First off. Is painting after sanding even recommended if you know your going to do a glosscoat? Im doing a bunch of sup"s. simple color design but i want the color to really show. Im debating doing a spray paint after the board is glassed and sanded but pre gloss. If it is, should i sand the paint with a fine grit before glossing? I feel like the paint will give it a little texture. Also what kind of spray paint is beat for the job. Ive used the krylon enamel before and it worked pretty well with an epoxy lam. Anybody shed some light on this for me? Thank you
A lot of board builders used to paint on the sanded hot coat only. Painting the finished blank before lamination is the most often used method though, At least in a production related setting. Painting a sanded hot coat is a piece of cake. Use flat acrylic interior house paint. The cheapest flatest paint you can buy. Make sure you do a really nice job sanding the hot coat. No scratches or pin holes. Blow it off. Wipe it down with a tack cloth or damp paper towel. Make sure it dries throughly. Overnight preferred. Tape it of and spray your paint using a cup gun. Let the paint dry overnight. Lightly scuff with a “fine” 3M Scotchbrite pad. Maroon or Grey. I like to use one that is already worn. Gloss. The caution you need to take is to not over sand when you do your wet and dry/polish. Especially the rails, If you are just doing panels, stripes etc on the flat surfaces(deck and bottom) power sand no problem. You just don’t want to burn thru the gloss and ruin your paint, If you do you’ll have to start over.
Excellent. Thank you McDing
Glossing over paint is a nightmare. Never comes out clean. You can paint and then gloss with Two Pack urethane. That works ok.
Having done what I described above many, many times; I have to disagree. The key is letting everything dry 100% thoroughly and scuffing with a pad. If you don’t burn thru the Reichold on the wetndry/polish you’ll have absolutly no problem. If you are are using a spray finish, just be sure you have something that is compatible with acrylic paint. There are lots of clear finishes out there that can be sprayed that will not mess with acrylic paint, Try Behr tile sealer from Home Depot. Lots of guys on this site have been using it with good results. Spray a good coat on with that and you won’t have to wet n dry or polish. In fact you could just wipe it on. For quite a few years in the "90’s most of the panels and deck painting on many Polyester boards were painted on the hotcoat. Doing ding repair in Calif. I loved when I ran across a board painted this way, It was easy to sand off the paint and respray, Made my repair disappear. The first hundred or so boards I sprayed I did this way. I only started spraying foam after hanging around glass shops and realizing that spraying on the hotcoat interrupted the flow of “production” in the factory, If you worked with Epoxy/EPS your whole life; I could see why a “2-pac” would be utilized. This site is full of horror stories about trying to get a good gloss on Epoxy. Experience using the method described above is why I have confidence in it.
I didn’t mean it wasn’t possible, I’ve had it come out ok on both polyester and epoxy. Just can be a really tricky process even for pro guys. BTW, it works far better in a dry climate. In FL it was tough. If it’s humid, it doesn’t work the same. If you get the wrong paint, it doesn’t work the same. If the paint is too thick it doesn’t work the same. If it’s hot, if it’s cold, etc. Nick the paint and your doing a repair. Pretty easy to put a 2 pak over paint. Some even brush on and you usually don’t have to polish. You know ding, I built polyester boards for 20 years before I built my first epoxy.
Understood. I know that. And------- If I were doing a bunch of SUP’s I’d do minimal painting, do it on the foam and spray a clear finish. Production-wise it just makes sense. But if there is a need or reason to paint the hotcoat; It’s not a problem if you follow the instructions I listed above. Funny— I sprayed a lot of 2-pac, but not the kind people refer to on this site. 2-pac to me is two part automotive finish, There are waterborne systems available these days, but the stuff I used on sailboards while living on Maui was the nastiest bad@$$ two part automotive clear coat that I could get my hands on. Tile sealer(aka “Secret Sauce”) Satin or Gloss is the way to go. Here’s a spackled EPS/RR Epoxy with a wiped on Secret Sauce finish. I have no label or lam indicating that the board is an EPS/Epoxy. Everone that looks at it assumes that it’s Poly. Reason; Because it “looks” as good or better than Poly. Lowel
Looks nice. I painted sailboards too. Nasty stuff back then. There was a saying back then, “People who spray PU don’t collect retirement.” The newer stuff is far better. I’ve used some sealers before with nice results. I’ll have to try the secret sauce. Thanks for the tip.
