| 1975 Dufour 27
Refit | Wednesday, November 5, 2008 I spent the day masking and otherwise preparing for the final paint. It took most of the day to complete the deck taping, beginning in the cockpit and on the coachroof and continuing on the sidedecks and other areas. I masked off the eventual nonskid areas just inside the molded raised areas, giving me some leeway and options when it came time to do the final pattern taping later in the project. |
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Throughout the process, I struggled mentally with how best to approach the topcoats' spraying pattern. I needed to ensure that I didn't overspray any already-painted areas, but also had to ensure ease of access and ability to reach the areas without running into wet paint with feet, hoses, or something else. Complicating the issue was the fact that most areas of the deck were interconnected with the smooth strips between nonskid areas. I considered spraying the deck over two separate days, with a known lap mark between the two days' sections that I'd have to blend in later. I even started down this road, as I began covering the outer portions of the deck with tape and paper to protect them from the inner sections, which I planned to spray first. However, I ran into continual issues with where exactly to make the breaks--what seemed initially logical turned out to be more difficult than I'd imagined, and what I'd initially envisioned as a few small lap lines turned into longer and longer areas till the process just began to fail to make sense. So after considerable further thought, I decided that I could effectively spray the entire deck in one day after all, much as I have done on other projects. I'd still have to spray in three separate stages, however: first the topmost areas of the coachroof, particularly the inward-facing edges of the molded handrail supports (which I couldn't access from elsewhere); then the cockpit area; and finally the remaining deck portions. |
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With the masking complete, I solvent-washed the areas to be painted one final time with Alexseal wipe-down solvent, then washed down the shop floor and staging as necessary, and made the other final preparations of material and equipment required for spraying in the morning. |
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