Purple Topside Paint on a Steel Hull

[ViribusUnitis]

My wife's favorate color is purple. If we are going to get a boat, it will eventualy be purple. I'm just about ready to make an offer on a steel boat. Only problem it's not purple.

I'm having a heck of a time finding purple top side paint. One of the local pain mixing places suggested utalizing an automotive style paint that can be mixed in any color a person could desire. They suggested that it would hold up plenty well under the riggers of salt water, so long as it didn't remain constantly underwater. He says the only down side is that it's a bit more expensive than awegrip type paint.

What say the board? Is there purple marine grade paint? Or will the automotive type paint work plenty well?

[skipmac]

I have it on good authority that one can purchase red marine paint and have even seen blue. Maybe you can take it from there, if you really want to but purple? I guess if that's what it took to get my other half onboard I would even go with polka dots.

[Southern Star]

Automotive paint is far to susceptible to scratches to be used on a sailboat - and skipmac is correct, if you must have purple, mix blue and and red. An alternative might be painting the hull white and then using burgundy for the cove stripe, sheer stripe and your transom. Certainly burgundy is also available for sailcovers, fenders etc.

Cheers!

Brad

[ViribusUnitis]

Really she wants two shades of purple. A darker shade for the hull and a lighter shade for the cabin tops and sides.

If this is all that it takes to make it "her" boat instead of "his damn toy" I'm all for it. There is nothing that will shut this idea down faster than her saying "I don't want to."

[Southern Star]

I here you VB, but perhaps you can convince her that the heat generated in the interior by using a dark colour on the topsides (and even worse, the coachouse) will make the interior intolerable on hot days (not to mention that it will be hot against your legs if they touch it while seated). Just a thought!

Brad

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by Southern Star

I here you VB, but perhaps you can convince her that the heat generated in the interior by using a dark colour on the topsides (and even worse, the coachouse) will make the interior intolerable on hot days (not to mention that it will be hot against your legs if they touch it while seated). Just a thought!

Brad

Absolutely, especially if you are boating in south TX. I had a boat with white hull but a black trim strip around the rub rail. From the inside on a sunny day you could feel at least a twenty degree difference from the inside of the boat exactly where the black stripe was on the outside.

Maybe a pale shade of purple for hull and paler shade for the decks?

[ViribusUnitis]

Never going to happen. It WILL be some shade of purple.

As far as heat goes, I plan to have the decks off white or a very light grey. The cabin sides and probably tops are to be the lightest shade of purple I can find. Deffently NOT royal purple! Hopefuly that will be enough to keep the heat under control.

The boat is a 45' trawler, I'm not sure if that changes the paint requirements.

[boatman61]

Well..... here in Portugal in a town called Portimao the local Hempel guy will happily mix up any shade you desire.. maybe check out Hempel suppliers stateside... see if they're as obliging..

[four winds]

You might consider looking into Dupont Imron Marine finishes. It's an incredibly tough paint for all applications. Auto, Air, Marine, Industrial, etc.

It's chemical resistant, and so hard it can't even be buffed, and somewhat brittle. It does not fade. I know that's hard to believe, but that's what they were going for when it was designed. So one could paint an airplane for example, and not worry about fuel spills or ever buffing and waxing the aircraft.

Technical information here.

DuPont Marine Finishes Technical Information | DuPont Performance Coatings - appp20.asp.dupont.com

Info on colors here.

Bunkspeed | Drive | DuPont Color


This paint can not be breathed by humans, at all. Don't even open the can without fresh air respirator.

For what it's worth two shades of purple will be very hard to choose a pleasing combination, in my opinion. I would think a complimentary color would work better. This according to color theory as artists believe. In that case a light cream or greyish cream would be an example.

The second link allows a look at color combos.

[sabray]

before painting the house topsides purple get some cheap paint and spray it on a test sheet sit it in the sun for a few hours. Even light gray can get so hot it will burn your feet. Even here mid atlantic the light grey gets to hot. Im hearing you but i would persuade that you look to getting purple bimini, cove stripes, cushions etc...

[Mark Johnson]

Just a thought... purple and red are among the least colorfast of colors. It will be several degrees hotter down below, in a tropical summer, as well as fade MUCH quicker than other colors.

About your other qusetion... two part LP paints, (like AwlGrip), are not meant for full time immersion either. If you put a boat cushion on a LP painted deck, and keep water against the paint for say... 6 weeks, it will blister! Same if you went around the world on the same tack. This is not likely, but after long enough "wet time", LPs blister. Many world cruisers never notice the little blisters, because either it was not long and consistent enough, or after a month on the hook in Tahiti, the blisters "went away". The adhesion never comes back, but they do go back down.

If the automotive paint is like two part acrylic, "PPG paint", it should hold up on your hull fine, and is a second runner up to the champ... AwlGrip. It just wont be as durable or shiny.

BTW... If you prefer AwlGrip, and are willing to experiment, (=$$$), you can mix your own colors. I made a light green by mixing some well shaken green base, with well shaken white base. The ratio of catalyst to base is the same, no matter how many colors of base went into the mix. So when the base is your chosen color, mix in the appropriate amount of catalyst, solvent, drops of accelerator, and you are ready to go!

Mark

PS... When I changed our cabin side stripe from a broad expanse of green, to just a contrasting border stripe of green, the effect was still there, but it was much cooler below in the summer. (And ALWAYS use gray primer, as it is opaque, and blocks the UVs off of the hull better.) This is cooler yet, and easier on the plastic hull surface it covers.

[smj]

Sherwin Williams makes a 2 part marine paint similar to Awlgrip and it comes in a good variety of colors as well as custom mixed.

[PamlicoTraveler]

Go for it!

[CharlieCobra]

Imron is great paint. It was used in marine applications for years until the reps decided to push the hard paints like Awlgrip. It's a polyurethane, softer than Awlgrip but buffable. It's main use was for high end autos and aircraft. I used it for years and the one thing I liked was the ability to match and buff boo boos. It has great gloss holdout and resistance to saltwater and chemicals.

[ViribusUnitis]

I'm glad to hear that the Imron would work just fine. I belive that's what the local paint place was suggesting that I use.

With any luck, I can find a purple that is a light shade, for use on the cabin sides and possibly tops. A slightly darker shade, but still light for the hull.

I don't care what color you paint steel, as it will get too hot to walk on in South Texas. That is simply a fact of life. White gets too hot to walk on. I'm hoping that we can keep it under control with some sort of awning. And electricy. Loughts and loughts of electricty.