Day 72/73: Sanding Primer2

Ahh, finally finished sanding the primer.  Ready for the deck color.  There are some bumps and flaws where the quick fair has been used but I don't feel like putting in the extra days it will take to fix them.  Lets just paint this thing!

Glued the boards for the boatman's well cover/spare wood.  It will get glassed and painted.

Found this funny dolphin bottle opener... hmm does the boat want to be named Zizumara? ...I think so.

Its been beautiful on Whidbey Island.  Hope it stays nice for a little painting tomorrow.

Day 69/70/71: Sanding Primer

The deck is nearly 100% sanded.  The only method that works has been wet sanding.

Also had some adhesion problems where the "quick fair" was used.  My solution was to rough up the quick fair with 180 grit, recoat it with primer and will take care sanding it tomorrow.  My fingers are crossed.  There might be a slight variation in deck texture but at this point that would be a whole lot better than having to strip the primer and coat the quick fair with some sort of binding coat.

Also realized that I had forgotten to ease the edge of the stern hatch, so got that sanded and recoated with primer.  The primer really does make the details pop.

Got another varnish coat on the handrails and foot brace.

Watching Paint Dry for 2 days

Yesterday the primer was still too soft to sand and today is the same issue.  It seems winter is back in Seattle and once again getting the shop warm is a problem.  The primer has a huge temp range 50-90 degrees but the shop was 36 degrees last night... Not warm enough for a cure.

Yesterday I filled the small holes and flaws that were revealed by the primer. Today I cranked the heat to high and got the fans circulating the air.  Hopefully by tomorrow I'll be able to get to sanding.

We'll have to do some tweeking on the spray equipment too.  There is a tremendous amount of contaminants in the paint.  Flecks of material up to 1/4 " are everywhere! Hopefully with sanding the effects will be mitigated a bit.  It looks like a mess right now.  Also the spray pattern is very splattered.  The paint droplets are both tiny and large which makes a very uneven surface.  The large droplets are still soft and taking too long to dry.  The boat deck looks like a 1980's splatter paint nightmare. Its gonna take some serious elbow grease to get it back into shape.

Day 68: Deck Primer

After a long day of prep work Tom laid down the primer coat.

Pre paint

Tom spraying

Hatch Lids

Day 67: Varnish and Hatch Paint

The hatches got a coat of grey paint.

Another coat of varnish on the ash gunwale blocks, foot brace and handrails.