Interior Paint Prep

I just bought a 1980 Allweather built in 1980. This is a small (26') trawler type boat. The Allweathers were utiltarian boats and this one is an early one so extra utilitarian. The interior is mostly bare fiberglass with heavy weave showing. The hull is solid fiberglass and the cabin sides and top are fiberglass over plywood or some other cores. Anyway it is all quite rough except for cabinetry. I want to repaint all the fiberglass and plan to use Petit EZ Cabin-Coat which is supposed to stick to anything. So other than an overall washing with a scrub brush what more could be done with such a rough surface?

 

Don't just paint a top coat over whatever you see, use a good primer, preferably an epoxy. The primer/paint combos being sold in recent years have repeatedly proven they don't stick nearly as well as separate primer and paint jobs do. For a rough surface, you'll need to "block it" after applying filler or high build primer. If it's what I think it is, you'll need to fill the weave in places, which is best done with a filler, not primer. Once you've filled and blocked,, just prime and paint as usual.

 

I have done a lot of plywood/epoxy/fiberglass boat building so I understand filling the weave and this is something I have considered. By "filler" I suppose you mean something like epoxy fairing compound, epoxy resin/microbaloons etc. I don't know what you mean by "blocking" unless it is sanding.

 

If you want it smooth, then you will need to fill the weave and other nasties and sand it down, if you just want to paint it, you can use a stiff wire brush to reach the low spots in the weave to aid bonding.

 

The best way to hide roughness is to go with a low gloss level in your paint. You can get washable flat interior finishes.