Paint Hull

The hull got a rough sanding so that the paint will adhere. I didn't bother to fill in ALL the little blemishes and get her perfect. After all, I'm building a boat to go in the water, not a museum.



Two thin coats of primer are then applied with a roller. The paint is a high quality 100% acrylic latex primer.



Then two coats of top coat are applied. The paint is a high quality industrial DTM 100% acrylic latex semigloss. DTM stands for Direct To Metal, which basically means that the paint adheres well to almost any prepared surface, not just metal. Latex paint is not chosen to be cheap, (since good latex is actually pretty expensive). I feel like latex paint is the best choice for a trailer boat when considering durability, looks, expense, ease of application, and ease of reapplication. (And its not as much as a health or environmental hazard compared to "marine" paints). After doing a little research, I learned that quite a few people paint their boat with latex and results are generally positive.



Next a few coats of trim color.


And then the aluminum strips (fabricated earlier) are installed with stainless 1" wood screws and polysulfide caulk (nasty gooey stuff meant for under the waterline). I made a mess with the caulk and had to touch up the trim paint after.





The shiny paint reveals a lot of the little imperfections in the hull that I didn't notice before, but the wife is still impressed with how it looks and that's what counts.

That's it for the underside of the boat. Now I need to get some goons over here to flip 'er over.