McDing. I actually did the paint right after the blank was shaped and sealed (using eps. The only reason to why I wanted wanted to paint after its sanded is because of the lap grinding. When I grinded down the lap I started to hit the paint just slightly throwing off the paint job. And even when I did a cut lap the glass still pulled up some color. Im assuming it didn’t dry long enough. I had to re-apply another coat. So I figured it would save me the headache if I did it after the board was sanded.
Greg. Ive been buying your resin for a couple years now. Very happy customer. I solely use RR for lams and hot coats. I then switch over to a gloss resin and polish. Doesnt come out too bad. I’ll try to get some pictures up to show you.
And McDing. Nice board, your right it does look like a shined poly board
Shown is a board that is painted between hot and gloss coats in acrylic.The Brand of paint is artists Golden Acrylic. Very nice flow and excellent coverage on a hot coat. I don’t scuff the paint at all and have zero problems glossing over.
The copper band and pinlines are waht is painted. The other images were glassed in the layup.
…I never had luck with adhesion of the acrylics onto the resins.
Those 2 pac or whatever spray finish to try to mimic a gloss finish is not good to the eye; look most fin for boxes; the finish looks bad; I make custom fins too and I do real gloss coats and looks superior.
Loehr, this thing about “I shaped n thousands etc” I heard it too much in my life; how many shapers really handbuilt only a few boards, lots only shaped boards, most do not even know how to make a fin panel or foil a fin, or may be they glassed 1, 2, 20, or couple of hundreds boards. I notice these immediately when here I read about some “tricks” or opinions that show what Im saying. Well, Im not saying that you do not know about it, only saying a thing that I bet you really know about it.
And you are so right about those possible changes with the product, weather, etc and that is what I always stated about epoxy resins; you need to have the ideal environment to get the right work; the day that the epoxies can compete in that field with the polyesters (for hand lay up) that day will be a point of no return for the polys not until.
Mcding, those tile things are not good on the UV protection and peel off if the board is always on the water.
Also, you always shows the same board…do not have more photos or may be you do not build anything at all.
Lol ------ You’re always good for a laugh. I’ll say that about you.
lowel
4 sure is funny!
very good of you to laugh about it too, very wise
i prefer painting on the foam........
one of the biggest problems with painting hotcoats is fading.
herb
Reverb, Additive F is what makes epoxy boardbuilding reasonable. I did epoxies for a long time without it and we were constantly dealing with issues. Now we can go in and laminate on any day. We’ve laminated on days when the poly guys couldn’t. Hot coating, same thing. Ideal environment is less of an issue when you seperate your work from the environment. Additive F does that.
BTW, I didn’t say that I’ve shaped thousands, I said I built poly boards for 20 years before I built epoxy boards. I’ve worked at every station and worked for years before I ever picked up a planer. The whole board building thing that we do is a bunch of tricks. I do have two board building videos and I do all the work, just sayin.
Yes and those two videos are excellent. If some of the folks here on Sways would veiw those videos they would have few(if any) problems with EPS/Epoxy. Speedy recovery Greg and Happy New Year.
…Loehr, I see, is it possible to use the additive with a “general purpose” epoxy? or is a thing that works good only on RR?
Thanks
Mcding, what I do not get it is the production thing about painting on the foam…remember the pen craze on the hot coat. That type of production is way faster, you UV only generic STD boards then sand, one after other again and again…faster and easier for production.
Uh—uh. I mean uh. Happy New Year Reverb