Day 328 Sandblasting final sweep Painting
After a day of lousy weather, the opportunity to blast was presented. Only late day thundershowers were predicted so we decided to finish the blasting and put on the coating.
 
The swim platform was finished first, then the whole topsides swept to remove drippings of oil and water from the compressor. Gena did all of the sandblasting while I removed portlights and cleaned the inside frames, which turned out to be quite a job. Coal tar epoxy and primer and blue stuff had gotten in behind them somehow, as well as silicone from when we were trying to seal them from leakage due to poor temporary gasketing.

Once the blasting was done, we noticed a few more areas that needed filling ( below ) and I proceeded to "wash" the whole topsides with a special prep wash. The same type used in automotive applications. It takes off oil, grease, and other stains that may impede adhesion.

From the side of the boat the bulwark rails were blasted underneath (photo right) then the boat was blown off to get rid of any remaining sand.

  
Blasting und bulwark rail

 
Recycling the sand slowed things down a bit but we each managed to keep finding something that needed to be done while the other was continuing. I cleaned up some of the blown off masking and made sure everything was ready for painting.

Blasted and ready to paint!
Although the Ceram-kote® drying time is temperature dependant, it sets up very slowly compared to the grout. It takes a couple of hours to loose tackines and a further couple of hours to become rigid enough to put pressure on. This is at around 20ºC.

We used brushes to get into tight areas and rollers over the larger areas, rolling in as close as possible. We are using rollers instead of spray to get a textured finish, like on our little boat. In fact this is very much the same as Gel-Coating the little boat, only much larger!

The first coat must be allowed to set some, then a second coat applied preferably 90º to the first wherever possible.

The large window frames were brushed over. Interestingly, the coal tar leached into the Ceram-Kote® giving it an ugly brownish color. This isn't a problem as it will all be behind framing and sealant.

After about 4 hours we finished. Unfortunately I had left the camera on a hatch cover and was unable to get further photos but used the video camera to get one in low rez.
 ( Photo right )

By the time I could go up and get photos it was around midnight.


Gena whips up the first can of the very heavy ceramic-ball- laden Ceram-Kote®. The gallon cans are considerably heavier than a can of regular paint.		  


Forward half coated

Video photo from roof, looks good white!
Gena has finished the port bulwark last and it wasn't fully hardened yet when we had to pull the tarp over because it began to rain. Some of the corner edge for about 20 feet was damaged and the rain stopped right after! It didn't rain overnight either. :|

That's OK because we must do a final coat on the bulwarks and the sides that won't be covered by deck coat.

We are using Hippo ( box liner ) coat as it is super tough and can have good gripping properties if applied that way with an undercoat gun. The Hippo requires a coat of primer and can't go on bare metal so we thought Ceram-kote® would be a good tough ( and very expensive he he ) primer for it.

The boat looks great white, but after much deliberation and decision we have decided to go with a light blue on the top sides. We'd hate to be ordinary! The bulwarks will remain white, as well as the first few inches below the deck.
 

 Day 328 - 16 hours: Finished blasting, removed and cleaned all portlights, coated with CeramKote®
     

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