Best "dent hiding" paint

I have used a ball peen hammer and have knocked as many dents out of my boat as I could.. However, there is still a good amount which don't want to go away. I want to paint my boat this week and I'm wondering if there's any paint sheen that's more dent reflective than others? I don't want to use any body fillers or anything.

The boat is currently a lighter green color, I want to paint it a darker Hunter green or other similar green. This is only for topsides paint, the bottom is painted black. I plan to use a simple exterior paint but unsure what type (epoxy, oil, water, enamel etc), Any suggestions are appreciated. I know I should be using marine paint but that's not in the budget right now, the boat is already painted so upon sanding, I should have a good toothy surface for the new paint to adhere to.

Thanks,
Mike

Flat, neutral colored, enamel.

Definitely go with flat paint to hide the dents. The glossier the paint, the more imperfections show up. Oil base paint would be a good choice (epoxy would probably be the top choice, but costs a lot more).

White shows dents and dings the least, the darker you go the more the dents and dings will be noticeable.

The others are right about the flat paint too.

A camo paint job can hide a multitude of sins.

Thanks for the replies.

I was really wanting to do a dark green gloss but it sounds like that would be a bad route to go. Would a flat olive green do the boat some justice or too dark of a color? I was thinking a second/third alternative could be the Lowe style green or khaki color.

I was thinking camo but not sure I could make it look good. Anybody have anything good or bad to say about the rustoleum spray camo colors? I was thinking the flat olive green may be my choice since hunter green gloss would show too many imperfections.

Mike

Here's my boat. Notice the dents... I am not sure if an olive green would suit this boat right, it seems like it would be out of place as it's not a flat bottom... Anyone have any pictures of flat colored v-hulls?

Mizzie said:

Thanks for the replies.

I was really wanting to do a dark green gloss but it sounds like that would be a bad route to go. Would a flat olive green do the boat some justice or too dark of a color? I was thinking a second/third alternative could be the Lowe style green or khaki color.

I was thinking camo but not sure I could make it look good. Anybody have anything good or bad to say about the rustoleum spray camo colors? I was thinking the flat olive green may be my choice since hunter green gloss would show too many imperfections.

Mike

Click to expand...

I used the rustoleum camo green to give my boat a face lift. It was a close match to the original paint. The paint didn't stick to the few spots of bare aluminum but that was my fault, now I know about zinc chromate primes. Over all it's a very good paint.

Here's my boat. Notice the dents...

Click to expand...

I don't see a single imperfection. Looks beautiful to me. Bet it looks even better on the water with you fishing out of it. :LOL2:

lckstckn2smknbrls said:

I used the rustoleum camo green to give my boat a face lift. It was a close match to the original paint. The paint didn't stick to the few spots of bare aluminum but that was my fault, now I know about zinc chromate primes. Over all it's a very good paint.

Click to expand...

I use the Rustoleum Camo paint on my boat to do touch ups, I also start with the Rustoleum Self Etching Primer, normally I get this at Walmart and the camo paint is in the paint dept and the primer is in the automotive dept.

On bare aluminum you always want to use self etching primer before applying paint.

I just finished painting my boat last weekend. The base coat is a flat tan/swamp grass color from Hunter's Specialties applied with a brush. Then Rustoleum flat green camo in a rattle can. Then Hunter's Specialties flat mud brown sprayed with an airbrush. A rattle can would do as good of a job. What I've read is that its best to apply the colors from lightest to darkest. For a pattern I used a couple straight pieces of of scrap plywood trimmings about 1/2 to 1 inch thick. I got the idea from a YouTube video. If you google "paint boat camo" you can see a couple different ways of painting camo. The boat showed lots of dents and dings before painting and when it was solid tan. The dents disappeared after the pattern was painted. I'll post some photos when the camera comes home. My daughter is on a fire crew assigned to a wildfire (proud dad moment) and she has the camera.

Thanks for all the replies! Okay so today I was organizing my "junk draw" at home and I found out that I still had a Lowes gift card from one of my co-workers from Christmas that I forgot all about! I called up to check it and was happy to hear it was still active! So off to Lowes I went... My excitement was soon shot down.

My Lowes doesn't carry the Rustoleum camo paints.... They had no flat green other paints as well. I am very upset about this but wanting to get the boat painted anyways, I settled for a quart of Rustoleum Hunter Green Satin. Now this color turned out being a little different than what I wanted... I sanded, used self etching primer by dupli-color... I laid down the base coat tonight using a foam roller and it's a little too GREEN for me... I wanted more of an OD green. Also it's very 'glossy' which I wasn't expecting since satin is a step up from flat. It's showing dents I never even seen before haha, I hope it flattens out once it's dried...

For the inside, I wanted to do a Tan/sand or Khaki color, of course Lowes didn't have this either so I settled for Rustoleum Almond... Which on the can looks like a nice tan color but after I googled some pictures it looks a little too white for me. I haven't opened the Almond can yet.

My question is, for my second coat and third coats of the exterior Hunter green and base/2/3rd coats of interior almond... Is it possible to buy a sample 8oz can of Rustoleum brown or a primer to tint the hunter and almond paints? Or what color/tint combo would get me somewhat close to OD green and Khaki ?

Thanks a lot,
Mike

Also, I do plan to camo the boat either myself or with stencils... I'm just looking to get these main colors down to what I want first.

EDIT: I ended up 86ing the Hunter green idea and went with a special mixed paint resembling an OD green.. Pics are on my build thread here https://www.tinboats.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=26977

I'm very happy with the color. You guys were correct, the gloss did bring out the dents, the flat hides them very well. Thanks for the help and info.

Mike