Painting the topsides - will Interlux polyurethane adhere well to gel coat?

[wesail&ubail]

My son and I are salvaging / refitting an E 32-2 that spent a day rolling around on the rocks. The patching is nearing an end, and my question is; what is a nice top side paint to use that is not too costly, but fairly abrasion resistant, that we can repaint or touch up as he learns to sail. At this time there is nothing over the original gel coat. I am considering Interlux "Brightside" polyurethane. I don't know about any base coats - thinking we might paint 2 coats of color directly. Is this foolish?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Jay and Ebben

 

[Lucky Dog]

Great photos. The best memories of my dad was restoring a old town, snipe and solid mahogany arrow. How the engine restoration go? mark

 

[tenders]

Welcome from the A4 forum!

I have a 32 as well - what year is yours, and whose boat was it before its untimely demise?

Brightside will be OK for your purpose, mostly, but will not adhere too well by the waterline where it's frequently wet. I use Brightside on the decks and have gotten a good 12 years out of it. I would suggest Interlux Perfection for the hull. It's two-part, and a little more work initially - but will not require wholesale stripping down again.

In any event make sure you prime first. These paints are very thin and don't cover up ANYTHING. That's what the primer does.

 

[Frank Langer]

I used Interlux Brightside on a previous boat, both for the cabin top and for the hull above the waterline and used Interlux Bootstripe for the actual waterline. When I sold the boat five years later, the paint was still in excellent condition, though that was in fresh water, not salt water. I don't know if that makes a difference in paint adhesion. I did learn to let it dry and cure well--launching and having the fenders rubbing after a few days was too soon and left some scuff marks that I had to touch up.

If you have the time and patience, the two part polyurethanes do hold up better, but are harder to touch up.

Frank

 

[BilgeRat]

Thanks for the tips. I think I we'll go with the two part poly. More $, but sounds more durable.

Sorry for the delay in responding. For some reason we were dropped from this blog site and I could not seem to log in. We just re-registered - hence the delay.

According to the salvage papers, this Ericson was owned by Patricia Tolmie of Stratford Conn. The boat slipped its mooring in a storm and ended up with about a dozen holes below the waterline - the biggest I could stick my head through! It was then purchased by a guy in Burlington VT who paid $1,000.00 at auction and hauled it to his place. He was overwhelmed with other boat projects and then my son found it on craigslist for the infamous $1.00.

The holes are now patched. We now need to fair them out and paint the hull and attend the other needs.

The A4 restoration went well - I just hope after all of the work that there is enough wall thickness in the cylinders to keep it going many more years. Had I to do it again, I would have found a used diesel instead. I didn't know the mill work on the block would set me back as much cash as it did!

Notice the color of the block in the photo on our first post is RED.
The second block was rusty gold.... we traveled to Chapaquiddick (sp) for that... FUN trip!