Connie hull paint question

[StValentine]

I have a 1968 57' Constellation. I need to repair some seams on the hull and repaint in a few places. I need the paint to match what's on there. What do I fill the seams with and what paint should I use.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[joanroy]

Sounds like you want to do a little touching up. If your talking about seams between planks, scrape out any loose seam filler in the areas you want to do, spot prime, recaulk with a bead of Sikaflex, prime again them finish paint. To get anything close to a match on the finish paint, you would have to know what kind of paint is on there now and use the same. Even then the sheen on the old finish might be faded, so you may have to adjust for that as well. Good Luck.

[StValentine]

Thanks, Joanroy. If you were to start from scratch, what hull paint and gloss would you use?

[RRGadow]

I would repaint the whole hull...your never going to match it. I would suggest a good sanding, use a good seam compound by Interlux or Pettit....then prime and paint with Pettit Zspar white. That particular paint goes on rather easy and is pretty durable.

[StValentine]

The expert at Pettit suggest Easypoxy. I think it comes in white gloss and white semi-gloss. I'm assuming I should go with the white gloss for the hull but you know what they say about assuming.

[joanroy]

I've never used Easypoxy, but I've heard good things about it. I did start from scratch when I purchased the Joan Roy 8 years ago. I had my hull sides and bottom professionally sand blasted down to bare wood. Sanded to fair, primed with Interlux Precoat primer, caulked plank seams with Sikaflex 291, primed again, two coats of Interlux Brightside to finish. Seams still look good with no cracking, Brightside touches up well and requires a sanding and refresher coat every four or five years. You can use Brightside full gloss and if you don't care for the shine add their flattening agent to the second coat. Thats the way I did it , but it's not the only way. There are other good products out there. A durable painted finish is all about the prep no matter what paint you use.

[evansjw44]

I don't use hard paints like easypoxy or polyurathane. They are too hard for a wood hull that flexes and shrinks and swells. I use a simple alkyd enamel. My hull is painted with Interlux 220 semi-gloss white. I re paint it every 4 or 5 years, Unless your hull has been stripped and flatboarded it will look terrible in gloss paint. I'd even consider flattening the semi=gloss with some flat to get the shine down.

[Jim Bell]

There will always be a lot of opinions on this subject. I agree 2 part epoxy paints like Easypoxy, Perfection, Awlcraft, etc, are too hard for wood boats. I have used Brightside Polyurathane many times and it has my vote. Easy apply (roll & tip), good coverage, high abrasive qualities, good touch-up abilities, lasts a long time before recoat. As mentioned, preparation is the most important part of the paint job, but the higher the gloss, the better. IMHO

[Al Benton]

My wife and I refinished the topside on our 27'cruiser several years ago. What we thought was going to be a weekend project was finished 2 weeks later than expected. This was before I retired so every evening and 3 full weekends were needed. We gave up on the idea of stripping all of the wood except in areas where it was needed to achieve a smooth finish (not many). We discovered that the previous owner used Interlux Bright side Semi-gloss so we used the same after a complete sanding. We sealed and primed the bare areas and applied a single coat of the white paint using the roll and tip method. The finished product looked good, held up for years and was easy to match when scratched of banged up over the years.

While pulling her for a chine replacement using a trailer a couple of years later I punched a hole dead center in a topside plank near the bow. The plank was replaced, faired, sealed, primed and finished using the same paint. It matched so well that I can't remember which plank it was. The last time I saw her she still looks amazing after 7 or 8 years. She was kept in a covered slip, which helped, I'm sure.

[tkhersom]

This is a great subject to which I have very little experience, as of yet. American Beauty came with a nice paint job and has not come to the top of the list. I too should do some touch up in spots so I have been talking to people and looking at different boats.

As was mentioned the higher the gloss the more any flaws will show. We have a Cruiser here that is painted in flat white, you don't even know it until you get up very close. The boat looks GREAT!

I have also heard that there are some guys trying house paint on their cruisers. The challenge here in Maine is that it is illegal to sell oil based house paints in gallons and it gets expensive in quarts.

My restorer uses a latex bottom paint. I wonder how a latex top side paint would perform. It would seem to be much more flexible than oil based.

Maybe I will paint next year. Let me know how things work out for you guys.

[Doug P]

Maybe I will paint next year. Let me know how things work out for you guys.

Try this

[Jim Bell]

Awesome Doug, maybe he could come and finish sanding and fairing for me too. ha ha ha

[tkhersom]

That should work!

[joanroy]

I'm sorry, but I absolutely forbid the use of any latex paint on any wood exposed to moisture and the elements on any of my restoration projects. For many years I've worked on antique houses from 100 to 300 years old. Surprisingly their exterior trim held up quite well until painters started using latex paint. After exterior latex paint is applied the trim begins to rot in 5 to 7 years. Latex is a plastic coating that totally traps moisture. Imagine what it will do to a wooden boat? Same effect as glassing a wooden boat bottom. Stick with the oil base and let that old wood breath. Save the plastic paint for plastic boats.

[tkhersom]

Good information!

Thanks!

[rpccc43]

Greetings all,

Nice to be back!! I have a related question. I just finished painting my Connie with Pettit Shipndec alkyd enamel and it looks great!! The paint was great to work with and went on easy with foam roller and tipping. I did have to add some Penetrol to keep the wet edge longer and had to move quickly. Now my question, should I wax over the paint? If so, I am assuming it should cure completely first? Any recommendations for waxes? Thanks you. ~ Randman

[Doug P]

I have found on the paints I use is to let them harden...then next season wash the surfaces and use a poly wax.

[StValentine]

Well, it's been a year since I first started this thread. In the meantime, I did some experimenting. The marine caulk was almost impossible to work with, plus the price was ridiculous. I did a small section and ended up pulling it all out. I checked with some old boatwrights who directed me to some reasonable caulk that you can actually sand, if you need to. I used the caulk, laid down several coats of paint on that small section and sat back and waited. I wanted to see how the caulk and the paint played together through the winter. It still looked great come springtime so I set about the arduous task of completing the entire boat.

I settled on SeaGloss Pro from West Marine for the paint. Many of you have said the gloss shows the flaws, and it does tend to do that. I'm taking the boat a section at a time. I'm laying down several coats and plan to come back with a final coat once I've finished one side. At that point, I may decide to go with a semi-gloss. I'm closing in on half the way there. So far, so good. I've had to replace several sections of planks. I can't find any Philippine mahogany so I've used African mahogany. It seems to behave like the rest of the wood so I'm good there.

I've started a blog to chronicle the restoration of this 1968 57' Chris-Craft. Love to have you take a look. We just have an introductory entry up now, but you can see the paint above the newly-revarnished transom. And there will be more. Much more. We'll be posting a video series shortly. Some of you may throw rocks at me. I'm sure I won't be doing things "just so" to suit some folks, but I always welcome the feedback. That's how we all get better at this.

You can find the blog at http://RockThisBoat.net. Be sure to 'Follow by Email' and you'll be alerted when we start posting blogs and video.

[tkhersom]

...... Some of you may throw rocks at me. I'm sure I won't be doing things "just so" to suit some folks, but I always welcome the feedback. That's how we all get better at this.

I think you will find that most of this Cruiser Community is very tolerant of "Whatever Keeps them Afloat".

BTW what is the name of the caulk you used?