how to do this. Casper on Hvalodea had teamed up with Watski DK to do the paint job, and they wrote an article about the painting of Hvalodea. It has been of great help to us, click here and read the article

SY Hvalodea

 

 

Since the process has been well documented, i also ad some pictures from the paintjob.

 

But first:

I want to thank Bobby, Sissel, Kristoffer and Ingunn for a lot of good help! We did this in 1 month, and that would not be possible if I had to do it all alone!

Also a big thanks to Casper on Hvalodea (https://www.facebook.com/hvalodea/), Watski professional and Wector yathing for great costumer servic

 

 

Ship’o Hoi – Snorre