Grumman Sport Boat Repaint....

[jerkin'm]

Just got my grandfathers old grumman...unfortunately I hadn't used it for a couple years and it was sitting on edge in a two story old barn that was leaking water on it...something toxic apparently...The paint is bubbled up where the water sat along the edge of the gunnel and splash rail...Is this a job for a pro or is it something a rookie can do?

[Dragonsm]

I can't tell you exactly how much a paint job from a "pro" will run you, but when I looked at getting a fresh coat for my older lund, it approached the 4 digits in cost.

Needless to say, I did a little research and read good reviews about the Interlux brand of paints. I have never painted a car or boat in my life, and thought my results turned out favorable.

Before:

One After Shot

Length in time put into the paint job from prep to finish was just under two weeks. Everyone who's seen it has been impressed.

[jerkin'm]

Man, nice job....I'm sort of concerned about getting out any corrosion I may have gotten from the sitting water/chemical on the gunnel and splash rail...I will be painting it some sort of flat tan or green so mine won't be nearly as pretty as yours.. This will be my first paint project as well...

[Mid-Lake Rock]

Dragonsm - that looks like a great paint job. Question off topic: what year is that Evinrude?

[Dragonsm]

Thanks!

The year of motor is an 1998 (a bit newer than the boat which is a 1985)

[IndyEFI500]

Dragonsm

That does look pretty good. Which paint did you use? It looks like they make a few. Did you spray it or roll it? If nothing else, shoot me an email at indyefi500 at comcast (Contact Us Please) net.

[cold one sd]

I bought an old 14 foot boat that had lots of dock rash on the sides and and looked pretty shabby. I bought some paint stripper and zinc oxide primer, stripped it down and painted it with rattle cans of krylon. It only took a couple of afternoons and I had people ask me where I had it painted. I guess it depends on how much you want to spend, but it is a pretty easy thing to do yourself.

[Dragonsm]

I used the "Brightside" products.

Other than the scratches in the paint, the boats paint was still in great shape, other than being severly faded. (You can tell from the before picture where I removed the decal)I contacted Interlux in regards to needing to strip the boat down to bare metal and their response was as long as the paint is intact, than I did not need to strip it down and apply a acid etch primer.

2 coats of Brightside primer, 4 coats of Brightside final and this is the result. (Plenty of learning along the way that if you do decide to go this route, I could definitely give you some tips from what I learned)I used a roller to apply it and a good china bristle brush to tip it with. I believe I have less than $100.00 dollars into this paintjob.

I bought most of my stuff through West Marine.

1 can of Brightside Primer 25.99 (I still have a half can left)

1 can of Brightside 34.99

2 - 2 pack of 7 inch foam rollers (west marine brand) 5 bucks/pack I believe

(I purchased these and then cut them in half to make 3 1/2 inches and used a 3 inch roller. I found it easier to follow the contour of the boat with a smaller roller)

1 can of Acetone (I believe that is what I used..have to check) 5 bucks

A good 4 inch China Bristle Brush - 10 bucks

masking tape to mask off unpainted areas... ?

I believe with mn tax, I am still under $90.00.

The boat is a 16.5 foot Lund Mr Pike, and I am not sure if it was because I put the final coats on thin, but I was able to get 4 coats out of one can of brightside with some still left over for touchup if I were to ever get a scratch. I had the boat for a week up at Rainy Lake and it was windy/rainy all week. It took a beating on the dock bumpers and held up well. Each coat took me just over an hour to do, so I did a coat each night when I got home from work giving it 24 hours to set before the next coat. I'd defintely go this route again if I had an older boat.

[Meat-Run]

Dragonsm your boat looks awesome!!!

mr

[Coach1310]

Dragon.....anyway you could give me a quick crash course on exactly how you went about it. I have checked in to getting my boat repainted and it is pricey, so I would like to do it myself..I have a 16.5' Alumacraft...some of the paint is intact, however I would like to paint it a different color than it is now. Does that matter? Do you know where I can get new decals? Thanks for any help

[BoxMN]

Coach, if you call the main office for Alumacraft down in St. Peter they will help you out on the decals. FYI - here is my rehab job, and resulting paint job. I used the oil based stuff you can get at any Big Box outdoor retailer, "marsh brown".

