Fairing & Paint: What would you do?

[Doug]

OK, that makes sense. I painted a lot of lacquer many years ago and it sure was pretty but chipped like crazy on a daily driver.

[JeffS]

For a guide coat, I have heard of people using chalk dust, like the stuff you load you straighe line with to dust the hull. You can find it at the check out line of HD or lowes. May be easy to apply with a baby powder like container.

JeffS

[fishinchris]

3 M makes a guide coat powder that comes with the a sponge to put it on with .But with the dark blue on Fitz boat a light gray spray primer would be easyer to see .

[PJPiercey]

I'm going to prime with white so the powder may work for me. Does the powder stick pretty well so you can blow the sanded paint off with compressed air and still see the low spots?

Paul Piercey

[PJPiercey]

Deleated duplicate message.

[Fritz]

First, thanks to all so far. Thank you. I hope my mistakes can benefit others.

Here's an idea of a"typical" problem area. The edge is the steel cabinet scraper.

<img src ="modules/Upload/fritz/IMG_4298.JPG ">

And here is a reply from great folks at SystemThree:

You love hard work, don't you? Sand the entire surface removing the topcoat
back to the primer in the areas where the QuikFair will be applied. Do the
fairing, then reprime the faired areas. Repaint.

US Paints has anAwl Grip fairing putty that covers 30 mil a coat....and their Ultra Build Primer covers 15- 20 mil per coat. (FYI: 1/16" = 60mil more or less)

The Awl Grip sounds like a good solution -- but I am very tempted to use the Quick Fair so others can have a look at how it works.

I remind myself of two things: Great lighting is a must and use a marker or guide coat to save grief.

[jacquesmm]

System Three is correct: you painted before the fairing process was complete and you should grind the paint down.
I would do as they say and use Quick Fair.
BTW, I can't see it in the picture but what is the gap under that straight edge?

This time, I am decided: we are going to write a new How To about fairing with pictures etc. I will probably have to build a small boat for the pictures, FL11?

[jasonmcintosh]

Fritz,

Just curious, how big of an area on your boat has this problem?

Jason

[Fritz]

Hi Jason,

On one side there are 4-5 1 sq foot areas (approx) over the 16 foot length of the side.

On the other side, maybe 2 - 3 similar size areas.

In most cases, they are near the top of the panel(bottom when inverted for painting. I think they will be very visible once the boat is up right.

In low light, with 42 year old eyes, and low to the ground, I just didn't see it until the gloss paint was on .



Jacques, that gap is the same thickness as the edge of the scraper -- 32 mils or 1/32 of an inch more or less.

[jacquesmm]

1/32" . . . is that really worth all the troubles?
If yes, I would not use any fairing compound: you can fix that with hi-build primer. You must anyway grind the paint down for a good bond.