bertram31.com

2 prep painters from showed up yesterday afternoon, unloaded their gear and were back at 07:00 this morning. The majority of the boat changed from a speckled pup to a white polar bear by 18:15 this evening...

2 coats of 545 plus 1 coat of Ultra Build on hull and fore deck, dissembled cockpit, deck, engine boxes, and hatch covers primed and ready to start fairing.

There IS light at the end of a very long tunnel...


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lookin good!!

Beautiful paint job CP. How do you avoid wind blown FOD?

Looks great, The bridge not ready for primer?, The hull primed then faired and primed again.

Frank

Looks like she's gettin there Capt, bet that'l be a mirror finish when done!
What's the final color going to be? Looks great so far.

Those are good days when you can see BIG things changing. Looks good, did the flybridge have the gator skin?

On the paint topic...are there ANY paint removal chemical products that are effective on 10 year old bottom paint?

Thanks, Guys...

We'll be doing the bridge in a day or two. Only the first fairing patches on the hull were done today. Right now the boat, (what got shot today), is a 30' job. Ain't so pretty closed than 30'...

We're lucky with the weather at the moment. Very little wind & heavily overcast. Would'nt have wanted to be shooting top coat... This is just the first of several primer/fairing coats to be done.

We'll do a quick finish up on the first fairing material early tomorrow and then prep the bridge and cockpit with primer. Gotta' get all the pin holes spotted in before the sanding starts.

Color will be either Matterhorn white or, (more probably), Oyster White.

Painters will be with me throughout this week & maybe next. We may decide to do the top coat here. if so, I'll move the boat out into wide open space, away from the trees. We'll see how that goes as the week progresses.

Congrats on the progress. She'll be another Capt. Patrick clean lookin' 31.

Glad to see your making progress Pat......looks like you will be finished soon.

Keep up the work

H

man you southern boys love that matterhorn white!

Do you still offer the vents?
Craig's friend bought a 31 and I told him to contact you in regards to your hull vents

I have a 31 in the building that I just could not hit my stride on, going to spray the final primer today, in a few minutes actually, so I know about that light at the end of the tunnel, and this boat was not a total gut and rip out, was just a exterior paint, no custom work at all.

a 30' job

That seems to be my talent level when it comes to glass finish work, I like to think that I "MUST" be using the wrong tools. :)

Nice to see great quality American work.....

i try six differant times to do that feat, the last time the paint was just tacky and a kid with a quad in the distance makes the hull sides into non skid !i give you credit and no bugs to boot --wow

have to either spray that in stages working your way off the boat or have some really crazy scaffolds or pressure pot extensions.

I chose spray my way off the boat in stages, a coat of high build on the bodywork and thin gel areas, then 3 coats of epoxy, ends up taking you all day just to spray from the rail up

I forget how much of a pain in the butt spraying these bridges are

If Capt Patrick's project is a model of perfection! mine certainly is the exact opposite! we at least got a first coat of primer on it today (AwlGrip)....still have figerglass work but trying to get done what i can get done to speed the process......will either start fairing and head to second coat and paint or get side tracked awhile....


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couldn't afford real vents so i just used a pencil and will pretend.........[/img]

Tis the season

oh no the " gambler" is imitating bob lico`s phoenix . lets see first we paint the boat then we decide we should have replace the windshield with a composite unit ,so we end up replacing side windows because nothing matches .we end up painting the entire boat above the gunnels . smart real smart !!!did you mention to craig he should give so thought to the rear windows also ?

that aint the Gambler!

the rear windows are out, he already had new replacements before the boat even came to me, owner swears he will never change the windows, only went this far because the tank had to come out of it!

yep he lives in a sheltered world wait till he looks over the fence ---hmm i should have listen to robbie. the stock rear window compare to craig mac`s falcon are a joke. hope you have it on site as a wanna be.

