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Interlux Perfection Paint Color - White

markvone

Sustaining Member
I'm planning to paint my transom this spring with Interlux Perfection 2-part paint.

Anybody have any experience (good or bad) with a close white color match for our aged white gelcoat? The available Interlux color cards vary a lot based on the computer screen and printer settings so it's hard to gauge what the slightly off white colors really look like.

Thanks!

Mark
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Yes. A color chart/brochure/card from Awlgrip (or somebody ) is much better. I mean, printed by them, not on a computer.

When I had mine painted I taped the color chart to the transom for a couple of days--the difference in effect is quite different when cloudy/in morning/ at sunset. I worried the usual amount + .37 percent and then picked the best compromise.

Turned out fine. Hardly mattered, in fact, since you can't see the hull and the transom at the same time anyhow.

Or, more accurately, the light is never reflected the same from the different angles of the surfaces, so the character of "white" is always a little different. The human eye expects that, and accommodates it automatically. I think.

We left the boarding ladder on and just taped it off.

[added later: I hired a pro because I have never used Awlgrip. He prepped as I would have, painted at 4 p.m., and dew ruined the job. He started over in morning, sanding again, and got it right. I watched most of his work. He charged $300, which isn;t much. But--hey, I could've done it myself. Next time, I will. ]
 
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tenders

Innocent Bystander
I painted my transom last year with stock Perfection White and it came out wonderfully. It is considerably brighter than the old gelcoat but as Christian says you never see any other part of the boat on the same plane as the transom, so I didn't particularly care how close the various whites were.

A tip - my transom had a few chips and cracks around the edges, which I filled with two-part chip filler. This is epoxy that has been factory-tweaked to cure to about the same hardness as gelcoat, so you can sand it flush without worrying about oversanding the surrounding gelcoat.

I wrapped a one-inch strip of Perfection around the edge of the transom too, a racing stripe of sorts, because I will at some point be painting the hull and the chipfilling process would have required some paint on the hull edge of the repair anyway.
 

markvone

Sustaining Member
Thanks guys,

I got the free Interlux Boat Paint Guide brochure and paint color card at the Edgewater (Annapolis) West Marine. The big local marine store Fawcetts also had it. It is also available from Jamestown Distributors for free if you order anything from them.

The colors on the Interlux color card are very different from my home printed version(s). You must have the factory color card to make a color match.

I've eliminated all but four of the whites just looking at the chips (too yellow and too brown). I also know from gelcoat matching filled holes that darker is less noticeable than too white so the whitest white (Snow White) is out. I'm left with the four greyish whites Mediterranean, Matterhorn, Artic and Off-white. I agree that actual color match on the transom is not necessary so any of these would work fine. I'll report back when I select a color after I compare these four colors to my gelcoat.

I found reading about other painter's experience painting with Interlux Perfection on several online forums was very helpful. I also bought Russel Brown's ebook Rolling Perfection from Port Townsend Watercraft for $3.50:

http://www.ptwatercraft.com/ptwatercraft/Rolling_Perfection_by_Russell_Brown.html

Mark
 

markvone

Sustaining Member
Off White is the color for me

I've selected Off White as the color for my Interlux Perfection paint of my transom. I'm currently prepping by removing unused hardware and filling the holes. I've also got remove the glue residue from the vinyl name graphic. After this is filling gelcoat chips and cracks, then fairing and then priming. The limiting factor so far has been the temperatures. The primer can be applied down to 50 degrees but most sources say not to apply the Perfection below 70 degrees with near 80 being perfect. March highs in Annapolis average 50 on Mar 1 rising to 60 on Mar 31. I'm going to prep in the next week and then hope for a few above average days in early April. I don't want to go past April and I'm blocking two other boats in. We all said we'd be ready to launch in early April but I haven't seen anyone working on the other boats yet. I'm ready except for painting the transom.

It's hard to see the cracking old paint and/or gelcoat in the pictures. The name graphic hides a lot and distracts your eye from ugly the little details. Photo with ghost name in glue is current. Photo with no name is from 2011 when I bought the boat. More to follow.

Mark
 

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markvone

Sustaining Member
Transom Primer

I've filled all the chips on the transom with thickened epoxy. There were also a lot of chips and old repairs along the edges of the transom. My boat had a windvane in it's earlier life. The transom had been re-gelcoated in the past, probably after the windvane was removed. It now has a couple of areas where the new gelcoat was put on too thick and it is now shrunken and cracked. The upper port corner and the stbd edge have a brownish discoloring. My 7 year old 'GLIDE' vinyl graphic has seen better days.

I've got one coat of Interlux Epoxy PrimeKote primer (which is white) on in the last picture. You need to thin this paint at least 25% for the first coat so it doesn't cover great but it did fill in most of the gelcoat cracks (which it is supposed to do). It barely covered the dark red epoxy repairs on the first coat. I'm practicing with the primer, thinning it heavily so it flows out smooth using just a foam roller. I needed to thin even more than I did. It was very low humidity and only about 50 degrees which is the minimum to apply the primer. The transom was 60 degrees and in the sun when I put up a tarp/sunshade to paint under. You need to sand between coats of the primer so mistakes can be smoothed out.

The Interlux Perfection needs to be super thin to flow out to the intended high gloss. It's really only the final coat (of probably 3) that needs to be near perfect so I have a couple of coats to practice in the next few days.

