Painting cabin

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From: SilverGull (Original Message) Sent: 15/01/2007 4:13 AM
All, looking for a recommendation on painting the cabin interior, not the wood, the cabin / fiberglass. Is it possible to paint? or am I only asking for a maintenance nightmare? Thanks



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From: Keitherson Sent: 15/01/2007 2:55 PM
Hi Steve

I painted the cabin interior on my previous boat with one part polyurethane. This was easy and looked great. However after a few years it began to flake. A close inspection revealed that the flaking started on the concave surfaces where the paint had shrunk leaving a hollow underneath which grew as the paint became tighter. As there was no UV exposure my conclusion was that polycondesation (molecules cross linking by evaporation of solvents) continued slowly long after the paint had initially dried. Therefore on my current boat I have experimented with both polyester Flowcoat and two pack polyurethane. Polyester is fast because it cures so quickly but getting the catalyst mix just right can be a real bugger. Also despite the name, Flowcoat does not flow out very well. Two pack polyurethane avoids these problems. You may want to add some flattening agent to the mix because the high gloss is really high, it looks good in the head but a bit to glossy for the main cabin. Some paint manufacturers recommend an epoxy undercoat on the basis that the the bond with new paint will be purely mechanical. However I have read that the "grip" of two pack on polyester is similar to epoxy and therefore undercoating is an unnecessary expensive.

Cheers
Keith

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From: wannabeace1 Sent: 21/01/2007 4:11 PM
when we brought our TH we painted flowcoat throughout the interior that was a disaster now im going the way of polyurthene paint

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From: SilverGull Sent: 29/01/2007 4:07 AM
Keith,
Thanks a million for the useful information. I'll put it to good use.

Denis