Rudder | White Gloss & Tape Damage

With time on my hands I started to apply the second coat of white gloss to the rudder.

First I wet sanded the first coat on the whole rudder with a P400 grit. Like this.

I covered the lower pivot eye with Blu Tack to mask it off from paint. Here it is.

Then I applied masking tape for a second coat, as here.

I used a wooden spoon to burnish the edges of the tape, to stop any bleeding.

When painting the cockpit I found that application with a foam roller sleeve improved as it became fully loaded with paint.

This meant initial coverage was patchy, because it was not getting enough paint onto the surface and I was losing the wet edge too easily.

I decided to experiment with a short pile felt roller, which I already had but had not used.

This is them.

Here it is in action with a good brush for tipping out.

That worked well. Here is the rudder with its second coat of white gloss.

No brush marks or patches. Excellent!

While the paint was flowing I gave the interior and the sides of the tabernacle their final coat of gloss.

It looked good, like this.

And finally I pulled the masking tape on the rudder and this happened.

The blue gloss peeled off with the tape. I was surprised because I had used the low tack professional tape that I learned to used when painting the undersides and transom.

Maybe I didn't leave the blue paint long enough to cure. Who knows...

It's not the end of the world and it has happened so many time before that I know how to fix the damage.

Onwards and upwards!