Cat Refinishing--What's your take?

Lee, what was the aprox total cost (for paint alone) to get you cat done.

was that rate discounted at all?

It would also be fair to say you use your boat much more than the average person and can because of the weather here. For someone in the northern regions where they may get only 6 months to sail and doesn't want to refinish their boat and wants a shine that keeps the stain away the polymer products are good.

One thing about the polymer stuff, like paint unless you apply it in a paint booth stuff in the air will get into it. After the last coat rub it lightly with a clay bar to get a smooth surface.

I don't know what the break down was for the paint. Overall cost to have it done was $3400.

sounds about what i would expect
thanks

Interesting - which color is flaking off? The white I sprayed on there had duratec additive (I didn't do the yellow).

My 2 cents:
I refinished the dagger and rudder on my F31 a couple years ago and used interlux perfection which is a 2 part polyurethane paint. Not too hard to get a good finish (I rolled and tipped) but the real problem is dings. You can't simply

re-touch

with this paint. I think Jake alluded to this in one of his responses. I found a work around- fill with filler, sand gently then feather the area with gloss enamel spray paint. This is on the rudder which doesn't stay in the water full time. Yes, not very elegant and seems stupid after all the effort of the perfection, but it works and beats the hell out of dealing with those toxic fumes again. If I have to redo the rudder again, I really might just use the enamel spray paint!!!

I was on the Awlgrip site and read about the Awlcract 2000. Seems like a pretty good product. One thing I like about it in the instructions you apply coat after coat without sanding inbetween as long as they are done in a specified time limit. With all of the Interlux products its says to coat, cure, sand, repeat.
Does anyone know rather or not you can do a repair with the Awlcraft 2000 by feathering, spraying, sanding, and buffing to blend in the repair? My hope is not to ever redo this boat again but to only make repairs and redo the bottom as necessary.

spraying might work, but I wasn't interested in spraying it as I don't have a good enough ventilation system to deal with the isocyanates in the paint

Look into Alexseal. Same guy who invented Awlgrip products after his no compete clause ran out, when he sold Awlgrip to Interlux. He took everything he learned in the meantime and applied it to Alexseal. It's repairable.

An acrylic paint like AwlCraft or AlexSeal will allow you to repair the coating without too much difficulty and without swirl marks. As stated previously in some posts the true poly-urethanes like AwlGrip are nearly impossible to repair without swirl marks because of the

shell

that they have on the outside of the finish when they cure.

A product to consider, especially for rudders and boards, is Interlux Performance Epoxy. Its a really tough epoxy paint with teflon additive. Wet sands to a very slippery finish, can be repaired easily. Buffs out to a pretty nice shine, though not as shiny as a topcoat paint. Basically it gets you the repairability of gelcoat with the hardness of epoxy. Great stuff. If I re-finished my boat thats what I'd use.

Sloan you've basically solid me already. Is this the product you are recommending? http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=2330

For repairs do you still suggest spraying vs. rolling?

I have done several keel boat bottoms with performance epoxy, and several years ago did my A Cat hulls. It buffs out like glass with wool pad and water-after wet sanding around 1500. Sand as soon as possible after application-its a really hard finish after a few days. Definitely spray, and repairs are almost invisible.

Ian and Rick,
Is the stuff in Sam's link the right stuff?

I have also used the Interlux performance epoxy on underside of a J24. It is great stuff. Good luck getting GT300 sticker or the like to stick once your sailing. The VC Epoxy has a teflon aditive in it.

Yes that is the stuff. Like Rick I've done lots of boat bottoms with the stuff, as well as the rudders and boards on my Tiger. Always been very happy with the result. Definitely spray it on, its not worth it to roll it. Apply lots of thin coats within the re-coat timeframe. Then as Rick says wet sand it AS SOON as you can. It gets hard as a rock after full cure and if you wait too long it will take FOREVER to sand it down to a smooth finish. Try using an air powered jitterbug sander for the first couple of wet sanding runs with 220-400 grit, that will save you a lot of time hand sanding when you move to 600 and up.

For repairs just prep it and spray as you would gelcoat, then wet sand and polish.

Sam99 get in touch with Bobby Muller at Muller Marine in Annapolis if you want someone to do it for you. You won't be disappointed. Tell him I sent you <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />

Bah

Only available in white <img src="<>/frown.gif" alt="frown" title="frown" height="15" width="15" />

Well....you could finally

decide

<img src="<>/grin.gif" alt="grin" title="grin" height="15" width="15" />

Well I had... gun metal grey.

I'll talk to Bobby and see what he can do for me, he's a 5 minute walk from my place. My bottom is in pretty good shape after all the hours of sanding, gelcoating, sanding, gelcoating then polishing I did back in April. Might want my boards re-faired before nationals but I can sand and happen to know where a paint booth is hidden <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />

Pigment

unpredictable results.

boat wrap, perhaps?

I've been trying to find a few folks interested in this so I can justify buying the material to produce several hull wraps....the stuff isn't that cheap and you have to buy in bulk. It's not something I really care to get into from a business perspective, but I hate to buy $1,200 in materials to just do my boat.

Jake, what's the shelf life of the stuff?

Jake hit me up I'm interested.

What kind of pigments did you try? I've never done it, always just applied it white. I would think an epoxy pigment (like the West System black pigment) if mixed thoroughly would work.

I'm with Jake on the pigment. Tried it once (West Systems Green), granted on a lighter weight part where using lots of pigment wasn't an option, and ended up with splotches of pigment strewn throughout the part, it looked ugly. Black may do OK since it's black.

Sounds like you didn't mix it thoroughly. Not a pigment problem. I can't vouch for epoxy based pigments ,but they work fine in gel-coat as long as you play by the rules.

They say 2 years on the shelf. The print life (before significant signs of fading) is nine years. The recommended interval of application is about 5 years (before it becomes a real pain to remove). There is an intermediate level of material with a 5 year print life...but typically these are harder to remove (I really don't know in this case)

What is the durability? Meaning, how would it take beach landings?