Month: May 2020

I put the fourth and, for damn sure, the final coat of yellow on the inside. And I painted the first coat of black on the metal wheel assembly parts.

I had to get a new brush and roller for the fourth coat of yellow. I’ve been meticulous about washing the brushes and rollers after each coat, but the 2″ sash brush and the roller had pretty much had it. The brush had little balls of gunky yellow inside the bristles up near the ferrule. And the roller looked like it was starting to shed a bit on the third coat of yellow, although the coat looked fine after it dried. Maybe those were just air bubbles.

But I didn’t want to risk screwing up the finish after working so long on it, so I got a new brush and roller. I couldn’t find a new 2″ brush that wasn’t angled, because, hey, I’m not painting sashes, so I got a 2-1/2″. I totally bought the wrong kind of roller, while I was at it, though. I thought I was going for a roller for a smoother finish, since I wasn’t painting over bare wood anymore but rather over 3 coats of primer and 3 coats of top coat. But whatever roller I bought was way fluffier, had way, way more nap than I would’ve wished. But I was careful and got the job done.

I also got some enamel top coat black spray paint for the gray-primed wheel assembly parts. I did 3 coats with just a couple minutes in between, but I’ll need to do that again for complete coverage.

I let the paint dry a few days and finally, finally peeled off the masking tape. Wow, this boat is really just about done.

I found a number of spots that’ll need some touching up, especially around the transom and quarter knees. A little scraping maybe, or rasping or filing, and maybe some sanding, and then some touch up paint and stain and varnish. But little bits. Major painting operations have concluded.

One more coat of yellow on the interior. It’s gonna need a fourth coat.

Oh, and I forgot last week to show off the completed oars, after their third coat of varnish.

Otherwise, it was more yellow.

Not the last yellow, alas. There’s still a smidge of gray showing through in a couple spots. So it’s gonna need one more coat.

Not much to say, really. I put another coat of yellow on the inside.

I was hoping that, like the outside, two coats would be enough, but the yellow doesn’t cover the gray primer as well as the much darker red did. So it’s going to need another coat.

I did get a little smarter, in that I tried more to paint going from lower to upper, so as to minimize the time I was reaching over wet paint to apply paint somewhere else. I did not get any paint on my arms. Well done, me.

I also decided that I would indeed put a top coat over the gray primer on the aluminum parts for the wheel assemblies. I think black would be nice, so I’d have red and yellow and black, which along with the white that the sail is going to be, is the colors of the Maryland flag.