Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Before and after

... and during

PAINTING ATHENE

By Michael Lehmkuhl, Athene, #3

After 32 years, Athene's image needed an update. Not only did the gelcoat resembled a fine antique vase, but the exposed sheer line also needed to be rebuilt in spots as the laminate was showing through deep gouges. The crazing was both extensive and minute, with a number of major chips and cracks.

December and January were spent researching how best to tackle the task and what type of paint I would use. After receiving some professional estimates that ranged from $4000 to $13,000, I already knew I would be doing this project myself. I also decided that since I would be going through all the hassle of prepping, I would want the durability of a two-part polyurethane paint. I had heard good things about Interlux Interthane Plus and intended to use the roll and tip method. However, I found someone who could spray the boat inexpensively, if I did all the prep and taping. Although there are still runs and bugs in the paint, the shine is nothing I could get with a roller and brush!

You can see how the gelcoat was crazed... after three coats of primer, three applications of "spot" putty were still needed to fill-in the cracks.

Hull filled and faired and awaiting first coat of primer.

Repairing the crazed gelcoat turned out the be the biggest problem. Ironically, with all the great new information out there on repair and maintenance of old boats, there is scant mention of how to repair significantly crazed gelcoat on such a large scale. Most methods described how you have to open up all the cracks and fair with epoxy. A friend of mine had done this to their cockpit a number of years ago, taking a Dremel tool to every crack. Unfortunately, I don't have the patience to take 10 years of my life to chase down every crack in the boat.

I've also seen some people who have completely stripped all the gelcoat off the boat and re-faired everything from scratch with epoxy. This is probably the most fail-safe way to get rid of the crazing but also the most expensive. Not to mention the problem of getting a completely faired surface, which was hard enough on the small areas. I decided to go somewhere in between. I went over the entire boat searching for areas where the gelcoat had fallen out or looked like it was about to and ground them out with a Dremel. I also opened up any big cracks I could find.

The "teal zebra" after primer and filler.

Cracks filled and filler sanded.

Three more coats of high-build primer.

The boot stripe

THE TOPSIDES

I started with the hull which was in much better shape than the deck and cabin top, but the crazing was deep. I dewaxed the hull and cabin top and sanded everything with 120 - 150 grit. On the hull I used West System with 410 faring filler to fill the holes. Unfortunately, this was in February in 45 - 50 degree weather so I had a time keeping the epoxy in the holes before it cured. Also, the faring compound should be mixed as thick as peanut butter. Many of the holes I had made were very deep and needed up to five re-applications of the filler. I also ground out the damaged areas on the shear line and rebuilt them. I did not, however, try and fill in all the crazing as I had hoped that two or three coats of primer would fill them. The crazing on the hull appeared shallow and open enough and clean enough to take a high build primer. Of course when the first coat of primer went on, it was apparent they were very deep and the primer did not even come close to filling them.

After the first coat of primer, the painter recommended using 3M Acrylic Green Spot Putty. Normally reserved for fixing small pin holes and imperfections, this was the only thing that would get into the cracks and be easy enough to sand. I used three tubes of it, spreading it on the hull with a plastic faring tool working very quickly in long broad strokes. The spot putty dries almost instantly and it was important to keep enough pressure to get it into the cracks without leaving too much on the surface to sand. Once the hull was covered, I sanded with 150 and then 220 grit.

Despite the fact that I de-waxed before every application of paint, grease and wax continued to show up. Also, while the spot putty made it into most of the cracks, some crazing and a number of pin holes appeared after the application of the second coat of high build primer. I made a second pass with the spot putty although used it more sparingly this time. It took three coats of paint and the painter shot extra in some problem areas leaving me to buff out the drips.

Three coats of high-gloss.

Scraping off loose gel-coat.

Recoring a soft spot in the cockpit.

Re-core job faired.

All hardware stripped and non-skid sanded off.

