Marine Paint - Gel coat - other?

[bakodiver391]

Since we are showing boat pics, I found an old photo of the mouse-fur headliner, and a current photo with the interior primered in International epoxy. I'll wait till the engine installation is complete before applying the topcoat.

 

[Ana]

Since we are showing boat pics, I found an old photo of the mouse-fur headliner, and a current photo with the interior primered in International epoxy. I'll wait till the engine installation is complete before applying the topcoat.
View attachment 753396View attachment 753397

That's exactly the result we are looking for.

Granted we used gray primer instead of white. The top coat will be white and having old eyes, we figured it would be easier to see any holidays if the primer is a different color than the top coat.

 

[bakodiver391]

I'm doing the opposite, using off white as the top coat. Especially in the tropics, bright white can be dazzling, even with sunglasses, during a long day on the water. Have a look at some similar boats to yours and you may find they use off white or ivory in the cockpit and wheelhouse.

 

[Ana]

I'm doing the opposite, using off white as the top coat. Especially in the tropics, bright white can be dazzling, even with sunglasses, during a long day on the water. Have a look at some similar boats to yours and you may find they use off white or ivory in the cockpit and wheelhouse.

True, but yours is wide open. Our is a closed cabin, and we added a top that covers all the deck, so even if the door is open the sun doesn't hit the inside full-on.
I've seen other Parkers done with shiny white and brightness isn't an issue.

Can't wait to get it done. The test section is going slower than anticipated with all the weather we had lately, but hopefully, before long I'll be posting photos of that one bulkhead fully done.

 

[Ana]

We completed our experiment.

It is possible to remove the nasty disintegrating carpet and end up with a "reasonable" surface.
It will probably take us the whole year (maybe more) but the results are acceptable at a price we can justify.

It took about 5 coats of primer


and 7 coats of the white paint, there was more sanding than we care to remember.


Since I usually lean on that area, I created a cushion to be more comfortable.


The photo below is pretty much the end result. We need to try to polish the frame of that window but not sure we'll be able to make a difference with that.

We are happy with it.
The next step is to remove ALL the carpet. We won't do everything at once, the plan continues to be one section at a time, but the carpet has to go, any movement close to it creates dust particles to go all over the place, including the areas being prepped.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

What about roll on or spray on truck bed liner material? Seems to be pretty much indestructible, totally washable and flexible so no cracking. Plus it should have enough texture to hide any imperfections in the prepped surface.

 

[Johnoly]

We are happy with it.

It came out really nice and it's practically indestructible now !! And @Zieg is gorilla with a grinder !!

 

[Ana]

What about roll on or spray on truck bed liner material? Seems to be pretty much indestructible, totally washable and flexible so no cracking. Plus it should have enough texture to hide any imperfections in the prepped surface.

We thought about it, it would look much better but that texture that would cover all the imperfections, is rough to the touch.

In order to avoid serious skin removal around the v-berth we would have to use 2 different finishes, so we went with this paint.
Some areas will have more imperfections than others, but on the plus side is easy to clean, and friendly to the skin.