cost for awlgrip spray job

[John C]

Need a ballpark number for a paint job for a 33. Gelcoat is in good shake...Anyone had a spray job done recently?

[mike ohlstein]

I would guess that you're looking at about 15K.

[IRGuy]

When I bought my 33 Bertram FBC about 5 years ago the previous owner had painted everything except the hull below the waterline with single part paint and a roller (no tipping, just rolled it on), and it looked like crap.. I asked the broker what it would cost to repaint the whole boat.. he called a well known yard in Charleston, SC, and they told him to budget about $30,000 for an Awlgrip job. I never did anything at that time, but I can well imagine the costs have gone up since then.. today I would budget $35,000 to maybe $40,000.

Last year as part of an overall rebuild of the boat I had her indoors in a building where two boat repair guys also had their shops.. I struck up a deal with one of them and had him shoot the paint with me doing all the prep work.. I told him I was not in a rush and he could work my job between other customers, so he used it as a fill in. He did a very good job using Awlcraft 2000. He did 3 coats above the rubrail and two on the hull, plus he buffed the last coat. My charges, including the paint he provided were between $9,000 and $10,000. I am not sure exactly because his bills were never itemized, and he was doing a few other things for me as well. By far the bulk of the work is in the preparation.. I sanded and primed everything, removed and replaced every exterior screw, and removed and replaced all the hardware except the handrails on the bow. (I spent over 350 hours doing prep work, including sanding/grinding off all the single part paint.)

If you can do the prep work yourself you can save a lot, but large shops want to do everything themselves. I assure you, prepping a 33 foot hull is a lot of miserable work!

[Thums Up]

Hi John,

Are you getting the while exterior or rubrial to water line?

I am doing a 35 bert. Right now. I only do roll and tip. Is 16k for the up to the rubrail. The whole thing is going to be around 26k. It also depends on how much filling and fairing. This boat is a 1970 so there was a good amount.

[Bob H.]

John, Just finished my 31 with awlgrip, took me just over a month to paint, the prep, longboarding and endless fairing took close to three months.. Not working on it full time just rainy days saturdays and any spare time I could muster. I used two colors, whisper grey and off white revsited, takes longer to tape mask and wipe then it does to spray..I let the paint cure four days before I moved onto the next area to be sprayed. I see why a paint job costs what it does..they earn it..I will get some pics up by weeks end..I have started removing the plastic masking film and the booth will come down next rainy day..like a kid at Christmas..she looks sweet..BH

[John C]

Thanks very much

[ljmauricio]

My son and I just finished painting the hull on our 1965 31 sportfish. Here’s a recap of the project. Approx. $1000.00 in materials, which included 1 gallon of Awlgrip 545 primer and the activator and reducer, 1 gallon of Awlcraft plus the activator and reducer, and various other supplies including tape, sandpaper, masking materials, rags, etc. I didn’t keep accurate records, so this is just an estimate. The first step was sanding the hull with 220 grit and repairing the dings and scrapes the boat accumulated over the last 45 years. There were a few gelcoat cracks in the transom and stem which were ground out using a Dremel tool, and repaired using West System fairing materials. With 2 of us sanding this turned out to be about a days work. Next step was to wrap the boat from the rub rail up. We used a hand masking tool and 3M 99 inch plastic wrap which almost did the entire top sides when unfolded to it’s length. This took about 2 hrs. Next step was 3 coats of 545 primer. Each pass around the boat took about 12-15 minutes. We were surprised at how quickly the 545 tacked up and was ready for the next coat. It was almost a continuous operation. Equipment used was a Devilbiss JGA 502 gun and a 2 quart pressure pot. Pressure at the gun was 50 PSI. Next step was to sand the 545 with 320 in the area of the boot and pin stripes. Next masked for the boot stripe and sprayed using an accelerator in the paint so it would be tape free the next day. ¼ inch pin stripe was masked and sprayed the next day. We then masked the stripes, finished sanding the 545, Cleaning, wiping, and tack ragging,and the hull is now ready for topcoat. 3 coats of the Awlcraft 2000 and the job is done except for the unmasking and unwrapping. The whole point in writing this is to show that if you are willing to do the prep work, the job is not that expensive. There are no great skills involved, except for the spraying. My son painted boats 20 years ago, and he never lost his touch. The project turned out great, and with the new rub rail described in an earlier post, the boat looks like new. I missed Capt. Pat’s tip to paint the rub rail until it was too late. Guess you need to read this blog every day.

[Hueso]

Luis:

"Hombre", post some pics....

[ljmauricio]

http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p59 ... f807d6.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://i1157.photobucket.com/albums/p59 ... 4a1271.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Hueso]

Luis:

Great job! Gracias!

[Tony Meola]

Luis

She looks slick. Nice job.

[IRGuy]

Very pretty!