If you’ve owned a Kestrel, have you ever spent any time
attending to her needs?
A rhetorical question if there ever was one! Now, smile, and read on, if only you are so
inclined about the subject. This story
is limited to painting repair, which is only a small section of the types of
work these boats request of their owners.
After several years, I finally am now getting good paint and scuff repair
results quickly. This takes me a weekend. About one day to prep and paint, with paint drying times, and I sand and buff in a few hours on day #2.
These are notes to myself after just completing the job.
Larry’s steps and rules to repair seasonal scuffs and damages to gel coat:
1.
Inventory what you have on hand. You need:
–
Paint/gel coat, hardener MEK
–
Styrene wax additive for final coat of gel coat
–
Popsicle sticks/stirrers
–
Cocktail drink straw – to add drops of MEK
hardener.
–
Eye-dropper – for adding gel coat hardener by
the drop
–
Plastic spoons (to transfer small amounts of
paint/gel coat into mixing container
–
1 “ wide foam brushes
–
Sandpaper grits (60, 100, 150, 220, 320)
both
in sheets (hand sanding) and Velcro circular pads that attach to electric sander.
–
Wet sand sandpaper grits (400, 800, 1000, 1500,
2000) (hand sanding)
–
Water bucket – for wetting wet sand paper
–
Griots electric buffer.
–
Wool pad to fit the buffer for first buff. Wool cuts more than foam.
–
Foam pad for polishing to fit the buffer. Griots has a grey pad. Instead of “cutting,” Griots uses the term “correcting”
pad.
–
Polish compound for cut & polish (as opposed
to “cut only” and “polish only” types)
–
Heat lamp (for gel coat curing acceleration)
–
Hair dryer (for paint drying acceleration)
2.
BUFF OUT THE LITTLE DINGS AND SCUFFS FIRST
Why buff the little ones first? We can’t ever help ourselves but to go
around the boat with the extra paint and dab away at the little scratches and
dings. Natural instinct – to not waste
the leftover (and expensive) paint. The
problem is, it just creates more work, sanding, and so forth. And so, have fun, and find out how many will
go away with simple buffing.
Go directly to step 16 to buff the little
dings, and then return here.
3.
Admire how much better she looks, and at how
many dings disappeared in about 10 minutes.
4.
Now begin the paint work:
5.
Sand damaged surfacces with the rotary sander,
and by hand, the deep marks with 220 grit.
6.
For those damages, chips and deep scratches that
need extra work, sand with 150 grit, go to 100 and to 60 grit if necessary. Remove the damaged paint.
7.
Now work/sand those dings that required the
tougher grit progressively backward, from the lowest used, to 220 grit
8.
How deeply do we sand? The goal is to scuff the surface so that the
paint or gel coat adheres to the rougher surface, each little sanded area like
mini-velcrow loop and hooks, nooks and crannies that locks, adheres, and hardens
fast to the new paint.
9.
Apply the paint, either spray, or with a foam
brush. Remember, paint adds weight. Go easy, but enough coats to bring a
thickness at or above the surrounding good paint thickness. Don’t worry about the amount of paint, apply
coats as needed. And remember, the fairing
process will sand away up to 1/3 to ½ of what you put on.
When I’ve applied paint with a paint brush,
the bristles leave a finished product that has brush lines, which require
sanding smooth with 120 grit. This is ok,
but extra sanding work. Rule #1 will assure
that you have a foam brush or sprayer, and thus you won’t go running about the
house looking for and using a spare paint brush because you forgot to get one. It wastes your valuable time.
10.
Brush each coat in opposite directions with the
foam brush. Pay attention to the uneven
surface left behind after each coat, use your reading glasses if necessary, and
follow the paint manufactures directions explicitly.
11.
Cure
gelcoat with heat lamps if needed, a little heat up to 100 degrees) speeds gel
coat cure time. If painting, feel free
to use a hair dryer on low, but be careful.
12.
Once you
are satisfied with enough coats of paint that you are ready to make it smooth
and glossy, start sanding.
13.
The goal
is that the entire sanded surface looks the same to the eye, a consistent haze with 150 grit. If you see single scratches through the rough
hazed sanded area, or if you still see brush marks, work it by hand a
little. It does not take long. If you start to remove paint at the edge of
the job area, stop sanding the edges of the new paint with that grit size. Lower grit will feather the edges of the new
paint to the old. The perfect job leaves
a dull, random scuffed, chalky but consistent haze. Then sand with 220 grit, and with 320 grit.
14. It will
then take only a few swirls of sanding at each progressively finer grit.
15. Clean the surface. I’ll be dog-gone, it has scratches! Guess what? Now you can go back and redo step 9 -14. I don’t. A few scratches are fine with me. Every boat that races has them.
16. Wet sanding works very well from 400 grit, to 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit. Get a bucket of water, keep the surface weight, and move right up the ladder of grit size. Sand in swirling motions. It doesn’t take a lot of sanding at each grit. The combined 10 swirls of each of these wet grits gives 50 total swirls on each spot, and that is enough
17.
I buff twice with an electric buffer. You can watch videos on YouTube that explain
buffing. I spent many hours watching and
trying to buff, and I never had good results.
The reason is that most of those videos use different products, different
equipment, and are shown for those who are detailing autos. In those videos, the pros do not leave any
scratches, use paint booths to apply paint, have all of the proper paint thinners,
humidity, temperature and so forth. We
amateurs can’t replicate (or at least this write-up is not so intended) the
ultra-fine shine that is produced by professional car detailers. Don’t feel bad about it. Those cost $2,000 US - $8,000 US. Our project is in the hundreds of dollars. I can live with scratches that can only be
seen, and not felt.
18.
My buffing is two-step because it is quick. I use a wool pad for the first buff. Wool is a product “cutter” which means that
it removes paint. It does not heat up as
much as a foam buff. Wool is
abrasive. By itself, a wool pad puff
might leave a shine that makes you happy.
I use a buffing compound that is designed to “cut” and “polish” with the
wool pad. Some of the compounds have
more grit, and will be labeled “cut,” while others have no grit, function as
lubricants to smooth the paint from heat generated during friction from buffing.
19.
The “no grit” buffs achieve the finest mirror
finish. I can’t replicate the conditions
in my garage to use these fine, high gloss, non-cutting polishing compounds
effectively. I spent a lot of time (many
hours) trying to be a perfectionist, and finally concede my time is not worth
trying. It reminds me of trying to sail
without a tiller extension.
20.
My second buff is with a foam pad, and I use the
same cut/polish compound that I used with the wool pad.
21.
Both buffs don’t require endless buffing. Move the buffer in circular motions, go over
a few times, don’t buff too much, and take a look at the finish.
22.
You will see imperfections in your job. Don’t sweat it. You are not a professional. Your result will not impede your racing
results
 |
| You can see some scratches, but not an impact on racing, and this photo is enhanced. They really aren't that bad. The extra time to do better has diminishing returns, requires a professional shop environment |
