REFLECTOR: Awlgrip Painting

[Ron Brown]

Bob,

Lots of great information!!!  Now you are making me nervous about shooting 
it myself!!!!  At $200 a gallon, I don't want to be "practicing" too much 
with this stuff.  But the boat folks say the Awlgrip is the supreme paint 
for boats.

Your wings are looking great!!!

Are you using the standard reducer - T0003?  Are you having to use any other 
additives?  You mention Florida several times - it can be just about as hot 
and humid here in North Carolina this time of year.  Did you stick with 
Awlgrip's recommended maximum 50% RH - or have you been able to establish a 
higher RH that you have been able to get away with?

I think your statement "Coat continuation" means that you could paint a 
portion of the a coat (like say the fuselage top), then remove the walk 
boards, clean-up, and then continue completing the coat onto the strakes and 
fuselage bottom, provided you don't wait more than about an hour to continue 
on with the strakes and bottom.  Otherwise, the paint "seam" between the 
fuselage top and strakes will not blend together."  is the key to painting 
the top of the fuselage using a walk board, then the sides.  And bottom too. 
Perhaps I need to include the ability to lift the nose and keep on shooting 
until the bottom is done too.

I would ask you how many gallons you have used, but with reworking your 
wing, your count probably won't help much.  I think I will try painting 
bottoms first - allows the wings to be kept flat with less runs.  Like I 
said, if it turns out too ugly, I'll get a pro to shoot the tops - but I 
have built the whole thing so far (well I cheated and got fast build wings 
and fuselage - I HATE SANDING AND FILLING - too many hours on sheet rock - 
although I am getting much better at it!!!)

The application guide says 210 sq feet per gallon of mixed paint and 
converter and reducer.  So measuring the surface areas, I get 2.2 gallons of 
mixed paint or 1 gallon of color, one gallon of converter, and 1/2 gallon of 
reducer = 2.5 gallons. That's assuming using a good HVLP gun and getting 
most of the spray on the surface.   (173 standard fuselage measures - 
approximately 475 sq feet).

For those of you considering the Awlgrip system, there is an on line 
Application Guide at http://www.awlgrip.com/pages/app_guide/chap1.htm  (One 
of the boat yards calls Awlgrip the Mercedes of marine paints).  Extremely 
tough and glossy with a long service life.  But difficult to repair 
scratches, etc.

Ronnie