Work from 7/20/2008 through 7/26/2008

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A kayak without it’s final coatings looks a bit rough, almost sad.  You can kinda picture what it’s going to look like but the finish is what brings the kayak alive.  Varnish makes any wood grain or carbon fiber cloth just pop.  A nice, smooth coat of paint really shows off all the subtle curves of the deck and hull.  Luckily the new finishes are fairly easy to apply and are pretty rugged. We are trying one new feature on this Njord: the hull is coated exclusively with our new epoxy-based “white graphite.”  The deck is painted a light “Azure” blue.

The entire outside was sanded up to P120 using a combination of power and hand boards.  I then masked off the deck and rolled on three coats of white graphite on the hull to build thickness. I scuff sanded between coats with P180 sandpaper.  It was wetsanded even and then polished to a low sheen after the deck had been sprayed.

My customer had a very specific color in mind for the deck of his kayak.  He wanted it to match his old boat, a Mariner Elan.  After my abrasion test, I now prefer to use a two-component coating like Interlux Perfection.  Unfortunately Interlux doesn’t have a color in Perfection that is even close.  They do make a nice medium blue in their Brightsides line, a one-component polyurethane.  It would be a bit less rugged but being on the deck we thought it was a trade-off that could be lived with.   To get the exact color I made some sample cards of the medium blue and blended in various amounts of white.  A final mixture of blue cut with 20% white was finally chosen.

I then applied a modified version of my logo with the hull number to the deck.  The white hull was masked off and I brushed on two coats of Perfection Varnish onto all the parts to be clear-coated.  I also brushed one coat of PV onto the entire deck.   It’ll provide a nice base for the Brightsides.  The interior and clear-coated areas were masked off and two coats of the light blue were sprayed on using my HVLP gun.  Yes, I sprayed it.  Brightsides is a one-component polyurethane and doesn’t have the isocyanates like the two and three-component finishes.  All you need is some ventilation and a good mask with organic filters.  I reduced it by 10% and it sprayed wonderfully.  It was the easiest finish I have ever sprayed.  After curing for a few days I lightly polished it to a semi-gloss sheen using automotive compounds.

The kayak is looking sharp.  All that’s left is final outfitting…