THE DECK

I prepped the deck much like I did the hull except the crazing was much harder to fill. Unfortunately I was doing some experimenting and had already prepped the deck before I learned the secret of spot putty. Add to this all the curves, the extreme heat and sunlight beating down on the deck and it becomes much more problematic.

I started by grinding out all the loose gel coat. There was a lot of it here. In some spots, the gelcoat peeled off with a putty knife. The large deep spots I faired with West's. However, on the large areas of intact, crazed gelcoat—mostly on the cabin top, I used Interlux epoxy fairing compound. It was smooth, had the right consistency and was easy to push into the cracks. Unfortunately, after the primer was on, it failed and was pushing out, primarily on the horizontal surfaces, but also on some vertical surfaces on the hull. I sanded down what I could and re-coated with 3M spot putty. The other areas I left for touch up next year.

After much agonizing, I finally decided to sand off all the original gelcoat non-skid. The main factor was actually a safety decision as most of the original gelcoat was worn smooth over the years in critical areas. A couple of passes with 80 and 100 grit did the job.

Once the deck was sanded down, however, I noticed a number of "bubbles" in the deck, visible as the sun was going down. Upon further inspection, I noticed these were areas of delamination. I cut out these "bubbles" very carefully to find that actually the core was fine in most spots and that there was still glass mat covering the core. What happened was that the top skin was not cured properly and was bubbling up from the mat. I ground these areas out and filled and faired with fiberglass mat, tape, West System 404 high density adhesive filler and 410 fairing filler.

The deck was now ready for the glossy paint.

NON-SKID

Take plenty of pictures so you remember where to put the lines and curves once the glossy paint is put down. I used 1 inch 3M fine line tape to mark the boundaries. Make sure you put the tape on the correct side of the line where you want the non-skid to go! On each corner, apply a piece of tape and use a plastic bottle cap to cut a curve. The curve on all corner gives a nice finished look.

The deck of the Renegade was all nonskid on any horizontal surface. To give it an updated, more modern look, I broke up the non-skid in sections putting a perpendicular line through the fordeck and two 1 inch lines one the side decks. The side deck lines look straight in the pictures, but are, in fact angled back. I also put a one inch line of gloss around the entire deck next to the toe rails to allow the water to run off the deck more easily.

Taping for the non-skid.

Lots of taping... no hard corners and keeping the curves.

Covering the white spots...

In the water and cleaning up.

The non-skid was sprayed on with a 2 mm nozzle. I went with Awlgrip's Bluetone White to keep the decks cool in the sun. I added one half part "course" and half part "fine" Griptex additive to the paint which was then sprayed on over all nonskid areas.

Take the tape off after 6 hours. If you don't get the tape off quickly and carefully you may take the paint off with it. My tape sat on the deck for almost a month. Two of those weeks were waiting for the painter to come spray the non-skid! I used "De-solve It" citrus tape remover to rub it off without taking the shine with it. Once the paint is cured for a couple of months, you can also use Xylene which is the main ingredient in 3M spray adhesive remover. It will also leave the gloss alone.

MATERIALS USED

Paint

I went with Sherwin-Williams (formerly Pratt & Lambert) JET-GLO "Chevron White" for the hull and glossy part of the decks. This paint is much more forgiving than the Awlgrip and much easier to touch up which is something to consider when doing a job outside with bugs! I used Awlgrip for the non skid because it was a standard color which would be easy to match.

Prep

I used either Interlux 202 or Awlgrip T-0008 surface prep to de-wax the hull and prep before painting. Both containing varying amounts of MEK, the main ingredient. The Awlgrip was a bit stronger but more expensive.

Adhesive remover

Goo-gone didn't work too well for removing tape adhesive and the build up that accumulated after masking for every paint application. De-solv-it citrus cleaner worked the best with the least amount of chemicals. Xylene and Goof-Off worked the best but was nasty stuff.

Sand paper

Home Depot's Norton brand fell apart quickly. 3M and Master Mechanic paper held up the best.

Look at those curves shine!

Finished!

Ahhh... finally sailing!