Hull finish

Mike Honcho

Mike Honcho

Member
I've started the restoration of my late 70's Laser. The bottom which is orange has significant scratches on the bottom that I have been able sand down the majority of. I had to do fiberglass work on a ding and around the foil opening causing me to either paint or gelcoat the bottom. I'm capable of doing both but paint is looking more promising. It looks like two part paint like Awlgrip is the preferred but pricey. I'm interested in paint input. Thanks
 
I used Interlux Topside paint on mine, just did it mid last season and it's holding up great
20140803_110337_resized.jpg
so far. Barely made it with 1 Qt spraying it.
 
Just went to West Marine and bought epoxy, pumps, filet material, marine filler, Interlux 2 part epoxy primer, brushing reducer and some other stuff today. My plan is to brush and tip Interlux Perfection top and bottom and when I saw the price difference I almost went for the one part but decided to order the 2 part online saving about 40 bucks. All told I will be into it about 400 but wil have left overs that will be used somewhere. What colors did you use?
 
Ground down the patches today and rough sanded the hull with a DA / 40 grit. I'm going to fill the patches and DA it again with 80 so it will be ready for primer then flip it over and cut the access ports to start the step reinforcement. Once that's done I'll repair and prep the deck for primer/paint.
 
I did the mast step reinforcement and reefed out a good 1/2 of the hull deck joint that was separated and leaking. The boat leaked pretty bad when I got it so I rebed all the fittings including the bailer and did the above repairs using West System Epoxy and filler. Painting the hull was an afterthought and I didn't want to spend a bunch on it. I sanded it with 120 DA and didn't bother to prime it as the gel coat was in decent shape.
I was wrong with the paint I used, It was the Brightside Poly in Fire Red with 216 thinner.
I might get ambitious this spring and do the deck and use the play sand non-skid trick with a roller. I don't want anything too aggressive for skid but might look around to see whats available for options.

You on the East or West coast? I'm up in the North East now being called "Little Siberia" lol. I've got about 20 years in the boating industry and anything I might be able to give you advise on I'd be happy to.
 
I'm in the Pacific Northwest. I read last night of the potential of polyurethanes blistering from direct contact moisture from covers. Does anyone have experience from this. I plan to paint the deck with 2 part polyurethane and I leave it on a lift during the spring/summer /fall with a cover on it so it will get wet.
 
Ground down the foil pocket area on the bottom and glassed it back up. Cut in two ports and reinforced the mast step with epoxy, glass and fillet. Flipped it back over did all the finish work and laid down the first coast of Epoxy Primkote. I have to work tomorrow so Monday will be sanding it down and laying the second coat. Then I think I'll flip it back over for the finish work on the deck, prime then top coat for both.
 
Mike Honcho said:
I'm in the Pacific Northwest. I read last night of the potential of polyurethanes blistering from direct contact moisture from covers. Does anyone have experience from this. I plan to paint the deck with 2 part polyurethane and I leave it on a lift during the spring/summer /fall with a cover on it so it will get wet.
Click to expand...

My Dad's catboat was Awlgriped and had a tarp on it for several years and it blistered. In New England they use white heat shrink wrap to cover the majority of big boats in boat yards. They do not do the 2K poly boats(Awlgrip type) because they will blister.

My old Laser blistered from having wet leaves on it upside down with no cover. They were the typical polyester/fibreglass blisters seen on hulls of big boats. Yes, I swore when I found out. It had also been hit by a falling tree limb which poked a hole in the hull.
 
I reefed of the hull/deck joint also. Probably about 3/8 th of all of it. I used a Fein tool and it worked awesome. The compound they used was not epoxy. It was softer. Filled it all with thickened West systems.
 
some video I took today of my step reinforcement and the beginning of my deck repair. Paint prep is almost done with some sanding along the rail and in the cockpit then scrub down the nonskid with prep solvent and prime the smooth areas and paint the deck, let it cure then paint the hull and then its onto rerigging.

 
You can take a look in the thread I started last fall with mine. Shows the step repair and a few others had some great info added as well.
http://www.sailingforums.com/threads/new-to-forum-and-new-to-me-laser.31217/

I will say I'm a bit jealous if your getting ready to rig up. My Laser is still buried in snow and the lake is frozen solid. As soon as the snow melts the boat is coming down to the lake and I'm going sailing as soon as the ice clears. This winter has been brutal and I need to at least make myself think it's spring even if the water temp is still in the 30's.
I think they have a Frostbite series for Lasers??
 
Its been unbelievably warm and dry this winter. Hit 62 today. thanks for the link, I'll take a look. Fitted the patch today and some more fill work on the dagger and rudder. The deck should be ready for primer tomorrow. I'll take some more pictures and post them up.
 
Last edited:
Finished with two coats up and two coats down. Barely able to do it with a quart each. Perfection is good stuff but finicky. Running tight on paint makes room for no errors.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top