Anyone ever painted their own boat with a spraygun in a yard?

[ramblinrod]

Originally Posted by Reginald Bknham

Anyone ever painted their own boat with a spraygun in a yard?

My younger days had me spraying some very large high end aerospace parts because most of the others weren't certified/qualified and they needed it done correctly so I was volunteered. Not my job title BTW
I thought I'd throw that in to keep the "you need to have someone that knows what their doing" posts from happening.
So basically I do most everything or else I'd end up with a big jacked up mess and have to re-do it myself.

I hope my Barbara isn't reading my emails and chimes in here she wants a black boat.

I have painted both "roll and tip" and "spray" in yards, personally and professionally.

My best advise, cover the boat.

I have used commercial shelters (garage in a box), and built custom wood frame and tarp paint booths.

Benefits of covering:

1. Shade.
2. Reduced airborne dust / debris (if you vacuum the entire interior walls an ceiling after sanding).
3. Fewer bugs. (Surprisingly, bugs don't seem to want to go inside a shelter.
4. No morning dew to dry.
5. Keeps the wind off (and heat in for curing 2 parts).

Other advice:

1. Wrap a chain around the prop shaft and connect it to a ground rod to eliminate static.

2. For 2 part paints, if temps are under 75F use low temp reactor, else you'll have sags appear up to 6 hours after spraying.

3. Make sure the paint cures before you hit the dew point or it will fog and have to be sanded / reshot.

Here's a link of the before / after of my personal boat.

Sheen Marine Fibreglass

Ramblin Rod
Yacht Service Provider

[Debgen]

I've sprayed and roll/rolled 9 different boats from 23' to 41' including mine and friends. LPU's are the best for longevity. I used awlgrip, perfection and Imron as well as Nauticoat All these were sprayed or rolled in DIY yards. As I'm sure other have commented it's all about the prep. In a yard you are always faced with a myriad of issues. Wind, Humidity, sun on one side shade on other, dew. dust from the ground and may more. The worse case I've encountered was several hours after spraying a boat someone came to admire the finished work
and gently trailed their fingers along the hull on the dry but not cured paint. Needless to say it was quite visible the next day and required a redo. The only alternative is to find a yard that has a paint hanger and pay through the nose. Remember you can't see it from the helm.

[reed1v]

Many yards will prohibit you from spray painting for liability reasons.

[anacapaisland42]

With a roller, brush to tip, Tremclad paint,
Looks great, lasts long time, easy to patch/clean
Bill

Originally Posted by Reginald Bknham

Anyone ever painted their own boat with a spraygun in a yard?

My younger days had me spraying some very large high end aerospace parts because most of the others weren't certified/qualified and they needed it done correctly so I was volunteered. Not my job title BTW
I thought I'd throw that in to keep the "you need to have someone that knows what their doing" posts from happening.
So basically I do most everything or else I'd end up with a big jacked up mess and have to re-do it myself.

I hope my Barbara isn't reading my emails and chimes in here she wants a black boat.

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by reed1v

Many yards will prohibit you from spray painting for liability reasons.

Other yards require you to put your boat under a huge tent if you want to spray. Some rent these tents ...

[Rick Williams]

The next time we do Awlgrip on the boat which I hope is never, we're going to rent a party tent that fits over the boat, cover it with plastic and spray. With the roll and tip method you have to sand between every coat and our boat has a lot of freeboard. Our paint supplier said you can spray 3 coats in an hour and call it good. Building the tent would be sooooo much faster then all the sanding and endless tacking we did over and over! That's for me!
Whoever said you can't shoot in a boatyard is correct. I'm sure there's more than one owner who has happily painted all his neighbors when he didn't notice his slow drying paint wafting around on the breeze.

[Mithril Bham]

Used Vortex on aluminum. As you probably know primer is time/temperature sensitive. Overspray can be a problem in a yard although Vortex is 5 psi. Good if you can move to a building where temp, wind and overspray can be controlled.

[seabreez]

I have just sanded, primed and sprayed a 21 foot boat. This was black all over. I repainted the hull white and the top red. I used a HPLV system. (High volume low pressure). I had bought this system at a car meet at Carlisle. I painted the boat with my truck in very close proximity 20 feet, as I was told that the spray system gave no fumes. They were right. very little masking and wore only a mask. Next time I would wear a coverall as I painted I was too close to my pants. Of course if you do not aim at the boat you will send the paint somewhere else. My results were impressive...Roger

[rassabossa]

There used to be a guy in Ft. Meyers that came to your boat yard to paint boats. He brought along one of those big shelters ramblinrod is talking about. The one I saw him do came out very well. I would think most DIY yards would require a shelter so as to not get overspray on other boats.

[dagranger]

I have painted LPU paints with roller and brush, turned out great..spraying them is a job for those with real Experience and proper yard experience..Do it in open and get caught you will most likely be facing large fines..there have been people killed trying to beat the cost and just not worth it...happened in Long Beach area in a shipyard when owner tried to avoid the hassle and did it on weekend died 2 days later...My suggestion is do not even think of it..I doubt there is a shipyard in PNW that would allow any spraying by public most will not allow any work as their liability is so high...

[Southern Star]

44CC, I assume your hulls were still inverted when you painted them (and the underside of the bridgdeck). In addition, you obviously did not have to worry about marina rules, overspray on other boats, etc. I can see doing the prep work on an upright cat (a huge part of the time and cost), but to avoid all of the potential problems (as discussed plus insects in many areas), I would still have the boat painted by a good professional in an enclosure.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by Southern Star

44CC, I assume your hulls were still inverted when you painted them (and the underside of the bridgdeck). In addition, you obviously did not have to worry about marina rules, overspray on other boats, etc. I can see doing the prep work on an upright cat (a huge part of the time and cost), but to avoid all of the potential problems (as discussed plus insects in many areas), I would still have the boat painted by a good professional in an enclosure.

No, I did much of the hull and bridgedeck underside fairing while they were inverted, and left them in highbuild. The final fairing and prep was done when the boat was structurally complete and right side up, as was the painting.

Bugs and dust are a problem. I wet the surrounding area down before spraying which reduces dust, but there wasn't much I could do about bugs except scrape them off afterwards. They only leave small feet behind...

Actually, the bugs weren't much of a problem, you'd struggle to find any evidence of them. Small feet, big boat.

Getting the boat professionally painted in an enclosure would be great, but very costly. Just getting the boat moved there and then back would cost plenty.