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.
I’m VERY impressed about how meticulous you have been about every aspect of the construction, so far. I haven’t talked to you about the extent to which the “therapy” aspect of the project is inconsistent with having a functioning serviceable boat, sooner rather than later, and whether that matters. However, it’s almost guaranteed that the first use of the boat is going to produce dents and dings and scrapes (maybe even gouges) both inside and outside of the boat — not to mention its likely condition at the end of a boating season. So my recommendation is to take multiple pictures of the boat now, while it is perfect, then launch it and see if there are things that are going to need adjustment, in one way or another, just as it is right now as a rowboat. Then, after having had some fun with it and looking forward to having more fun with it, soon, see whether you have more interest in spending time re-establishing its former perfect status than in just going forward with a less meticulous but practical and sufficient approach to the remainder of the construction. If it becomes too precious to use as a boat then it is really “boat art”, which is fine if that is what you really want.
When imagining building a boat, I thought it would end up looking lumpy and awful. So I wouldn’t much care or even notice when it got banged up. I’m surprised myself that it looks as good as it does now, almost ready for launching. So I’ll probably cry when it gets dinged/scraped/gouged. But I guess I know how to fix it if it happens, whether wood fill or a big ol’ patch even. As for therapy, it’s been greatly therapeutic to build, occupying my mind so much both when actually building but even more so as something to think about when not building. As I’ve told my therapist, it’s been pleasant to think about and to do.