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.