Dorade Box Interiors | Applying Gloss

The interiors of the Dorade boxes had received five coats of primer, so I now applied the first coat of gloss.

I painted the rear faces through the ventilator holes with a long handled brush, made by taping a brush to a stirring stick.

Here it is.

The rest of the interiors were painted with a brush and a roller via the inspection hatches in the cabin wall.

The finish doesn't matter too much since the inside surfaces are not visible, but I will still try to make them presentable.

Companionway Hood Interior | Applying the Final Coat

I wanted to complete the interior of the companionway hood, so when the finished top and bottom surfaces were cured I painted the sides.

I applied four coats, sanding with an abrasive nylon pad between coats.

I did the same to the fourth coat, but I wet sanded the side areas which would be visible with a P400 grit. The rearmost parts of the sides are visible when the slide is open.

This is how it looks after the fifth and final coat.

I'm pleased with that. Another task I can tick off as complete!

Tabernacle | Reapplying the Final Coat

I thought it would be easy to complete the show coat on the tabernacle before we leave for the southern hemisphere.

So I wet sanded the whole thing with a P400 grit to get a good surface, as instructed by the technical instructions. Like this.

Then I applied the fifth coat to the outside faces, adding 5% Epifanes Easy Flow to condition the paint.

I thought this would work on a small surface area, but it didn't. A mixture of orange peel finish, brush marks and dry edges marred the results.

Here it is.

I'm not sure if the relative humidity was the problem, or the fact that the paint was several weeks old. I could see and feel it was not flowing out as expected.

So off it all came. Here I am wet sanding the new paint.

Here is the tabernacle, ready for fresh paint.

I am not sure when or even if I will try again before we leave. But I will certainly use fresh paint...

Onwards and upwards!

Seatback Lockers | Applying the Final Coat

It has become obvious since the previous post that I will not be able to apply the final coat of gloss to the upper hull until March, when we return from our travels.

It's disappointing but I will be much more confident knowing that the painting will be done under the correct conditions of temperature and relative humidity.

In the meantime I have been working on some tasks that don't require any special conditions and aren't dependent on the final coat being in place.

The first of these was completing the seatback locker interiors.

Four coats of gloss had already been successfully applied so I prepared the interiors for their final coat.

Only the bottom, back and forward faces are visible and these were wet sanded with a P400 grit, as stipulated by Epifanes. Like this.

The rest of the interiors are not visible and are very hard to access so I just prepared  them with a nylon abrasive pad.

Gloss was then applied by roller and brush and the visible surfaces tipped out.

For such a small area the humidity is not a factor, and the results were excellent.

This is the port locker.

They look great and on reflection it was easier to do this before the finish coat in the cockpit because there is no need to worry about paint drips and dribbles.

Something is at last completed!

Upper Hull | Final Coat Status

I mentioned in a recent post that I had contacted the guy at BoatPaint UK where I now source all my painting products. He has been really helpful.

I asked him what he thought about having low relative humidity in the workshop, and how it would affect paint behaviour.

He said he had never heard of it causing problems, and didn't think it would matter too much.

Grateful as I am for this advice, I am sure that it would be a bad idea to ignore the very clear Epifanes instructions on this matter i.e. do not apply paint when the relative humidity is less then 50%

Knowing my luck, I would be the first to find out that it really does matter!

Here is the dilemma, shown by the readings on my thermometer/hygrometer.

It is now so cold here that I have to heat the workshop to make it habitable. The top screen shows that the working temperature is now 22°C, but it fell to 10°C overnight which is the lowest recommended for painting.

Heating the workshop causes the relative humidity to fall to 30% or less (lower screen), and this is where the problem lies. I can't risk a flawed finish. I really don't want to have to repaint the final coat!

We are going to the southern hemisphere for the whole of February, and the chances of the weather improving before we leave are very low.

So the final coat might have to wait until March, which is very frustrating. I really thought painting would be complete by Christmas, but not for the first time have I been over optimistic!

I will complete what other tasks I can in the next couple of weeks.

Onwards and upwards!

Companionway Hood & Seatback lockers | Glossing Interiors

I started to apply gloss to the interior of the companionway hood some time ago, when I started painting the upper hull.

It has to be done in two stages - the top and bottom in the first, and the sides in the second.

The top and bottom faces require a long handled 6" roller to reach the front of the hood.

This is it.

It is very effective. No one will be able to see the interior of the hood so I made no attempt at tipping out the gloss. A rolled finish will suffice.

When the top and bottom are fully cured I will gloss the sides.

I was initially worried that glossing the seatback locker interiors would be tricky, but a bit of thought and ingenuity made it straightforward.

I used a small brush with the handle cut off short to paint the inside face of the seatbacks. They are not visible so the finish is not critical.

Then I used a 6" roller to paint the visible faces i.e. the front and back walls and the floor, tipping out with a soft brush.

Here is the tool set.

This works quite well. At time of writing three coats of gloss have been applied.

It is taking a long while for the paint to fully cure, due to overnight temperature drops, but the finish is going to be excellent.

Here is a view of the port locker interior.

I think it is an advantage that the final coat has not yet been applied to the cockpit decks. It doesn't matter if I drip paint onto it!

Main Sheet Block Support Pad | Applying Primer

The pad that I made to receive the main sheet ratchet block had been sitting on a shelf for months, so I used some left over primer to paint it.

Here it is.

Also in the pic are six small square pads which are required to fit the ventilators. See early posts for their purpose.