Painting a fiberglass pontoon boat

[rraney]

I am wanting to paint my fiberglass pontoon boat but the 2 part PU paints are extremely expensive. I store my boat on a trailer and only get it in the water for maybe 80 hours per season. (4 to 8 hours at a time). Is there a less expensive way for me to paint it? I just want it to look better. Also, this is only in fresh water.

[PAR]

The keys to good paint jobs are: surface prep (getting it smooth) and primer. A good primer can make for a great paint job.

Twp part polyurethanes are costly, but durable. One part polyurethanes are less costly and slightly less durable. Alkyds (oil based) are typically less then the single polys, but are much less durable and don't have nearly the gloss. The modified acrylics (water based) are getting much better in recent years. They're shinier then many of the oils now and getting fairly hard too. They also aren't nearly as durable as the polyurethanes, but much less expensive. They also have a single part paint they're calling epoxy, but it's really not. These paints do go down nice, but they "chalk" up fairly quickly.

Spring for a good primer and do good prep work, then what ever top coat you use will likely look very nice.

The low buck route is "porch and deck" enamel, but again it's not as tough as the big buck stuff.