My paint job and rehab - duck hunting boat

Got the stickers for about $12, but pretty basic stickers.

edit: FYI - I used a compressor spray gun to apply paint. More info in anothe thread named something like "lets see your rehab" or somethign like that. Lots of good info from people in that thread as well, I think in this forum.

Good luck,

[BoxMN]

Quote:

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Dragonsm your boat looks awesome!!!

mr

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BTW Dragonsm, yep, your boat looks like factory job! Nice job!

[Coach1310]

Nice Rehab. Thankfully I don't have to do as much as you did, or it might never get done! Thanks for the tip. I will give them a call.

Coach

[Dragonsm]

I am digging in my memory, and am going to try and remember everything I did.

First, I started off by stripping all the decals off with a hairdryer. The original "Lund" decals were really tough since they were about 22 years old. I used a 3M adhesive remover to remove all the excess glue/gunk.

After all the decals were removed, I gave the entire boat a good scrubbing to remove any dirt/grime...etc.

Since the paint was good, I skipped the stripping the boat/applying a good base of Acid etch primer.....

Next, I lightly sanded the entire original paint to give it a good scuff for the new primer to adhere too. After sanding, I wiped the entire boat down with acetone to remove any dust from the sanding. (Acetone evaporates completely and doesn't leave any residue)

I removed the rear corner brackets, and the nose bracket up front and taped off the boat where I didn't want paint. I used 1/2" masking tape for the aluminum stripe on the boat. Surprisingly, it stayed on through all the coats and peeled right off with no problems.

After masking the boat, I began to apply the first coat of primer. I used a lid from a 6 gallon pail to pour the paint in...(easy to control small amounts/waste this way) and used a 3" roller to apply it. I worked in 3 foot sections rolling it on, and then going back and ever so lightly tipping it with the china bristle brush to knock down any air bubbles. After completing the entire boat, let it sit for the night and repeat the task again the next day. (Drying time for the primer was 6-12 hours)

As you can see in the picture, the primer pretty much covers the color completely so changing the color isn't tough at all. (If you want to go with a light color paint, they make a white primer)

After giving the primer a light scuff, I again wiped it down with acetone and began the final paint. I kept reusing the same 6 gallon lid as you don't want to overload the foam roller. The biggest advice I'd give to someone is don't get worried after the first coat. After the first coat dried, I thought "Oh %&*$, what did I just do to my boat....it looks like $*%*" It looked like it had a hint of orange to it and the primer was showing through.

To make it go quickly, I applied one coat a night kept my garage door a little cracked allowing it to set for 24 hours and then doing it again the next night.

After 3 more coats, (4 total)I settled down. One thing I did when applying the coats with a roller, first coat I applied rolling up and down, next coat I applied going left/right...etc I just found by doing it this way, with all the rivets and curves, sometimes you may miss an area due to a bump or whatnot one way, but get it the other. Also, once you finish applying and tipping an area of your boat, don't go back to that area and reapply/rework. I didn't make that mistake, but the paint has weird flow characteristics that any small brush strokes flow away and smooth out and it also "tacks" up.

I talked to a few other guys who used this product on their boat, and they said the biggest time consumer was prep (stripping and getting the bare aluminum ready to paint with an acid etch primer)

There is plenty of good advice on the interlux HSOforum (I believe it is yachtpaint (Contact Us Please) com)Here they will get more in depth on tipping. I was nervous when first doing that, but the HSOforum did a great job of explaing it. It isn't as tough as it looks, just takes a lot of patience. If you take on the project, feel free to shoot me an email (dragonsm at yahoo (Contact Us Please) com)if you have any more questions on something I may have missed. Also, the interlux staff was top notch in answering all my questions I had in regards to their paint.

[jerkin'm]

Great info....I'm sure we all appreciate your time and thorough details...Boat looks sweet..

[Coach1310]

Thanks for the response. I will be emailing you for sure to bounce some questions off you. I just hope that when I get down to it, my boat looks half as good as yours!!! Thanks again for all the info.

[DTro]

Looks good Dragonsm.

Here's mine:

My Paint Job