The Finish work takes almost as long as the construction. Knowing this up front helped me to tolerate the process a little better. I put 4 coats of epoxy over everything sanding each coat. As I have the wisdom of hindsight, I would have drilled as many of the needed holes at the start of the finish process. This way I could drill them oversize fill them with epoxy now and drill them to the correct size when installing the hardware later. This "drill fill drill" will prevent moisture from infiltrating the wood and turning black. In a future post I will document the repair work I will need to do to fix the places on my PMD that discolored due to moisture entering the wood. "Drill fill drill" will increase buld time but save repair time. My advice is to do it up front.
Sanding: I have noted that many of the PMD builders in my opinion, sand too much! The goal is to skuff up the surface and knock down the high spots NOT to take the entire previous coat off!! You don't have to take it down to the lowest point, the next coat will fill that in!
You can get a 5" random orbital sander into 95% of the PMD. Keep it moving and use high quality sandpaper changing disks often. The rest can be reached with a multi tool and a sanding sponge. I could sand the entire boat in 45 min easily. If you are spending more time that that you are taking too much off, in my opinion. Sand, vacume, wipe down with denatured alcohol and apply the next coat. A 3-4 hour process. I did 4 coats in a week, at night, after work.
I decided to paint the sole. Paint is much easier to maintain in this high traffic area. The sun also effects the sole the most. A light sanding and a new coat every other year should be enough to keep a great look.
Just skuff up the surface and take off the tops of any bubbles. I used the roller and tip method using Interlux Brightside. I applied one coat of interlux pre coat primer first. This was primarily to help smooth the surface to help the paint shine. It works great. The roller spreads out the paint yet leaves bubbles, the brush pops the bubbles. Make sure to keep the paint wet. It can dry fast. The mirror shine will appear only if the brush is moving easily through the paint. If you feel it drag, it has dried out. Add thinner to help keep the "wet " longer.
I took off a little too much in a few places. I did two top coats and felt it was enough. I planned a third but was happy at two.
I planned to keep the PMD in the water in my slip next to my big boat. So I needed to apply bottom paint. I used teflon VC 17. Two coats. It was easy to apply and needed no primer.
I over sized the rudder and dagger board using 18mm Okume ply I had in stock. If you are careful you can get a nice uniform stripe when you feather the edges. I added teak and holly trim to the handle.
Here are the material I used for the finish work. I was happy with each one. I like the varnish, why scrimp now and better not to have to do this too often in the future. make sure to use a high UV rating and put at least 4 coats of varnish on. Sucks but otherwise you will just have to do it again next year. The idea is to to a light sand and add one coat each year for maintenance. You may want to paint more of the surface as it is easier to maintain needing only one coat every other year.
Part of having a PMD is the wow factor. Yes it is more like a piece of furniture than a rubber dinghy but unless you have a busty blonde in your rubber dinghy, you will not get all the looks and comments that you will with a PMD!! Boats would stop and turn around to get a better look. I would hear them say" that guy built that himself......" or I" I wonder how old that dinghy is" You can tell them anything, its fun to make it up!
The oars came in from CLC. Nicely finished. I sewed the leathers on but did not like the leather strips that you nail into the oars to keep the oarlocks in place. They came off early in the season. I will have to figure another strategy this winter.
OK time to make the sail rig! this is the fun part, almost ready to go!!
No comments:
Post a Comment