Mark
 

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Tin Kicker

Sustaining Member
Moderator
Looks like it's coming along. We were on the water today in Annapolis and it started out 30F with 14 kt wind but the afternoon was into the low 50s with a lot less wind to loft dirt into new paint. In a couple of days you ought to be golden.
 

markvone

Sustaining Member
I've got three coats of primer on the transom and I have found that I still have a few gelcoat cracks showing through. I also found a few small dents and chips that I missed. Time has run out for launching and weather wasn't great for the final topcoat so I am stopping at three coats of primer. The transom looks a whole lot better all one color. I'll probably sand and fill the final cracks and chips at my slip in the water and then decide when to paint my final coat of primer and what to do about the topcoat.

Painting the primer was good practice for the topcoat. It has some small stipple that I'll have to sand out. I should have thinned the primer even more than the minimum 25%. I thinned even more for the small areas I had to brush and the primer flowed out much better but it would have smoothed out more if it was thinner. I was painting at 50-65 degrees which might be a little cool for the Perfection topcoat. I used a thin foam roller (3 inch) and did not tip with a brush. I used a shade tarp for a few coats when it wasn't windy and it helped slow down drying which keeps a wet edge and it made it easier to see the wet white paint on the previous white coat.

As has been mentioned by others and you can see in the second picture, the actual color of the transom isn't critical because of the different light angles. The primer is a much brighter white than my gelcoat. If I had my big 'GLIDE' graphic on top of the primer you would hardly notice the color. The Perfection, when applied well, is super smooth and glossy which would be a great match to well polished gelcoat.

Mark
 

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vanilladuck

E32-3 / San Francisco
Blogs Author
I've filled all the chips on the transom with thickened epoxy. There were also a lot of chips and old repairs along the edges of the transom. My boat had a windvane in it's earlier life. The transom had been re-gelcoated in the past, probably after the windvane was removed. It now has a couple of areas where the new gelcoat was put on too thick and it is now shrunken and cracked. The upper port corner and the stbd edge have a brownish discoloring. My 7 year old 'GLIDE' vinyl graphic has seen better days.

I'm familiar with epoxy in general, but haven't worked with it much. What was the recipe for "thickened epoxy" ?

Reviving this thread as I have some chips on the transom of Rumour (E32-3) which I need to fill and then repaint. It looks like someone attempted to fix these previously, but either didn't finish or didn't do a good job. My marine surveyor reported, "The transom paint is amateur applied and has exposed fairing compound which should be painted."

PXL_20210405_204747325.jpg PXL_20210405_204742278.jpg

I'm also assuming the red chips need to be filled in. What's the recommended fairing compound?
 

bigd14

Contributing Partner
Blogs Author
You want the microballoons, West 407. That is what appears to be already applied and not well faired. https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/product/product-detail/2039

407 fairing compound by itself can be a bit soft, especially for that edge area you are contemplating, so you may want to add a bit of colloidal silica to harden it up, West 406. The 407 sometimes gets a little runnier than expected after a while in the pot. I find the silica thickens it up nicely and I prefer working with a mix of 407 and 406. I actually use a product called fumed silica which is slightly finer and doesn't clump as much as the 406, but I have used the 406 too, and its fine. Don't use too much otherwise it gets more difficult to sand fair. You may be able to just use the 407 and be ok though if you don't feel like buying the other stuff but i think its recommended to mix 407 and 406. https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/product/product-detail/2035

And if you are looking for something that is really rock solid, you could add a small amount of milled fiberglass to the 406 and omit the 407. This will be a bear to sand smooth, but will be very solid.

Preparation is key- First, ensure there is no silicone contamination. Wash with acetone to remove any wax or contamination, then spray some water over the area to be repaired. If it beads up, keep washing until it doesn't! Then sand off the the paint, sand everything smooth underneath, and wash with acetone again. Fair and sand, fair and sand, etc. Then paint.

Good luck!
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Right, just mix fairing compound into the epoxy to the consistency desired to cling to the job surface. It's designed to be sanded, the other colloidals are progressively harder. All easy and intuitive.

 

HerbertFriedman

Member III
just my 2 cents of opinion. Last summer, I painted the entire deck of my 87 E34 with Alexseal epoxy paint. Two coats of primer and two coats of pale yellow (moon dust is the name) on the non skid. On the smooth portions, two coats of primer and two coats of white (cloud white). The white is a bit brighter than was the original although that color looked like the best match, but the Admiral loves the look. Alexseal now has an additive which eliminates the tipping process in the usual roll and tip process but that additive was not available so I did tip. Alexseal is very easy to work and I did no adjustment of the mix ratios, just followed their basic instructions.
 

markvone

Sustaining Member
Hi Bryan,

All my fairing was done with the red West 407. I had a decent amount of chipping right at the edge of the transom which I had to fill and build up. The 404/West epoxy at peanut butter thickness will stay put until it dries. The 404 sands very easy. I sanded by hand with a sanding block. I'm not worried about the strength. I suspect that you will chip the transom edge no matter what you use for fairing if you hit something.
I think it took me 4-5 applications to get the entire transom edge fully faired, so don't expect to get it perfect on the first try. I found that after I filled a section and sanded it I would see a small dip in it or find some other imperfection nearby that I felt I should fill before painting. Ninety percent of a paint job is the prep.

Mark
 

markvone

Sustaining Member
Well, it's been three years with the transom in primer and no name. I just hauled for bottom paint and topside buffing last week. We had hot and dry weather for two days so I pulled out the Interlux Perfection (color off white) and painted the transom. The primer had darkened a little but still looked decent. My three year old quart of Perfection mixed up and went on easily with a 3/16 foam roller. My transom only used about 1/4 of the quart. I wish I had only mixed a portion of the quart so I could have done more coats. I'm really happy with the result. If you are really careful thinning so the paint flows you could get a near spray quality finish. The name graphic hides a lot of details.IMG_0418.JPG

IMG_0407.JPGIMG_0408.JPGIMG_0416.JPG
 
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