Boat Painting Cost

[75HUSTLER]

Could Anyone Give Me An Idea Of What It Costs For A Decent Paint Job For A Fiberglass Flatbottom Boat. And Where In So-cal I Could Get It Done. Would It Be Too Difficult To Do It Myself With No Experience. I Need To Fix Some Gel Coat Cracks And Figure I Need To Paint After Or It Will Look Funny. Any Help Would Be Alot Of Help. Thanks.

[marshmat]

Hi 75,
The cost will vary by several orders of magnitude, depending mainly on the following factors:
- Size of area to be painted (how long/high is the boat?)
- Quality of paint (it varies from about $15 to $100 a quart)
- Amount of detail (one solid colour, three-colour stripes, or do you want the full-blown 7-colour airbrush job?)
- Amount of prep work needed (how much sanding/priming/cleaning is needed?)
It's quite possible to get a solid (or simple 2/3 colour) paint job done yourself, preferably with the help of a friend. Follow the paint maker's directions exactly! Look at Interlux and Awlgrip urethanes, they're popular and very good.

[DanishBagger]

Of course you could paint it yourself. And, depending on your skills, most people would do okay. If you're really bad at, you don't want to go for a, for example, dark marine blue (it shows bumbs and so forth much more than any other colour).

Off-topic:

When You Write With Each Word Capitalised ... You are in essense writing it as a list - like this:

Originally Posted by 75HUSTLER

Could
Anyone
Give
Me
An
Idea
Of
What
It
Costs
For
A
Decent
Paint
Job
For
A
Fiberglass
Flatbottom
Boat
And
Where
In
So-cal
I
Could
Get
It
Done
Would

And so on. Also, when you capitalise every word, the periods are missed.

[75HUSTLER]

thanks for the paint and forum tip. so an off white would be easier. and do i need to apply an anti fouler to a fresh water river boat? can the paint on the top be the same on the sides and bottom? if not, what kind do i use on the bottom? what is the advatage of an non skid deck finish? do i have to sand off all the old paint or just rough it up for some primer? maybe i am bitting off more than i can chew and im sorry for bothering you (the reader) but i am a real do it your selfer. ant tips on where i can go for all these questions would be great too.

[DanishBagger]

I don't know much about freshwater, to be honest, but if it is a small boat you drag out of the water and store it on land, you wouldn't need antifouling. In fact, many antifoulings doesn't like being out of the water for too long.

The roughing up and so on, kind of depend of what type of paint is used, how good a finish you want and so on.

I don't understand your question as to what the advantage anti-skid is? I mean, it's to stop you from slipping - especially when the deck is wet.

I know the feeling to be in over your head. I am building my first boat as we speak (getting slowed down by a lack of money), but I am surprised (happily so) at what I am capable of. You will be too. I am certain of this.

Now, back to the sanding and so on. You will certainly need to clean it, and propably abrade it a bit too, but other than that, it all depends on what it says on the can of paint. If you follow those instructions you can't go wrong. The small cracks and so on, you will be able to make that look good too. I'm not kidding, the job you're about to undertake is not as difficult as you think. It's just scary the first time

But, afterwards, you will go "Gees, is that all that was to it?"

[DanishBagger]

Btw, is it an aluminum boat? If so, you could have it sanded down and have it finished "raw" .

[75HUSTLER]

no, its fiberglass. but thanks for the info and vote of confidence.

[safewalrus]

As the "bagger" sez first time is kinda tuff and un-nerving but get in there and have a crack! After the first go it gets easier as your confidence grows - read the small print (but not much you'll scare yourself!) and get on with it! It might look cheap but your learning, the next job will be better and the good thing with paint is you can always scrape it off and start again! No body else will know either (I've done that a few times too) - don't waste time being gentle, slap on a good coat of paint. Make it reasonably thick (household paint [exterior] is as good as anything and use cheap throwaway brushes saves a lot of hassle (I can hear all the "experts" whinging on on that one - ignore 'em) Good luck with the job -YOU can do it if you want too

[marshmat]

Originally Posted by 75HUSTLER

thanks for the paint and forum tip. so an off white would be easier. and do i need to apply an anti fouler to a fresh water river boat? can the paint on the top be the same on the sides and bottom? if not, what kind do i use on the bottom? what is the advatage of an non skid deck finish? do i have to sand off all the old paint or just rough it up for some primer? maybe i am bitting off more than i can chew and im sorry for bothering you (the reader) but i am a real do it your selfer. ant tips on where i can go for all these questions would be great too.

Antifouling is a very good idea if the boat lives in a slip, ie. it's in the water all season. If it lives on a trailer, antifouling paint is useless. There are special freshwater antifoulings to use if you fall into the former category; not all saltwater ones take well to fresh water. (My current boat is a trailer queen, and her underside is finished with blue Interlux topside enamel. This paint is on its fifth season and still looks like new.)
If you have a shop in your area that sells Interlux paint, pick up the free brochures from them. Interlux is really good at giving away good free advice.

[deerob5000]

Ive been wanting to try painting my boat but how do you paint the bottom of the boat if its on trailer. That's my biggest worry. My boats not a flat bottom its little bit bigger then a flat bottom.

[MichelleDeVries]

I'm just about at the paint stage of builing on a 12 foot dory. This is fibreglass with polyester resin over plywood. I'm not interested in spending heaps of money on paint. I'm encouraged by one person's remark that exterior house paint can be used.

Question: For exterior house paint, should it be oil based, latex, or other? (obviously I don't know much about house paint either.)

Question: Is a primer coat really necessary?

Michelle de Vries

[Willallison]

Oil & yes