vandeano

Glassdave is this what you do for a living? I have heard your name come up before and heard nothing but great advice that you have given. With that said, I would have to believe it could be done. Out of curiosity, how did you do the first time you went the machine route? For the average joe like myself, No Thanks. I could screw up a wet dream

mr_velocity

This turned out to be a great thread, I am painting my boat with a 2 part linear poly, Interlux Perfection. I did some digging and found this in reference to sanding and buffing
"Note: Due to the change in integrity of the paint film which may take place as a result of this process, the buffed area may not maintain the same level as gloss as long as the remainder of the boat."
Sure sounds like this 2 part linear poly doesn't like to be sanded.

madbouyz

My first run in with Awlgrip was 19 years ago. The guy who did my boat (after I did all the prep) said back then that what comes out of the gun is what you get. It's either good or you re-sand and do again.
I've done/been involved with 4 more since then. My latest was finished 2 weeks ago. There is one very small spot on the port side of hull that has a minor dust problem... This guy said 'Don't worry, it'll just wax out '.... No it won't ! !

glassdave

thanks for the complement and yes i do paint boats for a living. i do glass and custom graphics. i try to give the best advice i can by the experiences i have had. its kinda funny though, in this biz you can ask ten guys and get ten different answers and they all can be correct. i don't have a great deal of experience with awlgrip but i thought i would jump on this thread and see if i can shed some light on the machine buffing issue. the first time i tried machine color sanding was at the suggestion of a friend in the auto paint biz. i was in his shop and saw him sanding out the hood of a car dry with a DA and asked him what was up with that. he showed me what he was using and i got the same thing from my supplier. well when i first tried to use it i stuck the paper to my pad like normal and started sanding. it balled up immediately and dragged these little swirls in the finish. went back to regular wet sanding at that point. the next time i was at my friends shop i told him about it and he told me about the soft intermediate pad (didn't see it first time) that MUST be used. after that it was a breeze. you will go through alot of paper (10-15 sheets for a hood) but its worth it. i never get any sand scratches any more and i save a ton of time. the method i use now is 1200 dry than 3000 Trizak wet than its just a light wheeling to a great shine. and yes you are correct it can go bad quickly. you get use to staying off the edges and occasionally i will do tricky areas by hand to be safe. there are some other tricks you pick up along the way like you can use the 1200 wet with the DA and it makes the paper last about 2 or 3 times longer but its tougher to see how your progerss is. thats one of the benifits to doing it dry, you can instantly tell where you are at. i will also use it dry if i feel i might run out of paper on a project. hope you can give it a try some time it really works well and is much easier. you can also talk to any rep wherever you buy automotive paint and 3M stuff.

for the record i have heard NO buffing on AwlGrip as well. not sure about the other AwlStuff

vandeano

I just might give it a try. I put enough awlcraft paint on my boat to be able to afford to give it a try. I like the dry sanding idea, no mess. It is nice to learn something new.

Glassdave I have a question for you. When you do graphics on a boat is the color flat base and then go over it with clear?
Or is the color high gloss right at the gun. Because when I painted my vette The base color was flat then went over with clear. Just wondering if that applies to graphics. Also if your painting graphics on a boat and the boat is white do you clear the whole boat after graphics or just clear over the graphics. Because I herd that clearing a white boat you have a chance of getting a yellow tint.

glassdave

cool . . give it a try if you have the millage. i usually go throught one whole box of 1200's for about a 26 foot boat. it usually takes about 3 or 4 sheets of 1200 to do about one square foot. the Trizak 3000's last alot longer and you will probably only go through 3 or 4 of those. use them with plenty of water and they will go along way. heres where it gats kinda tricky get the 1200 3M's Hookit but the Trizak you should use Hookit II. the intermidiate pad is a half inch foam backing pad that goes between the 1200 and the DA pad. all my expierance with this system is with automotive type clears that are a day or two old so i am not sure how it will work with Awlcraft but its still gotta be easier than hand sanding


yes the paint used for graphics is the flat base coat. it isnt possible to get the detail with single stage plus you can do multiple color layouts back to back because the tape times are so short. and yes i clear the entire boat but i usually lay down a base of white even if the gel is perfect. yellowing clear isnt much of a problem these days as long as you use a quality product. i have never had a problem with PPG's 2021, nice stuff and is very durable.

jsmagnum

respray and use a urethane paint or imron. Most poly paints can only be worked within 24 hours after being sprayed. then they set up too hard and are damaged by color sanding.

vandeano

Glassdave do you have a portfolio or pictures of boats you have done?

Zanie

I sprayed the deck of my Excalibur in July 2005 using Awlcraft2000. I slightly overreduced the paint. Initially it looked beautiful but when it dried it sucked in a bit. I was getting the boot from where I sprayed it so I didn't have time to respray. Worked on the other 8 million little projects until May of this year.
This May I was finally able to get back to it. I really didn't wantto wetsand the deck of my 31 foot boat so............. As per advice read on this website (glassdave and others) I drysanded it with 1200 3M on a Craftsman Pro random orbit Pad sander. This was my first try and color sanding with a DA.

I used stick it and just by luck used the right kind of backing pad on my palm sander (DA). Stayed away from the edges and had Zero problems. I probably doubled my sanding time because I stretched the sanding sheets too far. I would have gone back over with the 300, but I either missed or forgot that step.
Wheeled it with a medium to light compound then finished it up with finesse.
t was a bit on the hard side as far as the buffing went, but it did shine up nicely.
It came out Beautiful. It's snowwhite so it's pretty hard to see imperfections anyway.

Now it may not hold up so well for two reasons;
1. I overreduced it.
2. US paint says don't wet sand and buff Awlgrip or Awlcraft2000.

If I get 2 years out of it, I'll be happy because by then I'll have a place to reshoot it. It never gets left in the water and usually has the full cover on when not in use, so I'm not so worrried.
I'm not a professional painter, just a hobbiest. Just thought I'd share
Dan Swanson

vandeano

I could not see why it wouldn't last 2 years. You have the correct paint for buffing. When it is time to wax use what is recommended. Use Awlcraft wax. It makes a huge difference. And I only use awlgrip boat wash. And other stuff just gives the paint a dull look. Awlgrip boat wash has something in it that just gives the boat a shine like no other.