I started sanding down the hull up to 400 grit to make sure everything was smooth.  Then a little acetone to make sure it was perfectly clean for the primer shot.  “hrm, that is strange, why is all the white gelcoat coming off….”  Well, it seems as though there were 3 MORE layers of paint under what I though was the gelcoat layer.  I found some of the old infamous red and green primer that Spot is known for and a few coats of some very hard white paint.  I got 99% of that off with a gallon of acetone and quite a few rolls of towels.  Eventually I got down to the actual white gelcoat and sanded it smooth for the primer layer.

Now came the fun part.  I used what is called “Frisket” for masking off my circles.  It is used for airbrush masking and has very fine lines since it is so thin.  The plan was to mask the circles off, then shoot black over the entire hull, then mask the entire hull EXCEPT for the circles and paint them orange.  The reason I chose this sequence would be to save the layers of paint under the black so that I would not have an uneven surface where the paint was not built up.  This would be a mistake! I sure hope the performance is worth the extra effort that I have had to put into the hull to save a few 1/2mm of paint on the hull    After shooting the black down over the entire hull, I let it dry for a day with a heater running in the paint booth.  Then I pealed the frisket off and revealed the gray primer circles and black hull.  Then I painstakingly used 1/8″ fine line plastic tape to mask around every circle, then 1/4″ tape around that, then 1/2″ tape around that…..  you get the picture.  Masking circles is a PAIN.

Then came the orange layers.  The orange did not spray on near as well as the black.   I am not sure if it is the color pigments that are heavier or what, but the black shot on perfectly, and the orange not so much.  I almost immediately started getting runs in thin layers of paint.  I had to slow down the layering process to keep the paint from almost running off the boat everytime.  Letting the paint dry 2 hours in between thin mistings of orange helped but dragged out the process.  I eventually layered up the paint, and let it dry under a heat lamp for 2 days.  Then sanded out some of the runs with wet 600 paper.  Then misted over the orange to cover a little better.

Saturday, I started taking off the masking covering the hull, and I found a primered circle that I had some how covered up while I was masking the bottom….(I don’t have a picture of the lone circle cause I was so pissed)…….     SO I taped up the hull except for 1 tiny 2″ circle and painted on some more orange.

I started by sanding down the existing paint  with 100 grit paper and got the majority of the paint off, being very careful to use long, boat length strokes, alternated with 45deg angle strokes to keep the deep scratches to a minimum in the gelcoat.  After getting down to the white gelcoat, I sanded out the major scratches with a foam backed 180 grit paper and have gotten now to a 220 grit.  I have to pickup a few new foam backed sanding blocks to get the hull smooth and scratch free for the next steps.  Im planning on going up to 400 grit on the white gelcoat.

Next steps will be filling all the pinholes that I see with a 2 part, ultra fine epoxy filler (professional grade Bondo) and fairing out the few lumps and bumps that I have found.  I will then be spraying down a grey or red sandable primer in a very fine coat and sanding it off so I can find any little bump or deformity in the hull surface.  This step will be total overkill, but might as well do it right the first time!  I will post the next steps as soon as I get the primer sprayed down this week.

I did want to take a minute to thank Chris P. publically for his generosity in allowing me to use his premade sandbags and "borrow" some of his West Epoxy supplies.  I am in debt to him and cannot wait to help him epoxy his deck soon and get it back on the water!