Raybo, Why the "V" in the masking on the waterline? Just curious...BH

Bob H. wrote:Raybo, Why the "V" in the masking on the waterline? Just curious...BH

there was glass and body work there, rest of the bottom will get rolled with the epoxy barrier system but I was spraying the bow anyhow so I sprayed over all the body work, not just to the waterline

Short Story:



Long Story: The other 79 images


Yup, we're havin' fun now... 7 days, 146 man hours, (counting mine), and 10 gallons of primer (mixed).

capt patrick how many hours from original boat did it take including v-berth cut out part of windshield job.?

Let's just say I'd make more money flippin' burgers...

i could not imagine builting bertrams for a living. i like your self do every single thing myself and now that includes painting (on a small scale).i just repaired 4 flygaff gouges on the starboard side . i did a perfect job with epoxy, faring and then longboarding by hand with that new sand paper . when it came to paint forget it i just can`t sea how guys like robbie from raybo match the paint in the middle of the hull perfectly.how do you install a windshield,side windows, molding in and out on side windows and v-berth cut out with total reshaping and then explain to the customer it took four times as long then to remove old engines and install new .people just can`t belive blending that windshield into the sides take days of faring and sanding and epoxy blend is like sanding granite!how do break it to them gently $8000 for a windshield job at pizza flipper wages.

Bob,

Very few people have the bottom less check books for boat refits.
People like Pat and myself rather than compromise on a job because of money, just "included it" because the quality of our work was more important to us.

One reason this is not a pay for information web site.

One reason why the 99 dollar paint your whole car still lives is because people don't get it.

As a painter, even if I was starving I could never work in a shop like that.

The excuse, "well its just a job" is the poor craftsmanship motto.

bruce what i didn`t say was due to the use of a huge fork lift that could move the engine in,out left,right,up down in combination with the micro adjustment style engine lift make the hold hold job simple . just leave the engine gears suspended and do want even you have to on the mounts .at the end of the day the engine is in , the customer sees a big change -----wow .what about capt patrick faring in that windshield and the bitch still has a hollow in it . the customer looks "did you work on the windshield today" damm it so hard to get it perfect when the sun can show a few thousands of a flaw in that area. i am not mentioning repairs in our world like yanmar water pump bracket made of pot metal .so you wait and wait for parts with a boat taking prime space and the profit is gone. i was just refering to a 31 bertram engine installation compare to the captain transforming the entire boat to a work of art.

So was I. Many of my refits were much more than just engine swaps.

Figuring out what might shrink two years down the road and crack the paint is all part of the service.

Capt. Pat

Unbelievable. Ouside, under the trees and it looks like a perfect paint job. This is priceless. How do you do that?

Bruce

People like you and Pat are few and far between. However, as a business man, it may not make you rich, but you gave your customer a great job at a fair price. Net result is usually more work either from the customer or from them spreading the work.

My fater was a mechanic, that is what made his business so good. Good work at a fair price. Almost no come backs in 40 years and if they did, he made sure the customer walked away happy.

Tony Meola wrote:Capt. Pat

Unbelievable. Outside, under the trees and it looks like a perfect paint job. This is priceless. How do you do that?

Luck of the Irish...

The week was forecast to be no less than a 30% chance of rain daily. Early spring so very few bugs yet. Northerly front slowly approaching, humidity high, wind low, everything green, no dust to contend with.

It's primer, not top coat, so smooth perfection isn't an issue. Mornings and late afternoons were the greatest potential for wet weather. Middle of the day, make hay while the sun shines, (actually we never saw sun until Saturday).

Anything small enough got shot inside, for the most part.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good...

Now doing a top coat under those same conditions.......... It'd be a nightmare.

years back painting phoenix top coat awlgrip on perfect day (so i through) at night dew settle on top coat of bridge . next day it look like i intentionally painted boat a matte finish. wet sand the entire bridge again.
some days you get the bear and some days the bear gets you!!!

Capt Pat, just curious, what is the large round hole on the starboard side of dashboard---what type of electronic?

That's where the compass goes...