Pixie the Boat - And the
Painting Has Begun...
A Faint Sense of Deja Vu
Oh, here we go again.
Before the rather satisfactory step of actually painting the boat, I
must prepare it. Preparation is why professional boat painters
get a lot of money for a paint job. If you do it right, it's very
uncomfortable, potentially dangerous, takes a really long time, and is
just plain hard work. Early on in my boat project, when I was
having silly fantasies about Kevin doing this job, he went walking by
one day to start the prep work on another boat. He had on his
white Tyvek dust suit and paused to explain, "I'd rather suck an egg
out of a chicken's ass than do this." I recall my ill-considered
response to be something like, "...and that's why I'm going to have you
do it on my boat." Right. That $10k is staying in my bank
account where it can earn 5% interest while the bank gets to lend out
at least 20 times my $10k at 9% or whatever boat loans are going for
these days. In that scenario, bank gets at least $17,500 and I
get $500 from my money. dang. Hey, wrong rant. And
who's wearing the Tyvek suit now??? Someone pass
me a chicken. I just lost at least $17,500 on my $10k that I
didn't spend and now I have to suck out an egg.
So, the deal here is that I have chosen to go with an amateur
application of 2-part
polyurethane paint. The paint is too dangerous if sprayed by
an amateur (me, because I'm not willing to gear up for one paint job),
so I'm rolling and tipping. This all may sound mysterious to the
uninitiated, but if this
guy can do it, we can (got that link from
here). I expect the preparation to take me through the
December holidays with the final coat of paint to be applied on the
first weekend in 2008 that is within the suggested temperature,
humidity, dewpoint and indirect sunlight range. Of course, that
day will be the day that my boatyard neighbors choose to sand their
hulls.
Part of gearing up for a job like this is to come up with a scaffolding
system that will get my body high enough on the hull to do the work
comfortably. I found some pretty fancy
adjustable height steel sawhorses to use as scaffold stands.
Of course, the first and biggest warning on the sawhorses is "DON'T USE
AS SCAFFOLD STANDS." Who do they think they're dealing with
here? Now I can toss all the rickety 2x4 sawhorse components that
have been polluting the corner of my garage. Actually, they're
going in the Santa Claus pile down near the pole barn at Gibson's.
As a side note, I've had a few comments lately from friends, family,
and co-workers that they think it's amazing that I can do this kind of
thing. At the office, my boss's boss (and my friend, but that's
another story that doesn't go like you'd think) pointed out that he
wouldn't know where to start on a thing like this. One of my
co-workers noted that drinking beer in the cockpit of the boat was what
he thought it was all about. Then it struck me, and I said so,
that that's exactly it! I sit in the cockpit drinking beer with
friends and notice something that needs to be done. I have no
clue how to do it, but that's why I enjoy messing around with
boats. I guess it's a theme in my work, too which keeps me
interested and enjoying my job.
Pics of the amazing yet ordinary first step. Here I have washed
the hull with soap and water, then sanded the entire topsides in light
sprinkling rain with 80 grit stick-on sanding discs for a Porter
Cable 6" Random Orbit Sander. This is my new favorite
tool. Then I washed the sanding dust/goo off again. There
is some suspect paint that covered repair areas. When preparing
for 2-part polyurethane application, I have to assure that all 1-part
paint is completely gone, or the 2-part won't stick properly.
Next up - apply a mild paint stripper to the repair areas and scrub
vigorously with 3M green scrubby pads, wash thoroughly, let dry, sand
repair areas with 80 grit, wash thoroughly, let dry, etc.... Beer
will be involved as this is immensely mindless work.
Updated 3 November 2007