System Three Pennant review

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bklake
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System Three Pennant review

Post by bklake »

I have a little home made console for my skiff. It was previously painted with latex house paint which I've talked about in other posts. I used a bunch of epoxy and fiberglass cut-offs reinforcing and covering this console. Please note, I should toss this thing on the burn pile and make another console with proper plywood. For various reasons, I soldier on with it.

I got an insane deal locally on a quart of System Three Pennant paint. It is sold here also. It was way too hot and dry when I painted and may have altered the performance of the paint. The instructions say 85F max, it was well into the 90's and very dry, maybe 40% humidity. Instructions say to use their primer or S3 epoxy as base. Marine Epoxy and/or MAS is close enough (maybe). I crosslinked all the coats and used 3 coats as recommended for complete UV protection. The coverage of the first coat was pretty complete. Really, no spots showed through on the first coat. This paint is pretty thin and I didn't expect it to cover completely on the first coat. Given the heat and humidity, there is basically no time to work the paint for blending the edges. I put it on, tried to work in one direction, and didn't go back trying to "fix" holidays or light areas. I had one run on an outside corner. It self leveled much better than I expected. I didn't see many brush marks after it dried. I was able to recoat 2 hours later. It was more than 24 hours between coat 2 and 3. The instructions say to sand if more than 24 hours. The paint was softish but it did not peal off or ball up in the sand paper. I thinned the last coat with water mostly to see how it performed thinned. I used 1/4 of the amount of paint compared to the first and second coat. It went on really smooth and quick but still no time to work it. I should have thinned the first 2 coats.

Some random thoughts. If you are dead set on roll and tip, this is not your paint. Even in better conditions, I don't think there is enough working time. If you brush it on, working in one direction, it will self level pretty well. I did use a high quality latex brush. This stuff is really close to sprayer viscosity as it comes. I would imagine it would spray nicely but I didn't try. The spray instructions are pretty specific and I would follow them. There is an aircraft waterborne system that consistently gets bad reviews because painters refuse to follow the instruction. My brother used it and found it to be excellent. He is not a painter and knew nothing about painting. He followed their directions to the letter and it worked perfectly.

It tolerated the way out of parameters conditions better than I expected. Very little smell but it does smell.

It is supposed to be a gloss but it came out more satin. That may be due to the conditions.

Time will tell how it holds up.

wpstarling
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Re: System Three Pennant review

Post by wpstarling »

bklake wrote: Mon Jul 25, 2022 1:52 pm I have a little home made console for my skiff. It was previously painted with latex house paint which I've talked about in other posts. I used a bunch of epoxy and fiberglass cut-offs reinforcing and covering this console. Please note, I should toss this thing on the burn pile and make another console with proper plywood. For various reasons, I soldier on with it.

I got an insane deal locally on a quart of System Three Pennant paint. It is sold here also. It was way too hot and dry when I painted and may have altered the performance of the paint. The instructions say 85F max, it was well into the 90's and very dry, maybe 40% humidity. Instructions say to use their primer or S3 epoxy as base. Marine Epoxy and/or MAS is close enough (maybe). I crosslinked all the coats and used 3 coats as recommended for complete UV protection. The coverage of the first coat was pretty complete. Really, no spots showed through on the first coat. This paint is pretty thin and I didn't expect it to cover completely on the first coat. Given the heat and humidity, there is basically no time to work the paint for blending the edges. I put it on, tried to work in one direction, and didn't go back trying to "fix" holidays or light areas. I had one run on an outside corner. It self leveled much better than I expected. I didn't see many brush marks after it dried. I was able to recoat 2 hours later. It was more than 24 hours between coat 2 and 3. The instructions say to sand if more than 24 hours. The paint was softish but it did not peal off or ball up in the sand paper. I thinned the last coat with water mostly to see how it performed thinned. I used 1/4 of the amount of paint compared to the first and second coat. It went on really smooth and quick but still no time to work it. I should have thinned the first 2 coats.

Some random thoughts. If you are dead set on roll and tip, this is not your paint. Even in better conditions, I don't think there is enough working time. If you brush it on, working in one direction, it will self level pretty well. I did use a high quality latex brush. This stuff is really close to sprayer viscosity as it comes. I would imagine it would spray nicely but I didn't try. The spray instructions are pretty specific and I would follow them. There is an aircraft waterborne system that consistently gets bad reviews because painters refuse to follow the instruction. My brother used it and found it to be excellent. He is not a painter and knew nothing about painting. He followed their directions to the letter and it worked perfectly.

