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Greetings. Does anyone have any tips for applying barrier coating (Interprotect 2000). Interlux says use a 3/8 nap roller, but I am thinking the coating will be too thick and run. Other sources say use a foam epoxy roller. Looking for tips. As soon as the rain stops up here, I am going for it.

Giff

Giff,

As is the case with most all paints & coatings, multiple thinner coats are more desirable then fewer heavy coats. Use a thin nap fiber core roller. They usually have a red or dark brown core for easy identification and are made to hold up under harsh chemicals. The nap is often red also and short & stiff. Get quality roller covers, not the Home Depot variety. Cheap one will leave a lot of fuzz behind...

Roll out the barrier coat with a full roller and work an area until it's just covered; not overly wet & not skipping. Start in one spot, say the starboard transom corner, work down to the centerline and forward. Make a complete, but light coat, working all the way around the boat & back to the starting point. The starting point will be ready for the second coat.

Just keep this round robin pattern going until you have the number of coats needed. Two coats are minimum, anything over 4 is a waste of time & money.

You have about a 12 hour window that must not be exceeded between coats. If you wait beyond that time in between coats, you'll need to completely sand & wash the surface to remove the amine blush of the cured epoxy. Free amine surfaces when epoxy cures and will act like a release agent between that coat and the next.

Plan your 1st coat of bottom paint to be an immediate shift from barrier coat to bottom paint using the start/finish sequence like you were doing for the barrier re-coats. In other words, the last barrier coat & first bottom coat should be in the same day, one right behind the other.

It's wise to paint your first bottom coat with a hard non-ablative paint of a strikingly different color than that you will use for the normal bottom color. This will give you an indicator that will alert you to the proper time to re-paint the bottom. When the indicator color starts to show through the normal color, it's time...

Br,

Patrick

I don't know if it helps or matters, but i believe the new interprotect stuff has a 2 week time frame now for recoating.

I just finished an Interlux 2000 job on the B25. Patrick is right when he says it's more important how much you get on than to count coats. For me, it was 6 coats to get the right amount on-board. I used 7" West System rollers and had no problem with anything. The bottom came out VERY smooth as Doug C. can tell you. No matter what you do, buy grey and white in equal amounts, follow their directions and you'll be fine. Wear a carbon mask unless you want a paint buzz-it's pretty harsh. BE SURE to follow the time line for bottom paint. I once had to sue a guy who didn't do it right on one of my old boats. He waited too long and the paint came off in sheets. 3-5 hours at 80 degrees is all the time you have from Barrier to Bottom paint...

CMP

I did the barrier coat myself after the hull dried out. Used the more expensive Interlux because of the lower temp drying time. April on Long Island, 50/60F.

Purchased the rollers from West Marine that go with the product. They came apart and had to used 2 for each coat. The job is so important that I got eight rollers and used six. My boat got 3 gallons of barrier coat. The stuff is like mud and it filled in the little imperfections on the bottom. Smooth as, well, almost silk.

And that's just one reason my boat is soo fast. The other reasons --- ya'll don't want to hear 'em again. Send me an e-mail if you really, really wanna' know!

I've had great luck with the Interlux 2000 in the past as well, but as the Capt stated....get the first coat of bottom paint on BEFORE the Interlux cures completely, or else the bottom paint will fall off....don't ask.

On the topic of painting bottoms: I'm looking for a good DA sander that is electric. I know the air units are better, but I don't have enough air in my shop to keep up with one. I have been using a 4" random-orbital but as you can imagine the production rate sucks. I need to get rid of all the old bottom paint on my boat down to the gelcoat. Can you guys recommend a good electric DA sander with some real HP?

Scot,

Portercable is the only electrical DA brand I'll use. Sweet machines, buy from a Portacable Dealer; the discount home improvement center models have plastic gears and cheap construction. They look, otherwise, the same from the outside.

Br,

Patrick

Gracias, knew they were good tools but haven't own any to date. We have a local speciality tools supply for the wood workers, they carry the Portercables. There goes my rat-holed cash stash.

All-

Thanks greatly for your replies. As I kind of figured, thin is better than thick, just needed you guys to reinforce this thinking. Looks like interlux want to sell more material, hence the recomendation by them of a thick roller.

Thanks again!

Best Regards
Giff

Patrick, I have to offer a different opinion on ANY NEW PC tool. Black & Decker is now positioning PC to be the pro-sumer brand. Above the B&D Firestorm series & below the DeWalt brand. I've used the PC 6" sanders, older Rigid model 2610 6" (rebadged Metabo of Germany) & briefly the Fein model. I recently purchased the Bosch DEVS 1250 & used that on the same B33 that I had used the others on. The Bosch blew them away. By the way, I ran out of the Bosch paper I had ordered with the sander. switched over to the PC paper I had. To put it in terms we all can understand. The PC paper was a Bayliner & the Bosch paper is a Bertram.
Al

Hello Bertram guys...I know some of you like electrical tools for sanding bottoms but Hutchins makes a wet style sander that is 4in by 8in. I have sanded several bottoms to the gelcoat with wet/dry 80grit and it leaves no dust. Use it with a hose and shallow bucket to dip the pad tn and it is faster and cleaner than auto DA sanders.It can be used with any typical 5hp compressor. Dry sanding clogs up sandpaper and drags the job on forever. Go wet get your shorts wet and dig in !!! PS I am in the autoboby buisness and have MANY MANY hrs refinishing anything from boats cars and even planes and probably wore out more DA sanders than most people ever own. Good luck with any method you choose