Interior Refurbishing

Painting

Now that the rebuild of the stern is complete the Offshore is ready to get on the water! Of course it's lacking a motor and looks like crap, but theoretically I could launch and paddle around! At some point I also need to get the boat off the trailer, clean up the latter, and have it inspected by Washington State Patrol so it can be licensed and legal. Haven't figured out the best way to do that, but will soon.

Good preparation is the key to a successful paint job, so because the paint is so old it is necessary to strip it all off, down to the gel coat. There were three coats of paint: gray primer, white, then blue on the trim. All of the coats were sprayed, probably using enamel paint. Not having any history of the boat I can only guess this was done in the 80s or maybe earlier, based on the pervasive fading.

Partially sanded side deck showing three coats of paint over the original red gel coat.

I've been stripping the old paint off the topsides using a product called Smart Strip, which I also used to remove 5 paint jobs from my Lotus ten years ago. It is expensive, but doesn't contain the deadly (literally) chemical methylene chloride and other other harmful chemicals such as acetone and toluene. It permeates and softens the paint, which can usually be peeled away with a putty knife or dull chisel after letting it work for awhile. The formulation is proprietary, but the MSDS says it contains kaolin (clay), along with water and benzyl alcohol. It feels and smells oily, so I suspect there is some emulsified oil in it also. At any rate it is benign, so no personal protective gear is necessary. I always use gloves just to keep my hands clean.

Paint removal from the cabin top.

A short YouTube video shows how easy it is to remove the paint using this method: https://youtu.be/oGnR3HDQT78

After washing off the residue and letting it dry I then remove the little bits that didn't scrape off with 120 grit sandpaper on a random orbital sander. I've stripped about 80% of the topsides so far and have been pleased to see that the surface is in pretty good shape. Just a few scrapes and gouges here and there but, no surprise, lots of holes. Some I made while removing equipment (e.g., snaps from the old canopy), but many filled holes were revealed beneath the paint. After all the paint is gone I'll make a good count because you, the reader, need to know.

By the way, I'm just doing the topsides for now. The hull will eventually need a new paint job, but it's still on the trailer and doesn't look too bad from 30 feet.

I've been thinking a lot about color. As mentioned in the last post the transom shelf should match the interior of the boat, and I recently discovered that this is not gray but a cream color. That sits well with me since it brightens everything up. Gray is probably popular with fishermen since stains from fish guts don't show up as well, but I don't fish.

As far as the exterior, which I'm concentrating on now, I plan to stick with some version of red for the trim; probably a little darker than the original seen above. I may just carry the Hatteras White to the outside, both on the topsides and the hull when I get around to that.

I have much more to add to this, and will soon, but it has been so long since I updated this blog I wanted readers to know that I'm making progress. We forge on...

May 26th, 2018

Think I'll begin dating new entries to old topics. Up until now I've been adding to and editing previous posts at will, but there may be an advantage of doing it this way for those following the project's progress.

Been traveling a bit since first posting this topic, but steadily working on paint when home. Before priming the topsides the aluminum trim needed to be addressed, so sanded out crazing, shallow pits, and blemishes as best I could. I typically began with 240 grit followed by 320, then switched to wet-sanding with 500 or 600 followed by 900 or 1000. I've got several different rouges for polishing aluminum, but used Mother's aluminum polish before masking for paint. It looks a lot better than it did, but doesn't have the gloss (or anodizing) that the original trim did. Here is a picture:

Before and after of starboard cabin window trim. I was able to sand out some of the pits and scratches, but it's not nearly as spiffy as the original. It will do for now, and maybe for my ownership.

The aluminum rub rail, below the deck, is in such bad shape that I plan on replacing it. That might be next winter's project.

Aft port rubrail. Note the deep pitting; badly gouged in other areas. I'm not even going to bother with sprucing it up. Also note the bad pitting in the gel coat, discussed further below.

Laid down the first coat of primer about two weeks ago and have been doing a lot of sanding since then. This revealed more imperfections in the gelcoat, so have done my best to fill in nicks and poor previous repairs (some of them mine). The priority now is to finish priming and painting the white on the topsides so I can install the cabin windows. Need to to this in the next week or so before I head to Duvall to pick up the motor. Also need to prime & paint the transom before the motor is installed, as well as apply spatter-coating to the splash well. A lot to do in a short time, and I'm supposed to be retired!

And now the hole count for the topsides (above the hull-deck joint). Drum roll please: 261. You might recall there were 112 holes in the transom, which brings the total to 373! Fortunately the previous owners didn't see a need to drill through the hull, as far as I can see, so this is probably the final count. I will be utilizing or re-drilling about 30 holes for hardware, and if I install canvas it will be many more, but am looking forward to starting with a blank slate.

6/18/2018
The painting process needed to wait until temperatures warmed to 60 degrees or so. I applied primer in the upper 50's and it took a a couple days to dry. I'm using Interlux Pre-Kote which is an oil-based, high-build product. Since I'll be priming and painting the hull in the future I bought a whole gallon, which cost a little more than two quarts. This product sands easily (once it is really dry), but a little difficult to apply. I used the roll & tip technique, where you roll on a few square feet then smooth it out with a dry brush. This evens the paint and removes the bubbles from rolling. It take a gentle touch for both rolling (if you put it on too thick it will take a looong time to dry) and tipping (too much pressure on the brush, or one that it too wet, or using anything but a very soft brush will will leave lines in the paint), but after some practice it gets better.

Once the primer dries it alerts you to many imperfections in the gel coat (or previously filled holes). This can be disappointing because you have to go back to the filling/fairing stage, but in the end I'll be glad I did. Case in point, the port cabin sides had lots of little pits in the white part (about 150 of them):

Pits in the port cabin side, which I gouged out with a knife after priming for better bonding. The width of this picture is about ten inches. The boat must have spent most of its life with this side more exposed to the elements than the other, because the starboard side is in much better condition. 

I also put two coats of white on the cabin sides last week, which turned out pretty good. I wanted to get the windows in before driving the 70 miles to get the outboard installed. Here's what that looks like. Once I completely finish with the windows (these are in temporarily) I'll document that on the Miscellaneous page.

Windows installed temporarily (I need to remove and weaterstrip them before heading out on the water) over Hatteras White. Note the Fire Red hatch cover. The rest of the deck will be this color.

8/12/2018

I finished painting the topsides near the end of June. Two coats each of the Hatteras White and Fire Red. Here's what it looked like then:

And here she is with all the rechromed hardware, rub rail (molded plastic trim that covers the hull/deck joint), windows & frames, and windshield (not original to the boat, but will do until I locate one). I'm frankly not very happy with my paint job, but take solace that it looks a lot better than it did and is back in her original colors.