Good paint for fiberglass canoe?

We have a canoe I built years ago with polyester resin which needs touching up.

I am sure there are many conflicting ideas out there, but a few hints would be very helpful.

  1. What would be a good product?

  1. How best to apply it?

Thank you in advance.

Dwight Gibb

Reply to
Dwight
Loading thread data ...

Find a group that discusses boat matters and ask there. Or try people who modify Corvettes. Or simply head off to the nearest boat shop with your checkbook or credit card. Good luck.

Joe

Reply to
Joe

Find a group that discusses boat matters and ask there. Or try people who modify Corvettes. Or simply head off to the nearest boat shop with your checkbook or credit card. Good luck.

Joe

WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT GO TO REC.BOATS, AS THE GROUP IS A SEWER OF OFF TOPIC POSTS, GENETIC INFIGHTING, AND PLAIN MORONS. IF YOU POST THERE REGARDING A BOAT, YOU WILL BE RIPPED TO SHREDS. THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH BOATS.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

I've done what you're thinking about. My thoughts:

It is tricky. A lot of paints have a hard time sticking to the fiberglass. A lot of paints react with the resins in fiberglass, and ruin the finish.

Go to a boat shop, as suggested. They can either give you the right supplies, tell you how to do it with all caveats, or do it for you and guarantee results.

If you DIY, you will get ONE chance. It will look good. Or not.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

What's on it now? That's probably what matters most. Assuming you are not going to sand the current stuff off you need to adhere to it.

Reply to
jamesgangnc

For sure, the canoe will have to be meticulously clean, powerwashed or hand-scrubbed everywhere you want the paint to stick. You didn't say inside or outside, but the precautions apply to both unless you are very strange and don't get the inside of the canoe wet.

Reply to
hrhofmann

Thanks for your ideas.

We are working on the outside only.

Present color is tinting in the polyester resin - so no paint - and we will sand it well.

Dwight

jamesgangnc wrote:

Reply to
Dwight

I rebuilt a diving helmet once, using resin and colorant. I would never do it again. Unless this is a valuable artifact, or some personal memento, go out and buy a brand new one, and take the difference and have a nice dinner.

Restoration is not always what it is cracked up to be.

With these things, if you do ten of them, you learn along the way, and do a better job every time. If you do one, you cannot improve.

How does one NOT get water inside a canoe?

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

Use a poly urethane enamel like Awlgrip and the primer recommended for it.

Reply to
gfretwell

I painted the inside of my canoe with oil based paint. Anything is going to want to scratch. I don't think I had any flaking. Maybe I better take a look. Its in the back yard, done in 1972. As far as the outside I just buffed with car wax. Trail craft, combo sail, flat back canoe, with center cutout for centerboard. Got to redo the back wood again!!

Greg

Reply to
gregz

My brother had his done at an automotive paint shop, pretty sure they used acrylic enamel. Forest green thinking it was a Chevy color. He had worked a deal with one of the guys that worked there and got it done for materials and it still cost him about $300. That was probably

10 years ago....boat still looks pretty good.

Jimmie

Reply to
JIMMIE

Dwight wrote in news:nLidnTOpkd2mF8vTnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.com:

I had to paint an old town canvas canoe that had been fiberglassed and needed a color upgrade about 15 or so years ago. I happened to live near a paint manufacturer, Keeler and Long, so I went by and asked one of the engineers what was recommended. After the necessary joke about the paint used for power plant containment vessels, he suggested an epoxy primer followed by a polyester based topcoat. The epoxy provides a solid base for the topcoat to adhere, and the poly topcoat provides a really deep, solid color. When I did as he suggested it turned out really well, very deep, substantial color and from what I understand no concerns with cracking or any other defects.

Reply to
Doc

Thanks everyone for the ideas.

The idea of a primer makes great sense.

I will proceed from here.

Dwight

Doc wrote:

Reply to
Dwight

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.