Fourth Coat Cabin, Cockpit & Companionway Slide Hatch

February 15, 2018

Arriving home, I quickly suited up for a sanding and painting session.  I am building up to final coat on the cabin and cockpit, and likely the penultimate coat was going on today.

I worked the cabin and cockpit, as well as the companionway slide hatch, with 400-grit by hand.  The iterative process of sanding out imperfections and applying the thin coat of finish paint (Interlux Perfection) is tedious but necessary.  I would love to have a controlled space for spraying...and just be done with primer in one day, and finish paint in one day!  But alas, my homemade "paint booth" was all that I had...,"Guv-na." 

I mixed a pot of paint, set it aside so that it could catalyze, and then vacuumed and wiped clean the surfaces to be painted.  With paint now thinned and in hand, I worked my way from cabin to cockpit without any issues.

This fourth coat will very likely be the preview to the final coat.

I left Joule and returned to the shop to apply paint to the companionway slide hatch.  There is adequate coverage on the slide hatch, but I regularly seem to have just enough paint left in the pot to apply yet another coat to the hatch.  

Total Time Today:   1.75 hrs

Third Coat CabinTop & Companionway Slide Hatch

February 13, 2018

Arrived home and went straight at sanding the cabin top.  I sanded with 400-grit, vacuumed the surfaces and then wiped them down with a rag dampened with solvent.  The paint was catalyzing while I prepped the surface, and once I wrapped up the prep work I was ready to thin the paint.

With gear in hand, I made my way back over to Joule, and began paint application.  I did have an overhead light rigged in the "paint booth", but I switched it off before ducking back in to snap this photo.

There's another two coats to apply to the cabin top and sides, and then brightwork and hardware installation begin!

Total Time Today:  1.5 hrs

Fifth (and Final?) Coat on Deck and Companionway Slide Hatch

February 12, 2018

Needing to get the bad taste out of my mouth from what was an agonizing weekend of painting, I quickly outfitted for a quick painting session.  I pulled the shop vac over to the new "paint booth", as well as sanding materials and the companionway hatch.

I covered the same course I had over the weekend - the outer edge of the deck, poop deck, and foredeck - with 400-grit paper.  The surface by now has been built up with a number of coats of primer and finish paint, and hand-sanding work in between coats has removed irregularities in the decks.  The sanding prep went without issue.

I returned to the shop and mixed a small pot of Interlux Perfection and set it aside for the induction period.  While the paint was catalyzing, I came back to Joule to vacuum the surfaces and then wipe down with a rag dampened with solvent.  Back in the shop, I thinned the now catalyzed paint with brushing reducer Interlux 2333N and moved back over to Joule.

Paint went on nicely...was not battling the elements, gnats that for some reason cannot resist the off-gas process that epoxy and these two-part paints give off, and miscellaneous

detritus floating through the air.  All surfaces painted this evening appear to be final.

The temporary "paint booth" was a good decision.

Total Time Today:  1.5 hrs