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Bilge Paint


Island_Moose

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Good day,

 

My bilge needs a spruce up while I have the cabin sole removed for re-finishing. It currently has a grey enamel coating over the factory gel-coat and timber floor ribs. I would like to go with white, and use the same product to re-finish the interior of my cabinets etc.

 

If I were back home in Canada I would run down to West Marine and buy a gallon of Pettit EZ Bilge or Interlux Bilgecoat...but I'm starting to get the feeling that nobody in NZ has ever re-painted their bilge (I know this isn't true).

 

I have had people suggest various products that are used to coat bare fibreglass bilges during construction, but this is a re-paint. 2 part anything will lift the original coating.

 

I am nervous about using a household enamel because you can never get a bilge perfectly prepared (clean yes, but sanded?...) and I can't have the stuff peel off and jam my pump :wtf: .

 

 

Altex has some sort of affiliation with Pettit, so I am pursuing this, but can anyone out there suggest a fool-proof bilge paint?

 

Cheers

 

John

 

Tauranga

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A blend of 75% Durapox white and 25% Durapox high gloss clear. Super hard and doesn't mark. Has been working really well for me.

 

Isn't Durepox a 2-part paint? I'm worried that this will ruin the current coating, which I am reasonably-convinced is some sort of enamel over the factory gelcoat.

 

I say this because it goes up onto the timber ribs that hold up the sole. I don't think they would have sprayed the timber with gelcoat, and 2-part epoxy paints wouldn't have been around in 1987.

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I am suddenly less-convinced about the gray bilge...I think it might be gelcoat...the ribs might just be painted, but I'm starting to think the bilge is gel-coat. This changes things.

 

 

 

A blend of 75% Durapox white and 25% Durapox high gloss clear. Super hard and doesn't mark. Has been working really well for me.

 

Isn't Durepox a 2-part paint? I'm worried that this will ruin the current coating, which I am reasonably-convinced is some sort of enamel over the factory gelcoat.

 

I say this because it goes up onto the timber ribs that hold up the sole. I don't think they would have sprayed the timber with gelcoat, and 2-part epoxy paints wouldn't have been around in 1987.

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Durapox is a good product to work with and reasonably priced. Flow-coat is also a good bilge product. If you rub the current finish with an acetone 'wet' cloth you will soon know whether it's two pot or no.

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I've settled on Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Primer, followed by a basic marine enamel. The Zinsser primer's claim-to-fame is that it "sticks to all surfaces without sanding", including fibreglass, ceramics and even glass. You clean the surface with sugar soap or TSP, then one-coat of the primer and you're done.

 

Follow up with a coat of enamel to give the gloss and further waterproofing.

 

At $38/litre it was 1/2 the price of any marine primer, and was the only one I found that didn't need ANY sanding beforehand. Sanding the mat in the bilge was a non-starter.

 

John

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