quality paint job

[Rick Courter]

I've restored a number of canoes over the years but I thought that I would try something new on my EM White. I re-canvassed in the fall and will paint this spring. Anyone out there have any experience with PPG epoxy paint products? I have painted motorcycle gas tanks with this stuff with mirror like results. I would start with an epoxy primer, then with a primer surfacer to remove any canvas showing through the filler. This is sanded down and would make the hull perfectly smooth. Then I would spray the color with polyurethane acrylic enamel. All of the products listed have hardeners in them. The end result could be show room quality however I have no idea on the durability and flexability. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks, Rick

 

[Larry Bowers]

Hi Rick,
Here is a link to a previous discussion of that paint. Not sure if its exactly the same but does sound like it.

http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?t=2940

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

Aside from the paint's abilities to hold up on a surface prone to expansion and contraction, you might find, as many of us do, that a paint job which looks more like polished fiberglass than painted canvas looks very out of place on a w/c canoe. Everybody should strive for the best possible workmanship when painting a boat, but there is a certain aesthetic value in paint looking like paint. Somehow, in the case of a canvas-covered canoe it just seems to fit the nature of the boat better. I'm a pretty decent driveway boat painter and if I'm refurbishing an old fiberglass sailboat, I want the paint job to look like fiberglass gel-coat - as smooth and shiny as I can get it. On a w/c canoe though, I don't want that kind of gloss and I really don't want it to look quite as smooth as a sprayed automotive finish. I want it to look like paint....paint applied with care and skill, but still real genuine, honest-to-goodness paint. To me, it's kind of like the difference between a sign painted by a traditional sign painter and one made by a big computer-guided machine cutting out peel and stick vinyl letters. The computer may be more accurate, but the hand-painted sign has a lot more class.

 

[john hupfield]

Well you didn't state if a filler was applied.
Second I would think there may be some problems with inconsistant flexability in the paint versus the cedar and canvas.
I did not read the previous discussion so perhaps I;m wrong however I like to think if something works for the previous life of the boat then I might as well maintain that procedure.
I call that the inherant conservatism of a boatbuilder.I would try it on a patch of canvas nailed to a piece of cedar first and then I would soak it in the bathtub and put it under a UV lamp for a few days and then I would consider is it worthwhile trying?
John