3rd Coat Brightside

This past weekend got up to the low 60’s on Sunday, so I put the 3rd coat of Brightside on. Before that I hand sanded with 320 grit and vacuumed and wiped down to get all the dust off.

Some other helpful hints and lessons I learned.
1) Never try to touch up anything once you have tipped things out. You will just make a big mess.
2) I used aluminum foil to line the paint tray! This makes it very easy to cleanup.

3) With the cooler temps (50-60s) it takes a good 4-5 hrs to dry to the touch, so be sure not to put your finger prints on your finish! I learned this on the 1st coat! Lol! Just sanded it out.


Below are pictures of the 3rd coat. I plan on touching up a couple places as soon as I can get some warmer temperatures, but for the most part I am done.

Next Steps:
Now that the temperatures are getting colder, I am going to start working on the spars, gallows pole and tiller.

Need to finish up my center board.  I have 1 more coat of epoxy I need to apply and then I will need to sand. I just got a stainless steel bolt to us to install it, but will need to get a friend to cut it for me.

As temperatures permit, I will work on the boot stripe. I also need to do the inside painting.

I have plenty of tasks to do to keep me busy over the winter.

Sanding and 2nd Coat of Brightside

Not a lot accomplished these past two weeks. Working a lot including weekends and went out of town last weekend. I did have a chance to sand the 1st coat of brightside and put the 2nd coat on.
I have set 60 degrees as my minimum outside temperature. With this, I can keep the inside of my garage warm enough. I also am allowing the paint to dry for many days, so I won't have any issues.

Below is where I scuff sanded the 1st coat with 320. I did this by hand just with the sand paper and no block. I found with using a block, I would remove too much paint.

Here are a couple pictures of the 2nd coat.

I plan on putting on a 3rd coat. Overall, I think the paint looks fine at a distance. Up close, I can see a lot of imperfections. From what I can see, most of it is where I had to patch the fiberglass. I did spend a lot of time sanding.  I would say it is a 5 ft. paint job. Looks good at 5 ft.!!  Maybe another coat of two will help to cover some things. 

Primer and Brightside

With limited time between work and going out of town again,  I have been able to make some progress on painting the hull. I have also had to work around the weather. It has mainly been too rainy which has meant high humidity. Not a good environment to paint.

Primer 1st
I put 2 coats of primer on and sanded after each coat per the manual. I used Interlux PreKote, which I have read some negative comments about, but I had good luck on the interior using it. Interlux also recommends using it and applying 1-2 coats before Brightside. After each coat, I sanded using 220.

While sanding, I noticed a place on the bow, so I used some fairing compound to fill the area. This was applied between the 2 coats of primer. The area was where the dynel clothe was. It was very difficult to get that smooth.

After this cured, I sanded down and coated again with the Interlux PreKote Primer 

I used 1 quart of the gray Primer. 

To help monitor humidity and temperature I bought a monitor at the big box store. Minimum temp for both the Interlux Primer and Brightside is 50 degrees. Humidity should be below 85%.

1st Coat Brightside
I painted one of the primer coats earlier in the week on Wednesday. I had it sanded and ready for the 2nd coat yesterday morning. This morning I sanded the whole boat after the 2nd coat of primer had cured and wiped down and made it ready for the 1st coat of Brightside. I waited a little while to let it warm up before starting. I used the roll and tip method and think it turned out pretty good. I need to read up on what to do between coats as far as sanding and plan on applying at least another 2 coats.

Couple pictures of the Brightside 1st coat finish below.