My boat is currently painted with Toplac. I would like to use a harder (2 pot?) paint. I was told a few years ago that you cannot use a 2 part paint on top of Toplac. Is this correct?

they do say that you shouldn't but I have found that as long as the previously coat is sound and well hardened (like last year's paint for instance) it works fine.

 Try a very small area to see what happens.

It won't be quite as chip resistant as starting from scratch but will resist scratches (no pun intended) and fender scuffing much better than a one pot paint. Make sure you sand very thoroughly first as not only will this give you a better key but seems to harden the old paint as you do it (no idea why).

Happy sailing JRL

If you want a permanent and hard finish the best bet will be to remove the Toplac next winter.

It may sound a big job, but with the correct tools it will only take a days work. I did a 32 footer in two days!

You need a palm sander, fairly couse paper and off you go, using DA's seems a good idea but they tend to cut into the gel coat.

A palm sander gently pressed against the hull and kept on the move a lot will give you a beautifully smooth finish for using 2 pot poly, all it will need is a wash down with detergent and its ready for painting, using a coarse grade sandpaper will give a nice key for the 3 coats of paint it will need.

If buying 2 pot poly - avoid Blakes & International, they are overpriced and fade/chalk badly. I have had great success with Skippers Line by Colari (its Italian) you can buy it from Marine Paints dot com and plenty of other 2 pot poly paints for a fraction of the price International and Blakes charge and you get a better product too!

Withh 2 pot poly you don't need a primer and frankly the undercoat is a con! Just use the gloss and you'll be fine!

see the photo of my

yboat. this is 3 coats of paint, wet & dried  withh 600 grade, 1200 grade 2000grade and then burnished with G3.

Chas, thanks for taking the trouble to give me the info. I intend to roller and then brush out the paint. Can you recommend the type of roller and brush to use? Would you do it this way?

Thank you. John

Roller and brush are fine and the best brush for the job is a Jenny brush (foam with a slightly stiffened head). If you are brushing out the type of roller doesn't matter too much but I would use a gloss one (they have a sort of suede finish) Many of the sponge rollers break down with the solvent in the paint after a while and leave horrible bits of sponge on the surface.

 Although it may seem illogical, brush out downwards (a tip I was given by a pro many years ago) This way you can not get any runs.

Hi John

I'm not that sure I'd bother at all, the hull of my boat has been hand painted (not by me) and the finish is so bad that it looks like it was put on with a garden rake. I spent some time deliberating whether at some time I'd strip the paint completely and re do the gel coat. However, apart from when the boat is ashore for maintenance, you never see how bad the finish really is, from a few feet away it really does look fine. The other advantage is that I can touch up scratches and it doesn't look any worse than the rest of it. There is a picture of it in the gallery if you can find it.

I don't know what you have on your superstructure, mine is still gel coat and I've gradually been restoreing it. I think paint on the superstructure would be a bit of a last resort because of the ammount of fittings etc.

Cheers

Chas

Quite as long as you're having fun, the rest is purely in the mind!

With the superstructure, avoid painting if you possibly can!

Try some G3 and a Blue Foam Polishing Head. (available from any decent car accessory distribuot - not the Halfords type but the ones the actual car body shops use!) You need a slow speed industrial polisher or an angle grinder with a variable speed, set the speed as low as possible and she'll come up like a new boat!

Quite as long as you're having fun, the rest is purely in the mind! Yeah, unless you are very rich boats involve enough work so don't create it unnecessarily. You'll be having most fun when you are out at sea in it and then you can't see the hull at all. So why worry?