Advice for Paintfest 2015

[ralay]

Woody and I have Mona hauled out in NC and are planning on heading home to here in 2 weeks for Paintfest 2015.  We painted our spars and deck last year after our refit, but everything below the caprails looks like heck. 

We have about a solid foot of decorative teak trim on the outside of our bulwarks.  The varnish/cetol is mostly peeled off and it's thin enough that plenty of the bungs have dropped out or are close to dropping out.  The trim is screwed and glued (with resin) to the (solid fiberglass) hull.  The screw heads/holes are full of resin under the lost bungs and don't seem to admit any water.  We're not worried about leaks, it just looks pretty bad. 

Below that, we have our topsides which are covered in flaking white paint and drips of epoxy from our deck project.

Aaaand, then our bottom, which hasn't been painted in at least the last three years. 

So we've got a lot of work to do and a lot of paint to buy.  Before we open our wallets and start buying supplies, I thought I'd ask for any suggestions folks have to make painting less expensive/more efficient/more KISS.  Where's the sweet spot in terms of price/value for topside paints and bottom paints?  What would you do with 64 sq ft of teak trim?  I'm already losing my mind trying to keep up with the varnish elsewhere (rudder cheek plates, tiller, boom gallows, coaming, companionway, butterfly hatches, 3 dorade boxes, 4 handrails, and 2 belaying pin rails).  I'm NOT varnishing the bulwarks, I don't care how nice people tell me it would look.  Should we just scrap em bare and let em weather?  Paint em brown?  Something else?  If we paint them should we put a coat of varnish on first to avoid getting paint in the grain in case someone (not me) ever changes their mind?  Any other ideas/advice/product recommendations?

[Bob J (ex-misfits)]

I did post something a couple of days ago about my experience using two part paints & suggested using a one part paint for doing the topsides. I've used one part paints in the past & they're painless when compared to two part.

Hopefully you'll get to read this before someone decides to delete it...

[ralay]

Delete it?  It's on topic.

[CharlieJ]

Agree Ralay

[Stout]

Hey, we are facing a similar situation as far as the bulwarks go. What plugs haven't come out won't need much to come out all the way. I plan to pull all the ones that come out and fill with low density filler( so if I ever have to get the screws out I hopefully will be able to dig it out). And when we haulout in Sept the're getting painted. They have been left bare for a while and will need some cracking filled as well. I'm done with varnish on the exterior, things I did not much more than a year ago already look bad. My neighbor showed me his cetoled wood and it still looks good after years, and no sanding between coats so I will be trying that out even scraping and sanding varnish to cetol it. We've tried to simplify the exterior wood with just the hatches, tiller, and deckbox lid being bright and the rest of the wood getting paint. 2 ways we are keeping that simple is 1 color (kind of a creamy white) we may paint the whale stripe green though. and the second is we're using Rustoleum marine paint, we found it at Lowes, it's like 12 or 13 dollars a quart and the primer is like 18. I've been painting with it for a while and it weathers well. I haven't tried it on fiberglass yet.  I get people cringing when I tell them I'm painting the wood, but then I see the work they have to do to keep up there varnish and think there are other things I would rather do. And besides I like the functional workboat look. Is that helpful? Good luck with the paintfest.

[lance on cloud nine]

I gave up on varnish, when I found a product in antique malls called Kramer's Restorer. It is truly like an armor all for wood. I use a sponge to wipe it on. Better than teak oil by far. Gives wood a rich look but is not oily. Does not attract dirt.