Topsides Painting and U-Bolt

The topsides turned out rather well.  I chose to roll and tip the topsides because I was afraid of the surface complexity and my competency at using the sprayer.

Rolling and tipping with WR-LPU is a nerve racking experience.  The first coat looks so god awful bad that it's hard to believe that it will work out in the end.

I ended up doing 4 coats of color and 3 coats of clear over everything.  Each coat took about 3 hours to apply.  You can't wait more than 24 hours between coats of the WR-LPU otherwise you have to sand the prior coats.  I had to plan out about 3 days of work to get it all done correctly.

Had a few little runs, drips and sags but nothing that couldn't be taken care of.

I decided to drill the first holes in the hull for the U-bolt.  It was more than a little terrifying to drill holes in my nice hull.  Incidentally this is one of the few places that the manual is a little fuzzy.  The location is noted on the plans but require you to extrapolate the location on the boat.  After a bunch of calculations and measuring I put drill to wood.

Part of my trepidation was that I set the access tube in the front compartment more than a year ago.  I couldn't find the sheet that I had used to make the calculations back then.  So I was trusting that I was going to hit that location with my new set of calculations.  In theory it should work out the same all the time.  Luckily for me that theory held true in this case.  The two holes were almost perfectly centered in the access tube.

The U-bolt supplied by CLC in their "Hull Hardware Package" had legs that were about 1 1/2" too long.  This wouldn't be a problem if I could get a conventional wrench down that access tube.  That tube is only 6" in diameter so there isn't much room to work.  I had to use a socket extension on a 24" T-Bar to reach the nuts.  The socket meant that the legs couldn't extend too far out of the nuts or the socket would loose purchase.  A few measurements and calculations cumulating in about 5 minutes with a dremel cutoff wheel and all was well.  Slather on some 5200 and tighten up the nuts and the deal is done.

Hours this session: 21

Hours total: 639

Topside Priming and Sanding

The priming of the topsides took 3 coats of high build primer.  Even then there were a few places that I had to go back over and fill with fairing compound.  It's amazing how many imperfections you can find in a perfect finish!

Sanding this primer is very easy and makes for a silky smooth surface.  All that was required was a very light sanding to produce a great surface.  It's easy to sand through and I did in a couple of places.  I don't worry about it too much as long as the surface is fair the WR-LPU will produce a nice finish.

The plan from here is to mask the topsides and paint with three coats of color (white).  Then remove the mask and cover the color and the brightwork in three coats of clear.  This will provide a nice gloss for the topsides and protect the brightwork from UV deterioration.

The green tape is a automotive masking tape that makes a very fine line.  The primer is thick and I can use regular painters tape for that but the WR-LPU paint is very thin and often runs under painter tape.  Even though the automotive tape is expensive it provides a very razor fine paint line.  For those of you following along at home just make sure you "burnish" the edge of the fine line tape.  I use a spoon and go over every square inch of tape.

Hours this session: 8

Hours total: 618

Topsides Sanding and Masking

I procrastinated a little while before sanding the topsides.  But once I got started it went quickly.  The hardest part of the sanding was the anchor well.  Lots of crevices in there to get smooth.

My plan is to prime all the non-masked areas with high build primer do a quick sanding with 220 and then paint.  I'll shoot several coats of color on the masked area and then a few coats of clear on everything.  That should give a good gloss to the paint and a nice look to the unpainted areas.  I need to do some anti-skid on the cabin roof.

I need to start working on the spars and I need to order my hardware.  I'm starting to think about the hardware I need and fitting out.  I'll probably just go the easy route and get it from CLC.  

Hours this session: 16

Hours total: 610