Vistor and Boat Builder

Yesterday, I had a fellow co-worker/friend/Squirt Boat builder stop by to try out his antique boat motor. Art Atkinson is building a squirt (doing a wonderful job) and purchased a motor for his Squirt over the winter. He did have an opportunity to run it in a bucket but that is not the same as taking it out for a spin around the lake. Art, hooked it up to my fishing boat and put it to the test. I am sure that he will post more photos and information on his blog.

As far as my progress with my "Zip Boat". I have been moving at a snails pace. Life has really gotten in the way. Summer is here and the hot air air balloon is very active. I have been doing some traveling to inspect a few airplanes and my hot water tank dumped its water so I spent a day replacing that. I have had the opportunity to get some airplane flying in. Last Saturday I flew to Grosse Isle, Mi. were they had a small boat show (display of new and used boats) that was interesting. Stay tuned, I am doing a little more sanding, and some polishing on the boat and should be ready to flip in a week or two.

Row Boat Seat Repair

I have spent the last several days repairing the bench seats in the row boat. This spring when I flipped the boat over after storing it elevated and upside down during the winter I found the plywood seats completely dry rot. Lucky for me, I built an airplane and still have all my tools which include rivet guns, squeezer, rivets and a good table saw. This boat has a mix of pulled rivets and hard rivets which presented a few problems taking everything apart. After three coats of exterior paint see looks like new again. When I got everything apart, I found that a couple of the support brackets were tore apart and there was nothing holding them in place. I fabricated new supports and riveted them in position and now it is stronger than ever.

Looks like it is time for me to put my 10 hp motor on her and do some fishing. I know I have another boat to finish, but that is also a Hobie so they will have to take turns.

No More Orange Peel

The paint job is turning out pretty good. The best thing is that I finally figured out how to get rid of the orange peel but let me tell you it was a learning process. Just like everything you do in life you wish you had a chance to do it over again because you know that you could do much better the next time. I will save you all the stories and grief that I went through so I will just tell you how I did it. It certainly is not perfect and never will be but I may do a little more just to make my mind happy. My wife, Lynn and my airplane buddies keep telling me to move on, it's just a boat, but I know it is there and if I see a flaw..I know it will bother me and it will be so much easier to fix things now while the boat is upside down.

OK, lets get to it....Here is the process that worked for me. If you look close (on the right) you can see how the paint looked after it was first applied. REMEMBER- You can click on any photo to see a close up.

This is the Orange Pad and Swirl & Haze.

This is the White Pad and Fine Finish

Half the bottom done.

Two coats of primer and one coat of color. Sand the primer after 2hrs, then primer, then sand (400-600grit), then color. Then let the color harden for at least 48hrs and sand between each coat. 5 coats of color...you may not need that many coats if you are more careful with your sanding than I was. The last coat of color I sanded with 600grit, 1000grit, 1200grit.. This is what it took for me to get rid of the orange peel and all the air bubbles that did not flow out after using a roller. I tried using a brush to tip the paint after using a roller but that caused more problems with the brush marks not flowing out. The brush marks were so deep that I would rather deal with the orange peel and all the air bubbles. The air bubbles left bumps all over. It looked and felt like someone sprinkled sand in the paint but the wet sanding took care of the that.

The magic came in when I started using the Adams Polishes system. I used a Porter Cable 7424 polisher with the Orange pad and Swirl & Haze remover. The next step is the white pad with the fine finish. The photos show the result. I will later use the black pad and the wax.

I did have a couple of very small spots where I held the polisher to long and made a shinny spot (burn spot)...the learning curve that I was telling you about. They are very small and on the bottom so I am not going to worry about them. Oh yeah....VERY Important, wait at least 2 weeks before buffing with a machine. The paint is still soft and I think this is why I have a couple of burn spots. The one thing that I am not happy with is my wet sanding. I have two sanding spots about 6 inches long where I sanded too much and I can see a color change. I think I will tape them off, sand and repaint. I can still flip the boat because I can get at them in a couple of weeks and polish them like new.

Time to move on and get this boat flipped.

Update on Sanding Paint

Yes, I am working on the boat. I have not made a post here in a while because there is not much to report. Click on the Blog Archive months in the right hand column if you wish to see photos and discriptions of my progress with this build.

Here is the status. I have applied 2 coats of primer and 5 coats of color to the bottom of the boat. Each time I have been sanding between coats. One of the main reasons it is taking such a long time is that you need to wait at least 48 hours to sand but you really need to wait at least a week for the paint to fully harden. I am at that stage now, where I am waiting a couple of weeks because I would like to try to buff and polish the paint. Each time I apply a coat of color I have orange peel and not all the bubbles in the paint want to flow out smooth. This requires sanding and sanding and more sanding. The plan is to do a final sanding to 1200 grit and then buff it out. My polishing supplies have been ordered and I will be really ready to move on. I will post again next week and I am hoping for some good results.