Bottom Paint... out drive paint...

DouglasMB

DouglasMB

New Member
Apr 22, 2012
131
Eastern NC
Boat Info
1981 sea ray 255 amberjack
Engines
2 185 mercruiser
my boat is a 25.5 " 255 ambejack with 2 485 merc I/O my boat is in the boatyard now getting ready to put it's hull in NC waters for the first time. the bottom paint is crud... and the out drives need a good sanding and paint as well... so tell me what is a fair estimate to have this done? or to do my self. I know I need 2 different kinds of paints, the copper base paint will est up my out drives from the inside out... I have looked into it a little. I just want to make sure the estimate I was given was fair. If not I will just do it myself.

secondly... recomendations for a good paint? cost effective but still good. I know with somethings you can pay for a namebrand and your just buying the sticker on the can... but the paint is no different than other stuff, so i would love to hear some thoughts.

thank you for your patience with all my questions
 
Bottom paint works differently depending on where you at. What works in my area my not work as well in yours. The best thing is to ask local boaters what they have used and what has worked for them. My marina charges $20 per foot for bottom paint. That includes all prep work, materials, and paint. We use Micron CSC here.
 
My Marina is 14 a foot for bottom paint.4 afoot to power wash.and 100 per outdrive as for types of paints not sure. in ny were not aloud to paint unless licensed so I just pay
 
With all marine paints you get what you pay for. Quite simply there is a lot of stuff that goes into the making of a bottom paint. You can see that just by the fact each of the major paint suppliers have multiple offerings each with slightly different specs. That being said, the key to a good bottom job is not only good paint, but good preparation. If the bottom paint is already physically cruddy, then putting even the best paint on top could be a waste of money because the paint will stick to the crud, but the crud won't stay stuck to the hull.

If the existing paint is flaking off and you have patches of gelcoat showing through, then the only long term solution is to completely remove the existing paint, barrier coat and then use a good bottom paint. In short start over. If that isn't in the cards, then get some sandpaper, a scrapper and start chipping any loose old paint off and then fairing the edges and roughing up the gelcoat and solid paint. Then re-coat with a medium grade paint that is compatible with what you have (ablative, or hard coating). Expect to spend 4- 6 hours next year repeating the process. I went through this for four years before biting the bullet last year and having our boat soda blasted, barrier coated and then painted with ablative. This year all I need to do is re-do my outdrive and touch up along the water line.

Henry
 
I should have deffined cruddy... I meant that it was pourly done and extreemly thin... the bottom of the boat looks really clean as far as actual crud goes he did not keep it in the water much. that might be why he did not feel the paint was that important. the price I am getting for the whole job bottom paint prep and both out drives is 1000.00 he mentioned something about using paint that had particles that come off or move to reactivate it as you use the boat?? maybe I am saying it wrong...
 
Xplicitlnck said:
My Marina is 14 a foot for bottom paint.4 afoot to power wash.and 100 per outdrive as for types of paints not sure. in ny were not aloud to paint unless licensed so I just pay
Click to expand...
The more I see stuff like this the more I am getting convinced that the #1 Sea Ray Dealer in the country, which is my local shop, is #1 because of all the profit margin he hauls in. $26/ft for bottom paint, $250 a drive for drive paint, plus $8 per foot haul out cost for the right for them to charge you for the real work.
 
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