painting a fiberglass boat questions

[revshot]

im going to completly re paint my boat,
im a total newbie to boat painting so this is what ive gatherd so far,

below the water im going to spray a heavy gel coat

on the top side im going to shoot interlux pre kote primer mixed with the appropriate thinner followed by brightside white then its just sanding and polishing correct?

have i got this down?

couple questions, do i need to add any thinners to the brightside paint or the gel coat? whats the best tempatures to spray this? ill be using an automotive spray gun

[arjan]

If your boat is kept in the water all the time I would not bother with gel coat below the water line. I would apply a barrier coat followed by bottom paint. I don't know the paticular product you are mentioning for the topsides but I would sand the existing surface, then spray on the primer and sand this lightly with maybe 240-320 grid. Then spray the finish coat and sit back, open a beer and enjoy. Good luck

[mastcolin]

Why you gonna spray gel below water? It's a hassle and it can difficult to get it to adhere to old gel unless it is blasted. Is the bottom blistered?

On the topsides:

what you propose is ok.

Just watch out you don't overapply the paints. 1 packs don't like being applied thick...and it's easy to overapply by spray. Do not overapply the PreKote. It can split and/or stay cheesy. Let it cure off for as long as possible before you topcoat, you'll get better flow on topcoat

You'll need 2 coats of topcoat - you'll need to do this is in 2 coats, not wet on wet.

If you spray it well, you'll not need to polish. In fact, it not that easy anyhow as the 1 packs aren't like 2 packs that you can polish.

In europe I spray the 1 packs with International No10 thinners - it's meant for the polyurethanes but flashes off so quick it won't bite into underlying coats. If you use the recommended thinner, it's slow as it's really menat for brushing. You can struggle to get it on thick enough without runs, then when it dries it shrinks loads as you have to add loads to get it to atomise.

Temperature? Warm as possible. Don't do it below 15C. 20-25C is best.

[revshot]

thanks, ill just spray bottom kote instead gel for the bottom ,i was told gel coat is harder and will take more abuse, the boat will sit in water but will be trailerd some times to go from lake to lake