Gloss Paint | New Conditioner & 6th Coat

As expected the fifth coat was an improvement on the fourth but was still not nice enough for the 'show coat'. I was still getting brush and lap marks, and wanted to avoid this as far as possible.

I mentioned in the previous post that I found a gold mine of useful tutorial videos on the Off Center Harbour website. The third of three 'how to varnish' videos really sang the praises of Epifanes Easy Flow paint conditioner. The tutor said it was 'like magic' and she always used it when varnishing.

So I got some. It can be used with any traditional or synthetic single part paint or varnish. This is it.

I obtained a small glass measure so I could accurately administer a small dose, if needed.

And this is our paint.

The fifth coat was wet sanded with a P400 grit in readiness for the sixth and final coat, as recommended by Epifanes. This takes a long while but is worth it for the excellent surface which results.

Here we are wet sanding blue gloss on the port side.

Good lighting is essential.

And here we are wet sanding white gloss on the starboard bottom.

When feathering the joins between white and blue paint I did sand through to primer in some places, so some touching up was required. Like this.

The touched up patches were then wet sanded when cured, to blend in with the rest of the surface.

The undersides were then masked up, firstly for white gloss. The sixth coat was applied and the tape pulled.

This was allowed to fully cure for a week before the hull was masked up for blue gloss, and again the sixth coat was applied and the tape pulled.

For this coat I didn't use any thinners or hardener, but instead I added 10% Easy Flow conditioner.

It worked really well, especially on the blue paint.

This is the starboard side.

And here is the transom.

It looks really good!

The paint flowed out really well on the sides and on both blue and white stripes. The bottom panels aren't quite so nice, but they will be out of sight and will get abraded anyway, so I'm not going to worry about it. It is certainly not worth another coat.

I will be using Easy Flow from now on. The sides and the stripes have no brush or lap marks, and from a couple of yards away you would think it is a spray finish.

Repainting the undersides has been a trial but I have learned so much and I am confident the topsides will turn out well.

I will now allow the blue paint to cure before varnishing the transom and rub rails.

That feels like progress!

Gloss Paint | New Tape & 5th Coat

Well, it's been quite a while since my last post. The Christmas festivities took up a lot of time, as usual, and we have had a lot of work done in the house which has meant I have not been able to spend much time boatbuilding.

However, I have not been completely idle.

In the previous post I had finished applying the fourth coat of white and blue gloss on the undersides of the boat. This coat was thinned with 10% Epifanes thinners and had 5% AwlGrip hardener added.

I didn't really expect it to be the final coat, and of course it wasn't. Brush and lap marks took care of that!

So the whole undersides of the boat were wet sanded with a P400 grit until it was beautifully smooth all over, and then masked for white gloss.

Now, since the previous post I have done a lot of research into masking tape and paint conditioners.

I found a mother lode of great advice at the Off Center Harbour website. You will have to join to access their tutorial videos, but it's worth it.

There are three excellent videos on how to varnish a wooden boat, and the second one is all about masking tape and how to use it. As a result I invested in some 3M 218 Fine Line tape, as used and recommended by a professional boat painting shop. This is it.

It comes in various widths. I am using 1/2" for long straight or slightly curved sweeps, and 1/8" for tight curves. The 1/2" tape doesn't like tight bends - it buckles.

This is the transom masked up for white gloss.

I have to back up the 218 tape with ordinary masking tape because it is only 1/2" wide.

This is the transom masked for blue gloss.

And this is the starboard side masked off for blue gloss.

The fifth coats of both white and blue gloss were applied, thinned with 10% Epifanes thinners and with 5% AwlGrip hardener added.

I was hopeful that this might be the final coat, but not really expecting it to be so. I left it for two weeks to fully cure.

See the next post for the outcome!