It tolerated the way out of parameters conditions better than I expected. Very little smell but it does smell.

It is supposed to be a gloss but it came out more satin. That may be due to the conditions.

Time will tell how it holds up.
I am actually going to be using this (well the 'yacht primer' as it was formerly known) tonight so we'll see how it does in high temp high humidity for me. Do you have any pictures by chance? I planned on doing 2 coats of primer and then covering it with 2 coats of topside. Hopefully it's good enough. I hate painting.

Also it sounds like you painted it all on instead of rolling and tipping with the brush, is that correct? I've got some of the small foam rollers from BBC that I was going to use for it.
Boats restored: 1973 Glastron CV16, 1990 Proline 17 CC, 1993 Bass Boat
Boats built: custom 15ft flat bottom skiff, Soon-to-be-built TX18 (originally dborecky's build)

wpstarling
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Re: System Three Pennant review

Post by wpstarling »

Also, how much water did you use to thin it?
Boats restored: 1973 Glastron CV16, 1990 Proline 17 CC, 1993 Bass Boat
Boats built: custom 15ft flat bottom skiff, Soon-to-be-built TX18 (originally dborecky's build)

bklake
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Re: System Three Pennant review

Post by bklake »

I used a brush on the whole thing. It isn't a big console. 2 feet high and about 1.5 feet long with a seat.

I kind of embarrassed to post a picture of it. It's a really really work boat finish to blend in with the Carolina Skiff's work boat finish. Not an indication of what I am capable of.

I thinned it with the max recommended so I could see what would happen at the extreme.

wpstarling
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Re: System Three Pennant review

Post by wpstarling »

Totally understand on the picture thing, i've done that exact same thing. :D

I used the primer last night on my build and I was actually pleasantly surprised at how well it worked out. I poured more than I really needed (could have used 10oz to cover what I was doing but i mixed about 18 oz total) but I was able to go around the boat and get a good coat on all surfaces. Not a thick coat but a good coat. I didn't thin it at all as I wanted to see how it would do un-thinned. It was mid 80s in my workshop and we're pushing around 90% humidity so the moisture in the air definitely helped me.

I did end up using some low nap rollers and a decent paint brush and the finish looked good when I was done. I need to go check it today. I'm going to put another coat on tonight and then topside paint probably on Friday.

I also agree, this is more of a satin finish and it would be great to spray on. However I found the working life to be excellent (again only did about 18oz mixed) but I had very high humidity and I had brought the primer inside before I started so it was cooled down a bit when I started. I would advise to do the same if it's warm when you're using it.
Boats restored: 1973 Glastron CV16, 1990 Proline 17 CC, 1993 Bass Boat
Boats built: custom 15ft flat bottom skiff, Soon-to-be-built TX18 (originally dborecky's build)

bklake
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Re: System Three Pennant review

Post by bklake »

Usually the humidity is 70-80% here except the day I painted. I'm sure some people consider 40% to be unbearably humid but, around here, that is dry. Based on my experience, this paint dried much faster due to the humidity level.

I'll post some pictures because I want to show how well it covered the glass weave. That is something even the thickest latex or best oil paints cannot do without a lot of coats.

bklake
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Re: System Three Pennant review

Post by bklake »

The paint has cured for 2 weeks. It got some unplanned testing. Soaked by rain when it was not fully cured. No damage that I can see. I chipped a corner moving it around. Touched it up and can't see the damage. This weekend, it got anointed with hydraulic fluid while filling the steering system. I'm pretty sure that the fluid is relabeled ATF. I wiped off the spilled fluid but it was an hour before I could wash it down properly. And finally, I had to scrub off some partially dried 4200 with mineral spirits on a rag. No damage that I can see from either of those two.

Water clean up. Not the shinest, can't call it gloss. Shinier than a satin finish. Pretty tough stuff. It does not like to fill pin holes. I tried to touch up a few and the pin holes just reappeared. It is as it the paint has no surface tension to span anything. Working on pictures.

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