New Boat Prep Begins: Bottom Prep and Painting

Yesterday we received our second and final load of boats, and now the prep work begins! First step? Bottom Paint. You would think its as easy and painting anything. Sand, then paint. Wrong. The simple task of painting become quite the process involving several prep steps before you can even sand the bottom. Step One: Find the water line In order to do this each boat must be placed in the water and floated free. Using a skiff we dusted the water with black chalk, as the chalk hits the side of the boat it sticks to the dry surfaces and washes away were the water hits leaving a nice line. The boat is then hauled out. Now that we have reference points around the hull we must tape off where the line will have a nice straight line. This process involves a good eye and steady hand to mark out a straight line around edges, chines and curves of the boat. Always make sure to have plenty of extra tape and plenty of patience for this! Step Two: Proper Bottom Prep Now that we have a straight and proper water line, we must prep it for paint. When boats are manufactured they are made in a mold. The gelcoat contains waxes and the mold contains release agents that let the gel coat "release" from the mold. These are transferred to the surface of the bottom and must be removed. First we start with some soap and water and a scotch brite pad. Using a little elbow grease the bottom is washed thoroughly using plenty of water. This washes off other contaminants such as road salt and dirt. Now using a wax remover we soak a rag and wipe it on a 2' x 2' area rubbing it in. Now using a clean rag we wipe it up. The goal is to let the wax remover work long enough to get soften the wax but not to long as for the solvent to dry. After doing the whole bottom we spray water on it to see if it beads up indicating residual wax. This step may have to be repeated several time to properly remove all the wax. Once this is done, we are ready to sand. Step Three: Sand Using a sander and 80 grit paper thoroughly sand the bottom so that the "shine" is gone and the entire bottom is sanded. It is important to not sand to much and remove the gel coat down to bare fiberglass. Also, always change the paper regularly, gel coat is a hard and causes the sand paper to dull. Once sanded, the bottom must be cleaned with acetone and clean rags to wipe away and sanding residue. We then wash each bottom to ensure all foreign contaminants are gone. Let Dry. Step Four: Paint Now there is a whole article about what paint one should use but skipping this we chose a water based hard bottom paint. Using a fresh roller we apply 2 even coats allowing paint to dry per manufacturers specs. Once dry the tape can be removed and you now have a painted bottom! This is the first step in a multi-step process that each boat will be need to go through. We have electronics to install and break in the new motors. After the break in period, which is 20 hours of varying rpms and load ranges, the boat must be hauled and all fluids changed.. LET it begin!