bottom boat paint?

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BoCoMo

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What kind of paint do you all recommend for the bottom of the boat? I was gonna use steel flex but after a very rude and pushy conversation w/ jerry and janet ill never do business w/ fasco.
I have the bottom down to bare metal. gonna 5200 all the rivets, then thinking about just using self etching primer and indoor/outdoor spray can paint.
 
If you run in saltwater, or even brackish water anti-fouling paint is probably a good idea.

If you run in freshwater exclusively, to my mind, why paint it?

All it does is add weight.

I have no idea what size your boat is but I remember reading about American Airlines back in the 1990's and how they were profitable at the time partly because they left their planes as mostly bare aluminum. Saved them 2.5 tons of weight per plane for 737's.

Obviously a 12-20 foot fisher is much smaller, but unless you have a compelling reason to paint it, why bother?

Unless you have life that wants to attach to your hull, there's no reason to do anything in my opinion. Paint is not the sort of thing I want on my boat keeping water out, so if that's what you want it for you need to do more work than painting her. On the other hand if there are snails/barnacles or anything else that want to live on your boat anti-fouling paint is a must. I've spent many hours of my life in my SCUBA gear under a boat scraping those darn lifeforms off the bottom of a dive boat.

If you just want to make your boat look sweet with a paint job, then by all means go for it. In that case, if running in freshwater exclusively I would look at a company like Rust-Oleum. In water where you want to keep things from attaching themselves to your boat (anti-fouling), I hear good things about this site: www.bottompaint.us .

Just my thoughts. I'm prolly wrong and it will be pointed out by someone far more experienced/knowledgeable than I am.

Good luck!
 
Im in fresh water only. Paint is just for looks. Just to please me.
Its gonna have a lot of white poka dots to cover up.
 
I use an industrial oil based paint from sherwin williams. Nothing special, think it's around $30 or so a gallon. Has worked fine on three boats for me.
 
Well, as I said others like Ictalurus probably know more about this than I do, hence go with his advice.

I was under the impression you wanted to coat the whole hull.
 
I'm no professional painter but I've had excellent results with tractor implament paint mixd thick for the bottom. Tuff stuff.
 
I don't think too many people on here paint for any other reason than it spruces up an old tinboat...it looks better. Of course this is IMO.

Lots of folks seem to use the rustoleum marine products and interlux makes some marine ones as well...and the implement paint listed above seems to be growing in popularity.
 
I would be curious on how many beach their boats as a test of durability between the products, though.
 
Sasquatch said:
Well, as I said others like Ictalurus probably know more about this than I do, hence go with his advice.

:oops: Thanks, but I'm certainly no expert, just a regular joe working in my garage on the weekend. As JDH mentioned, it was to get the boat back to a new boat look, although a different color. Also, like BoMoCo, I had several spots that I patched holes and primed which needed to be covered up. The paint I use will scrape off if I rub hard enough against a cypress, but the factory paint underneath also suffers the same fate. My original intent was to use the Rustoleum Marine paint, but I couldn't find a local store with any in stock.
 
I do plan to coat the whole hull. I went around every rivet w/ 5200 today and bought a bunch of rustolem smoke gray indoor/outdoor rattle cans. Gonna self etch prime it, then paint it. It all may come off on her maiden voyage but she/ll look good for awhile. Get a photo op in anyways!
 

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