painting tips

Getting ready to paint my Koholo.  I have it pretty fair, so ready to go I think.  I'm assuming 2 coats of pre Kote primer.  Do I sand in between coats?  Also, any tips on laying the final coats of poly down?  Any tips/methods I should be aware of?  Never done this, so any advice appreciated.  Looking for a shiny finish if I can get it.  I do not have a sprayer, so intend on using a foam roller I guess. 


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RE: painting tips

I can give you a couple of tips.  That primer is a high build primer.  When the first cost is dry, sand it per the instructions on the can.  There are plenty of videos out there showing this.  This primer will be mostly removed in that sanding but will remain in the low spots, filling them in. Do the same thing with the second coat.  You don't need a thick primer coat and when the boat is ready to paint most of the primer will have been removed.  As far as painting goes, do not try to put on thick coats of paint.  It will run and sag.  Several thin coats is better than fewer thick coats.  Roll the paint out well to complete coverage and when tipping, move the brush toward the already painted area.  If you are using Interlux Brightsides paint you'll find that after tipping the remaining bubbles will disappear and the paint will lay smooth and shiny.  Just put it on thin and don't over work it.  

RE: painting tips

In addition to the above advice, the Brightsides paint gets tacky extremely quickly, faster than you would believe.  I found when painting my Kaholo that I needed to tip out the paint every 1' - 2'.  Trying to roll on more than that was asking for trouble.  You're going to probably need 3 coats of paint for it to look right, so assume that the first coat will be a learning experience and that a lot of sins can be sanded out.  The second coat will be to fine tune your technique, and the third coat will look really good.  I used a foam brush to tip out the paint, and only used enough pressure to keep the tip in contact with the paint.  And I used 320 grit stearated paper by hand to sand between coats, followed by my shop vac and then a tack rag to clean up before laying on the next coat.

RE: painting tips

The above is very good advice.  My wife and I paint a lot of signs with LP paints and gloss paints.  We use 2 inch foam brushes.  I try to plan the brush strokes so that a single stroke covers the entire length or width of the surface when possible.  Over the year we have figured out that paint coverage is about .3 oz per square foot.  Specks of dust can come from many places including your hair, arms and dust in the air after sanding.  Between coats we use wolven abrasives such as scotch barite pads that come in various grits, I believe brown being the coarsest and blue th e finest, I think.

RE: painting tips

For very large surfaces we "roll and tip". However, for the smaller surfaces we use only a foam brush.  When I roll and tip I have my wife roll and I am right behind tipping  like 4 inches, because as mentioned above these  paints skin very quickly.

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