Neytiri: Clear-coated at Pete's Autobody, Berlin, NH

Work from 11/30/2010 though 12/2/2010

Pretty sharp, huh?   I had the deck and sides of the hull just got clear-coated with three coats of DuPont ChromaPremier 72700S urethane.  The bottom will be coated in our tough graphite.  I picked it up last night.

I don’t paint my own boats any more.  First, I’m not equipped to spray the modern isocyanate-based urethanes.  To prevent killing myself or my family I would need to spray in a dedicated booth with supplied air.  I can brush and roll & tip urethanes safely enough and do an OK job but it isn’t a sprayed surface.  Second, I just don’t like painting!  I’d rather pay some one who makes his living painting.  I use a great, local autobody shop called “Pete’s Autobody & Restorations.”  It’s a small shop with a total of five guys.  The owner, Pete Gagne, does all the spraying himself.  His father was also good friends with my grandfather.  And he’s just a real nice, honest guy. Pete has the equipment and the experience to spray a top-notch finish on just about anything.  He sprayed the “Nereida” Njord for me back in 2008.

I was schedule to drop the boat off with Pete Wednesday morning on the drive in to work. So Tuesday night (11/30/2010), I sanded the epoxy gloss coat on the deck and sides smooth using dry and wet methods to P180.  There’s little need to go to a higher grit than that.  To save time I did most of the sanding dry with my RO sander.  To remove all the surface dust I washed the entire boat down with clean water.  I had to give it a sponge bath.  It was 29 degrees F outside with an inch of snow on the ground.  I let it dry overnight in the shop.

The next morning I work up early and did some masking.  I taped off all the areas that wouldn’t get clear-coated: the inside of the cockpit, the mating surfaces of the hatches, the stems and the bottom.  As most are aware, only the deck and the sides of the hull are going to be clear-coated.  The stems and the bottom will experience the most abuse so they will be treated with our rugged black graphite coating.  It should be a nice combination.  I’ll actually run the graphite past the chine and up onto the sides by 3/8″ so I taped past the chine about 1/4″.  I used 3M Fine Line tape for a super crisp line.  The rest was filled in with paper and regular masking tape.

To finish the rigging for transport I ran some temporary bow and stern lines through the end holes. Now I jsut had to load it onto my roofrack and bring it down to Pete… in the RAIN?!

Yup… It was raining outside.  Nice and light…  Plus, I had to drop my daughter off at pre-school on the way in.  That was only 20 minutes out of the way.  My nice masking job would get hit by the elements for the next hour.  I knew the cockpit paper would take a beating so I attached a trashbag to the the coaming using a bungee cord (note to self: it made a great cockpit cover!).  l

He was doing extensive body work on four other vehicles in the shop so space was limited.  They generally do all their finish spraying late in the afternoon, after all the dust settled.  It gave the boat a chance to dry out, get warmed up to his shop, and for him to touch-up the masking. The masking generally survived the wet trip.  Luckily I had used some 3M exterior grade 24 hour masking tape.  Pete only had to retape the hatches.  He solvent washed the boat down and then shot it with three coats of DuPont ChromaPremier 72700S three component automotive urethane (base, activator and reducer) then let it bake overnight in the hot-air spray booth.

If you notice, unlike the “Nereida” he didn’t have to suspend it from the ceiling. Because the bottom wasn’t being sprayed he used my slings, just propping it up with some wooden blocks. He also sprayed the hatch covers in place.  The plastic parts were all taped off so he just set the covers lightly on top of the masked surfaces.  Slick.

Even Pete isn’t perfect.  The next morning he had to buff out a couple of drips and sags that had developed overnight.  You’d never know it looking at the boat.  The sapele just pops.  That afternoon, after a long day at work, I reloaded it back on the truck for the ride back to the shop.  Yeah, it’s hard to see in the picture but that is the “Neytiri” down and right of the sign.  All that’s left is the graphite on the bottom, sealing the bulkheads, deck lines and outfitting.

There are more pictures from the build in the Portfolio, specifically page 7 and 8.

For once during this project,  I’m up to date with my project updates!  Next: the graphite coating… That’ll be in a few days.