Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Novice Questions
I recently purchased a 10ft plywood dinghy. I am trying to determine the best way to repaint the outside of the boat. The boat is 7 years old and is made of marine grade plywood . It was sealed using expoxy and then painted. The paint is in pretty good condition, but there are some cracks that are starting to appear in the vaneer of the plywood. Would it be best to sand the trouble areas, fill them with a low density epoxy filler then repaint? Or should i take the whole thing down to bare wood, use the low density epoxy filler in the trouble areas, use epoxy everywhere else, prime and repaint?
Thanks for the help,
Tristan
Views: 128
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by AJ DeRosa on
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Checking of the surface veneer is expected in even the very best marine fir plywood. The only way to avoid checking is to cover the panel in fiberglass cloth and resin, 3 or 4 oz glass works fine. The checking is only cosmetic and does not necessarily affect the integrity of the panel. If you want a show boat finish then you need to remove the old paint, fair the panel with epoxy thickened with microballons, glass, fair again, prime and paint with a top quality oil based paint.
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Permalink Reply by Lawrence E. Long on
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As usual AJ has hit the nail on the head. I have a very similar skiff-12 ft made of DF PW. 10 years old. Sits on its mooring (outhaul) from May to Sept. The bottom is glassed as we end up pulling it over sand and gravel. The bottom is fine-on the outside. the sides and interior exhibit the same checking as yours- althoug not as severe. Like AJ says if you want the yacht look-have at it. I just sand out the checks a little, fill them and repaint with marine oilbased. Its just a skiff. There is a guy near here that has a 30ish ft fully varnished sailboat. God knows what it costs to keep it up. He wont let anyone come alongside the hull unless they are in a rubber Zodiak and then he still discourages sightseers.
Good luck
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Permalink Reply by Brad Dimock on
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On the non-yacht side of things, however, it's probably fine for years if there's no rot going on. I left much of my interior wood on my early '70s Briggs without fiberglass. It looks a lot like your picture. When folks ask me why I don't glass it, I point out that they're looking at the only spots in the boat that indicate it is actually made of wood. It's like an aging woman that chooses not to go for the botox treatments. It's kinda pretty, actually.
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Thanks for the help. It's great to have such a wealth of knowledge in one place. Ive decided to do a light sand, primer and paint. I dont mind the appearance (kind of like it), but i wanted to make sure there would be no water damage in the future. One more question, if i get to bare wood when i am sanding some of the rougher sections, is it neccessary for me to go back and re-expoxy those areas, or will a coat of primer do the trick?
Many thanks,
Tristan
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