Camo Paint??

[fishinfey8]

Well Spring break is just around the corner for me and i already have my project laid out. Last year, I bought a 14 ft. lund fishing boat thats in great condition but has a beat up paint from sitting outside. I have talked to a couple of guys who have used krylon camo spray paint for the whole thing, but i was wondering what all you guys had to say. I definately want to do it right, so i'de rather pay more for the quality, but I am in college so nothing too ridiculous. Any suggestions/advice would be awesome!

[merganser]

Here is what I did with results far better than I expected. I have an old 1976 16ft lund pike model (red paint over silver)that I decided I wanted to cammy up in case my two youngsters ever decide they want to go hunting with me. If you have access to an air compressor and an automotive spray gun (talk to one of your body shop buddies and see if they will let you use one of their older guns,) it will take you about 3hrs to transform your beast into an awesome hunting machine. So here is what I used. An orbital hand sander, air compressor, automotive type spray gun, gallon of your favorite color duck boat paint (i got mine at fleet farm) and a little bottle of paint thinner (wal-mart). First I sanded the entire boat with the orbital sander, use a course grit, this gives the paint something to adhere to. Make sure you sand any exposed aluminum too, especially at the water line. Give the boat a good rinsing to get rid of the paint/aluminum dust and let dry. Thin your duck boat paint so it flows easily through the air gun and spray away at about 80psi.. I painted my entire boat inside and out with about a half gallon of paint. I did two coats on the outside and it seemed pretty scratch resistant. I'm sure the pros would tell you to put a base coat of primer on first. This is the second boat I have painted with the camo paint that Fleet Farm carries and I did not use primer on either boat. I still have the 14 ft alumacraft... I painted it about 24 yrs ago with a brush and it still looks good. The auto sprayer was definitely way easier, took WAY less time, and used less paint. For added camo, I cut reed designs in a piece of cardboard and used the cans of cammo spray paint to apply. I used black first, sprayed over that with some brown, and used the lighter grass color last to give it an awesome 3-D effect. I got quite a few compliments this past year and inquiries as to where I had my boat painted. I know the key factor was being able to acquire the use of the pnuematic spray gun. I would rent one if nothing else. My air compressor is one of the cheapies you can get any place. Hope this helps. Good Luck!! Don't forget to use some type of protection for your lungs as the droplets of paint are very small and float every where.

[fishinfey8]

merganser- thanks for your information! I was having a hard time getting anyone to reply, but you have answered some of my main questions. My Pops has both an air compressor and a paint sprayer. I was thinking about spray painting the whole thing but this sounds MUCH easier. Also, what base coat color did you use??

[merganser]

To spray paint your entire boat with aerosol cans would be a bit pricey, not to mention your finger and wrist would get mighty fatigued. I used the olive drab (looks like the military green)as the base coat. I'm not sure what the exact name is. With the other colors stenciled over the top it fits in at any time of the year. Plus, with the blinds in place it is pretty hidden. If your father has the spray gun and compressor, you're set. You won't believe how quick and easy it goes. Let us know how it turns out!

[Tom7227]

I've done this a couple times. The guys at the paint store strongly recommend that you put on a special primer so that the paint aheres to the aluminum. I don't have any left so I can't give you a name. Go to a good paint store and ask some questions.

I didn't have a sprayer and had to do the whole thing by brush. PIA. The sprayer sounds like the way to go.

I had done the cut out stencil thing once and it wasn't what I wanted. This last time I got some small cans of brown, black, and dark tan paint. I used a 1/2 and a 1 inch brush and just sort of made lines going in all directions to break things up. I had looked at some of the new camo patterns in the clothing sections of catalogs and saw that they were sort of sharp and linear. Personal preference I guess.

I tried to do something to keep the bottom of the boat from getting slippery. I just put some sand into the paint as I put it on. That stuff rolled off pretty fast as we used the boat. I was wondering what sort of luck you would have with some of that spray on undercoating they have for truck beds. Put it on and the paint over it.

