What paint should I use?

I realize a lot has been written about this topic, however a great deal of this information seems somewhat suspect as it is either from many years ago or it is written by paint suppliers trying to market their products. Anyway, I recently bought a 1969 sunfish, which desperately needs new paint. I've pretty much made up my mind that I'm going to use some sort of exterior acrylic latex paint (the cost is just too attractive), and am now wondering what type I should use. Any specific brands you'd recommend? What about intended use, i.e. porch/patio, garage, deck, exterior walls, trim, etc. How durable are these types relative to one another? How well do they stick to fiberglass and/or the remnants of older gelcoat?

 

Welcome to the forum

It is odd for the members to take this long to respond. Partly because of the holiday. In my case partly to avoid making a discouraging post.

I have 25 years of industrial painting experience. In my opinion, waterborne paint is not ready for maritime use. I have seen vessels painted with such. They all appeared amateurisly bad.

There might be valid reasons to choose such paint, but price should not be one of them. Paints and primers are low on my list of expenditures. I spend more on sandpapers than on paint. Your sunfish would require less than one quart of paint. The price difference between great and crappy paint would be around $10.00

Labor is my biggest expense. For every hour applying coatings, ten are spent preparing the surface. Why would you want to use such a short lived finish? The longest warrantee I have seen on waterborne is only a few years, while bargain off brand catalyzed urathanes offer 20+ years of warrantied service.

If you insist on using waterborne, avoid all from the diy box stores. Any product containing latex will fail quickly. The words to look for on the label are DTM (direct to metal) acrylic modified urathane. It can be purchased from industrial paint suppliers.