help me pick a color

decided on rustoleum enamel w/ hardener for ease of eventual touch ups, but am having trouble deciding on a color for my 14' semi-v... torn between dark hunter green and smoke gray. i am going to be hvlp spraying it. the bottom is steelflexed black and i am going to keep the gunwales bare aluminum.

Dark Hunter Green:

example (rear fenders and deck lid):


Smoke Gray:

example:


the dark hunter green is kind of nice, but every jon boat sold is about that color so it would be nice to have something a little different. the smoke gray is pretty good looking too, probably end up looking like a little cruiser/battleship... but it is a little light. if it were a bit darker i would go for it right away. i don't want to deal with having paint mixed, because i want to be able to pick up touch up paint easily later down the road.

just saw the topside "battleship gray" color... thinking that's probably going to be the one

maybe a mod could add that choice

acabtp said:

just saw the topside "battleship gray" color... thinking that's probably going to be the one

maybe a mod could add that choice

Click to expand...

When you say 'topside' battle ship gray....are you referring the Brightsider paint from Interlux? if so, that's what you want, it's very durable paint, far more durable than rust-o-leum. It's even gasoline resistant, won't blister off like rust-o-leum if exposed to gas.

My jetboat has a coat of brightsider Hatteras Off-White for the interior, and gloss black for the hull exterior and the center console. Good stuff. 30 dollars a quart, but well worth it.

:-k I say gray

both. inside and bottom gray with a big green stripe and trim

Exterior, I'm partial to hunter green. Interior, having been in dark painted aluminum canoe for more hours than I ever wanted, I'd say anything LIGHT, except bright white. Sitting in a dark metal boat is how they came up with the idea of the Microwave oven.

Have fun.

Well since I am a Navy guy, I say grey. The green will be real hot in the summer.

I think either of those colors would be fine on the outside of the boat or used as trim. In fact, I have the hunter green on my trailer and will do my trim in the hunter green on my boat project. Goes real well with the black.

But inside the boat, especially if you are down south, darker colors make for extremely hot boats in the summer time. I did my basic training in March/April/May in NJ and I know it gets hot and humid there in the spring/summer.

If I were you, I'd go with a lighter color inside the boat.

Acabtp - I used the exact paint your considering in a two tone for my build, take a look at my build thread in the signature. I did not use the hardner though but I wish I had, my seats are those two colors also so that is what I went with. If I had to choose a single, I think the smoke gray would be it! Be interesting to see how your goes, good luck - Chris

DO NOT PAINT A TIN BOAT!


Use the money to buy tackle and the time to fish with it

I painted mine with Rustoleum Smoke Grey with Valspar enamel hardener. Here's what she looks like with three coats of smoke grey on the exterior after about a week of cure time. I left the top rail unpainted because I'm going to use an anti-skid additive for the interior and wrap that up over the rail.

thanks for the ideas guys, much appreciated