Alexseal Paint

[Num1fireman]

Long time Luker, infrequent poster but I wanted to share my experience with Alexseal Yacht Coatings.

A little background, Refitting a 1975 Scheel 45 Masthead sloop which has original gelcoat that although in mostly good shape, it is in desperate need of a paint job.
I have painted a few cars and a couple of boats in my life, so although this is daunting in its scope and size, I feel as if its within my abilities.

Im sure most of you will be familiar with the YouTube Boatworks today, (if your not, check it out) The host, Andy has painted a few things with Alexseal and this Rolling additive they sell and raves about it. So I decided I would give it a test shot, by painting my mast with the same process demonstrated on the show as a test of the paint on a smaller scale before tackling the hull.

Plus I think a matching mast is kinda unique and kinda cool ( yes I know it will get chewed up eventually by sail, halyards etc.)

My wife and I are both Redheads, and red is kind out "thing" ( all the haters just shut it... not looking for input and ridicule about the color choice fading, hazing color spectrum etc.... I have heard it all.. still chose a dark wine red..)

So with the 64 ft mast on stands and all the hardware and spreaders removed we sanded the mast starting with 80 several complete sands with smaller grit till around 240. Then treated all the bare aluminum with Aluminol to etch and primed with Alexseal 161 metal primer 2 coats, sanded smooth primed again with the Alexxeal finish primer 442 2 coats, sanded smooth to 320, 1 final 442 coat, with I applied a dry guidecoat sanded with 400.

Early morning of a dry day we rinsed and let the mast dry, wiped down with dewax/prep and a tac rag, and rolled the Wine red Alexseal 501 on. we applied 2 coats let it setup overnight and then sanded smooth soft and slow with 400 Wiped tac rag and a 3rd coat... it flowed out beautifully, went on smooth and easy, not hard to hide the roller marks, looked like glass.. I have sprayed a few things in my life and I was as proud of this as any other. Not to say its prefect, but it is really impressive... so much so that I am getting ready to spend north of $2500 on enough to do the hull and deck...

The other guys in the yard keep teasing me they are gonna report me since this is a no spray yard..lol.. read the Home Depot bucket reflection...

[Bill O]

Nice job and will be easy to find in the anchorage when you invite people over for happy hour on your boat.

[BigBeakie]

I had every intention to use Alexseal on our new 50' cat here in Thailand after spraying our hardtop as a "test" and we really liked using it and the result, BUT but the price went up to over USD 800 per gallon, and we would have used about 20 + gallons, so I ended up resisting the extortion. JEEZ, IT'S JUST PAINT! And the primers are crazy expensive too.

After testing more alternatives, we used an industrial marine topcoat from Jotun instead called Hardtop AX that cost $65 per gallon, and guess what? Not bad at all. Not as good a gloss finish out of the gun as Alexseal, but tough as nails , and repairable like 501 is.

With the random orbital dry sanding with 3M Cubitron 800 grit followed by 1500 & 3000 discs, followed by a buff with Perfect-It EX fine polish, we got an equivalent finish to Alexseal at more than an order of magnitude less cost. FWIW

[Num1fireman]

Just an update and a couple pics.. got the topsides done.

[CharmCityBoater]

I am a big fan of Alexseal and have been using it for a while. I also used it to paint my spars... I did it in this order:

1. Sanded to bare, shiny metal
2. Washed with Comet cleanser and water several times
3. Removed all waxes / oils with TotalBoat Dewaxer and surface prep
4. Applied Alumiprep
5. Applied Alodine
6. Sprayed Alexseal CorSpec 161 primer for aluminum (one coat only according to Alexseal tech's)
7. Alexseal 442 primer - 2 coats
8. more sanding
9. Sprayed Alexseal 501 topcoat - 3 coats

What was tough about this project was that everything had to be done within a timed window. From the cleaning through to the final paint it was all done within a weekend. Not a lot of sleep that weekend.

The finish is awesome, new car like. I hope it lasts me 15-20 years.

Love Alexseal.

[CharmCityBoater]

By the way, The project probably cost me $2,200 to include paint and supplies. I already had the HVLP gun and a compressor. If not I would have to rent / buy these. Add an additional $500 for stuff you would need to buy if you did not have them already for spraying paint.

Note that does not include any of the new rigging parts, mast attachments, etc... Just the paint job.

[CharmCityBoater]

One more point... If you do use CorSpec 161 WEAR A MASK DESIGNED FOR PAINT FUMES. That stuff is very very nasty and dangerous. The Alexseal people warned me about breathing in any of the fumes. We will see how long they can continue selling CorSpec in the US market. Pretty much banned in most other places. It is great stuff for aluminum though. Best on the market by far.

[Num1fireman]

Sounds like you did it right! Mine is rolled on though… that new additive is a game changer

[catsketcher]

Originally Posted by BigBeakie

I had every intention to use Alexseal on our new 50' cat here in Thailand after spraying our hardtop as a "test" and we really liked using it and the result, BUT but the price went up to over USD 800 per gallon, and we would have used about 20 + gallons, so I ended up resisting the extortion. JEEZ, IT'S JUST PAINT! And the primers are crazy expensive too.

After testing more alternatives, we used an industrial marine topcoat from Jotun instead called Hardtop AX that cost $65 per gallon, and guess what? Not bad at all. Not as good a gloss finish out of the gun as Alexseal, but tough as nails , and repairable like 501 is.

FWIW

Yeah BigBeakie - I get that. My mate's business is rolling Alexseal and he can't get a good deal on it. I would love to use it but I am out in a few minutes to buy some Wattyl PolyU 400 as it doesn't cost me a kidney.

[Renegde_Sailor]

That paint looks great! Thinking I am going to go the Alexseal route myself.

Glad to hear you had a good experience with it.

And yes, Andy with Boat Works today makes some great videos about it!

[CharmCityBoater]

Originally Posted by Num1fireman

Sounds like you did it right! Mine is rolled on though… that new additive is a game changer

Did you roll on the corspec 161? How did it come out? I know the primer and topcoat has additive for rolling

[Num1fireman]

I did roll everything.. no
Additive in any of the primers, only the top coat. Since I sanded every other coat, to smooth imperfections and roller texture/orange peel out. I think we sanded the whole boat maybe 24-25 times..took the better part of 2 days every time with 2 people using 400 on a 7 in DA ..lol hundreds of hours