This may seem really simple, but I did the entire boat by putting it up on some large sawhorses upside down and then turning it over. It beat the heck out of bending down and doing it with the boat on the ground.

Good luck.

[cjac]

I did mt duck boat years back and it still looks great. I did a primer coat, a base drab coat, and then simply did a bunch of lines in different colors. I even did use a couple cans of spray paint to add a few dirrerent colors (light tan).

If you have time the stencil idea is neat, but not needed.

Chris

[BoxMN]

Here is a good thread:

FM paint thread from awhile ago.

On ours, we used the marsh brown you get at Fleet or Gander. Used a air compressor and spray gun - worked GREAT. I also did pontoon sides and they look professionally done. Sprayer is way to go. We had to use very low pressure, however, about 35 psi, to get it to work right.

I also would suggest just marsh brown for exterior. We used to "camo" our boats, but now put more stock into the blind on the boat (Northern Flight for us), as ducks see more "down into" a boat than from the side. I personally think side camo is for hunters, and the interior boat camo or a blind is for the ducks. We have done much better since we started worrying about what it looks like from above. Just my two cents though. Good luck!

[cjac]

 Quote:

I personally think side camo is for hunters, and the interior boat camo or a blind is for the ducks.

Great point, What height does a duck see from? Most times not water level where the fancy painted side of the boat is! I did the interior as well.

Question: I had a problem with the oars taking paint off in the oarlocks, enough that it created a "shine" spot on the gunnel. What's the best way to prevent that or protect the paint so it doesn't wear off at that spot? Rubber sleeves on the oars?

Thanks, Chris

[BoxMN]

My 2 cents... if it truly is a "duck boat" then we just keep a can of marsh brown spray paint handy, in truck, and hit any shining spots occassionally. Otherwise I have found that simply "leafy" material camo netting sheet is worth its weight in gold when out. Just drap it over and whalla! Looks great from side and top, and can help hide gun cases, shell boxes, pop bottles, etc.

Bedliner material in brown might work, but be sure to prep area perfectly, and od it in correct temperatures - we had a disaster once, too cold and we didn't prep properly.

One other thing we did with two duck boats, row boat style, is to do the exterior marsh brown, and the interior olive drab, with lighter tan streaks. The water where we hunt is usually darker than the reeds or cattails, and the two tone seemed to be better.

Also, for us, it seems with mallards they are looking from higher and definitely more picky, and divers are looking from lower, but they generally look at the decoys more than stuff around it. just my 2 cents but painting and fixing up boats is fun. We have two Puddlers we camoed up better than stock, just on top, even added rafia and they blend in so much you could lose them, and have a 16' with Northern Flight blind that is real comfy and no way could a duck see us even from the top - usually anyway, ha! We keep the opening pretty narrow and fast grass all around. Our row boats we do have some camo on one, but mainly on inside.

[cjac]

Great stuff, thanks. Never thought of the water color perspective from above before.

I'd like to get back to duck hunting more, but I find myself on your WBL water chasing muskies in the fall instead.

Chris

[BoxMN]

You gotta talk to my brother (HugoBox). He is always chasing those toothy guys on WBL or BE

[Tom7227]

When we did the 14 foot rowboat I took 3/4 conduit and made frames to put the ducoflage onto. I used a 1 inch copper T and put a brace in the middle of the long sides and bent those sides to match the curve of the boat. I sat in the boat seat to figure out how high it needed to be. Once we got to where we were going to hunt we just draped the camo material over the railings, put some black nylon zip ties to hold it in place, and we were good to go. I had a solid piece of camo material that we put up on the up-wind side and it did a halfway decent job of breaking the wind.

The biggest problem was the 90 degree angles on the ends. I used standard conduit fittings and they came loose in about 2 seconds. We ended up duct taping them in place and then cutting the tape to fold it back down for the trip home. I think I had less than $30 into the framing.