Painting a boat?

BreakAwayFL · #1 (**permalink**) 01-26-2012

Hi all, pardon my using the wrong terms for everything, but I am very very very new. I am purchasing a Catalina 25. Recent bottom job, so that's fine. She's in great shape, but the "pin striping" running around the hull is badly faded, and it cheapens the appearance of the boat.

My questions are:

About how much does it cost to redo something like that?

About how much would it be to completely repaint the hull? (above the waterline)

Would the cost of the full repaint be higher if I were to change colors?

Thanks in advance for any comments/advice!

Happy Sailing,

Nelson

chuck53 · #2 (**permalink**) 01-26-2012

About 16 years ago, I had my boot stripe painted and it was $3 per foot and that was at a bargain boatyard.
To paint that boat at a yard, you're looking at (guessing) minimum, $4-5000.

BreakAwayFL · #3 (**permalink**) 01-26-2012

I'm guessing she will stay white but get new striping....

chuck53 · #4 (**permalink**) 01-26-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by BreakAwayFL

I'm guessing she will stay white but get new striping....

Try compounding the stripe first. it will help. In fact if the whole hull is not up tp snuff, you may need to compound it all.

BreakAwayFL · #5 (**permalink**) 01-26-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuck53

Try compounding the stripe first. it will help. In fact if the whole hull is not up tp snuff, you may need to compound it all.

Thanks for the suggestion - Regular compound wax or do I need something special for a boat?

Faster · #6 (**permalink**) 01-26-2012

If it's just stripes you want to redo that's actually a relatively easy DIY project. We did ours a few years back using Interlux Brightsides.

I stripped the old (painted) stripes, remasked and painted using the roll and tip method. Spraying a 2 part paint would have been better but more costly.If your stripes are gelcoat you can simply sand, mask, prime and paint over the old. We take care to avoid fender rub and it's stood up quite well three years on. It certainly looks better than before.

If you have a trailer these kinds of jobs will go much better if you can take the boat 'home'...

Along the lines of what Chuck53 suggested, there's a product called 'poliglow' that is quite good at bringing back faded gelcoat.. I don't recommend it on decks or cockpit areas but we still use it on our hull to good effect. There's no buffing involved and it's easy to touch up anytime.

chuck53 · #7 (**permalink**) 01-26-2012

Depends on the overall condition of the hull. if not bad, you may not need to compound except for the stripe.
When I bought my boat 2 years ago, hull wasn't bad but stripe was real faded. I compounded the stripe which did help. For the rest of the hull, I used Fleetwax fiberglass cleaner first and followed up with Fleetwax paste wax. Fleetwax is definitely one of the better marine products out there.

chuck53 · #8 (**permalink**) 01-26-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faster

Along the lines of what Chuck A suggested, there's a product called 'poliglow' that is quite good at bringing back faded gelcoat.. I don't recommend it on decks or cockpit areas but we still use it on our hull to good effect. There's no buffing involved and it's easy to touch up anytime.

When I bought my boat, it had a product similar to Poliglow on it. the previous owner didn't keep up with it and the hull looked like crap. So bad, I almost didn't buy it. After stripping off that stuff and going the wax route, I'm much happier with the way my boat looks now.

That being said, I have some friends at my marina that use Poliglow, they keep up with it and their boats always look good. let it go and it looks really bad.

Faster · #9 (**permalink**) 01-26-2012

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuck53

That being said, I have some friends at my marina that use Poliglow, they keep up with it and their boats always look good. let it go and it looks really bad.

Very true.. we also found that body oils/sunscreen really caused it to yellow on deck so we've stopped using it there and have gone back to traditional compound and wax. But Poliglow still keeps our hull looking great, a couple of go-arounds at the dock each year and every once in a while a thorough Poliprep 'cleaning' and a redo. The bonus is the ease of application.

When we redid our stripes I also wetsanded the entire hull and then applied the initial Poliglow coats and it looked like new.

But.... like all else there is still upkeep involved.

BreakAwayFL · #10 (**permalink**) 01-26-2012

I don't mind upkeep as long as it works. It certainly looks as though there is hope to keep the original stripe. I'm a bit afraid of wet sanding though...