T&T: i am looking for anyone who has painted a white hull with a dark color

[Bob Clinkenbeard]

Bruce,
The cracks or checking were probably already in your boats surface and when 
the dark paint was applied it made them more visible with white showing 
through.  I am not making a defense for the painter, only stating what I 
think is going on.

On my boat, that was white to begin with, I saw the minute cracks as I was 
sanding the surface preparing for the new dark blue paint.  My boat is 
fiberglass over wood composite with no gelcoat, only an epoxy glass 
covering.  There were several coats of original paint, a primer over the 
glass, white single part poly white and then a repaint of single part 
polyurethane, off white....without a primer between the two top coats.  I 
think that is where my problem came from.  The previous owner did not prime 
before recoating and the paint checked due to poor adhesion.
I sanded through the off white and exposed the original white paint and then 
applied 2 coats of primer.  I top coated 2 coats of the dark blue over that.
Most of the checking was either gone or very hard to see.  These paints are 
so thin that there is very little build up making it hard to cover up 
anything like home paints or auto enamel can do.  These checks bleed through 
even though they are so fine you can't feel them with a fingernail.

Your situation is different because you have a fiberglass boat with a 
gelcoat.  I do not know if it has ever been painted or not and if you are 
not the original owner, you may never know either.  I suspect one of these 
happened...your gelcoat checked (not a rare thing), or there was paint over 
the original gelcoat that failed due to age or poor application, or the new 
Awlgrip application could have failed because in the preparation, wax or 
some other surface contaminate was not completely removed before priming or 
some process of application was not done properly.

I think the only way you will ever know for sure what happened to cause the 
checks, is to sand through each coat of paint to the gelcoat until the check 
disappears.  On close inspection, you WILL find the culprit.

I hope some of this helps.

Bob Clinkenbeard
24' custom trailer trawler "Bobbin Along"
Locust Grove, Georgia
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-aboardbobbinalong

_________________________________________________________________________

> I am looking for anyone's experience with painting their previously white
> hull with a dark color.
>
> I am having problems with my 18 month old $16,000 awlgrip paintjob from 
> kkmi
> in richmond california.  dark blue over white on a 1985 Krogen 42. We are
> getting cracks in the paint, especially in the areas exposed to most sun.
> I have been told this "frequently happens" by the Awlgrip expert and no 
> one
> is to blame except the owner who wanted a dark color and the excessive
> sunlight.
>
> My impression is that there are lots of boats out there in hotter climates
> than San Francisco with a dark paint job over previous white that worked 
> out
> fine. And the Krogen fiberglass is just like anybody else's fiberglass.
> I suspect it is an application problem or a paint batch problem but i 
> would
> like to have others experience with this. Am I crazy or are they pulling 
> my
> leg?
>
> -- 
> bruce adornato
> kk42 amelia sf