Thursday

After allowing the new lettering to cure for over 40 hours, I applied numerous sprayed-on coats of clear Alexseal over the entire transom.  Renee had warned me that sometimes the first applications over the fresh gold leaf and lettering paint could cause some minor compatibility issues, but fortunately I didn’t see any evidence of this, and after six coats applied over several elapsed hours, the transom was looking good and hopefully complete.

Total time billed on this job today:  5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  42°, overcast, fog.  Forecast for the day:  Clearing, 63°

Tuesday

During the early morning, Renee finished up work on the lettering with the hand-painted outline around the letters.  After a series of discussions, we’d eventually chosen an outline to match the hull color, stars and stripes blue, which she custom-mixed on site.  I didn’t bother her much during this process, so other than one photo showing some of the masking she installed to define some of the straight lines, I have photos only of the end result.

The fresh paint needed a full day’s curing time before I could think about overspraying with clear coat, which would finish off the work on the transom, so in the meantime I continued work on some of the loose parts, including cleaning up the swim platform brackets, exhaust flapper, and trim tab cylinders to get them ready for reinstallation in the foreseeable future.  I didn’t bother trying to remove all the old bottom paint, since these would all be painted again, but focused on cleaning up bearing surfaces and places where the paint had been brought too high in the past, and where crusty old masking tape was still in place from some long-ago painting.

Later, I sanded and revarnished the loose hatches and trim pieces.

Total time billed on this job today:  3 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  30°, partly clear, dusting of snow overnight.  Forecast for the day:  Gradually becoming sunny, 39°

Monday

With the transom now ready, Renee was back to do the lettering, which would be gold leaf with a painted outline and would take two days.

After initial layout, tracing the lettering outlines on the transom, and marking certain areas with masking tape (I missed most of this stage as I had to be away at a brief appointment), Renee applied sizing to the transom, brushing this on for each letter.  The sizing is what holds the gold leaf in place.

Once the sizing tacked up sufficiently, it was time for the gold leaf, which is applied in small sheets and left proud of the lettering edges for now.

Once all the gold leaf was applied, she burnished it to remove the excess and provide some of the finished character to the leaf itself.  This begins to highlight certain areas of the leaf and provide various visual tricks depending on the lighting and viewing angle.

To enhance the appearance of the main lettering (name), the owner chose a convex burnished effect for the letters, which makes the lettering look carved or raised depending on the viewing angle and lighting.  This is a deceptively simple effect created by burnishing roughly half the letters’ width in a particular pattern, using thin paper cutouts as guides, but the end result was amazingly convincing and would look even better later after the outline and then the final clearcoats were applied over the whole area.

Some closeups of the completed gold leaf:

While this was going on, I worked in the woodshop to clean up the stainless steel half oval trim pieces from the boat, preparing them for reinstallation in the near future.  I cleaned out old sealant from the back sides and polished the exteriors to remove surface rust.

Next, I worked on the various loose varnished trim pieces from the boat, which I’d previously prepped and sanded.  Now, I applied the first of probably a couple coats of maintenance varnish to each.

Total time billed on this job today:  2 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  23°, cloudy.  Forecast for the day:  Cloudy and windy, showers, 42°

Saturday

To prepare the transom for the lettering and additional steps, I wetsanded the sufficiently-cured clearcoat with 320 grit till it was smooth, flat, and dull all over.

Total time billed on this job today:  1 hour

0600 Weather Observation:  23°, clear.  Forecast for the day:  Sunny, 46°

Thursday

Renee finished up her work on the transom with some final prep, including a light sanding (using a nylon pad) to lightly abrade the faux surface, remove any significant roughness (some texture remained), and otherwise prepare the surface for the next steps.  Then she was done for now, though she’d be back to do the lettering soon.

Once she had cleaned up and had departed, I masked off the hull on each side and other preparations so I could spray the clear Alexseal over the top of the fresh faux finish.

During the remainder of the day, I applied seven coats of clear Alexseal to the area, which ought to give plenty of product to allow the required sanding without harming the faux finish beneath.  I extended the clear out onto the blue borders a bit to help seal in the faux.  The clearcoat brought the woodgrain to life.

Total time billed on this job today:  5.5 hours (Renee:  0700-0900)

0600 Weather Observation:  38°, overcast and foggy.  Forecast for the day:  Partly sunny, then rain likely, 48°

Wednesday

Renee got to work early in the morning, hoping to complete the transom in one day.  With three “planks” in the final faux appearance, she first marked and masked off the planks, focusing first on the top and bottom planks.    During the morning session, she completed the artistry on the two planks before leaving for a few hours to look at another job at a relatively nearby yard.  Before departing, she set up a fan to blow air across the new paint and, she hoped, help dry it (along with the much warmer than usual temperature setting in the shop) quickly enough that she could mask over the new paint by midday and complete the center plank.

Meanwhile, during this time I began to prepare the loose woodwork I’d removed from the boat earlier.  In the woodshop, I disassembled and lightly sanded the companionway bifold doors, along with the cockpit coaming trim, access hatch covers, binocular case, and rodholders.  I didn’t have any varnish on hand so for now I had to satisfy myself with getting the sanding out of the way.  Maintenance coats of varnish would come soon, once the new varnish supply arrived.

After lunch, Renee was back, and ready to work on the center plank, which she completed by mid-afternoon.  This completed the bulk of the work on the faux transom, but she’d be back in the morning to finish up with a light sanding that would prepare the transom for clearcoats over the top, which I would apply in the near future.

Detail shots of the woodgrain in a more natural light:

Total time billed on this job today:  1.75 hour (Renee:  0545 – 0915; 1245 – 1515)

0600 Weather Observation:  34°, overcast.  Forecast for the day:  Cloudy, chance of a shower, 44°

Tuesday

With work scheduled to begin on the faux teak transom later in the day, I got started early to unmask the hull after the boottop paint.  The work on the transom would mostly waylay me for the rest of the week.

Later, Renee Trust, the faux painter, arrived to set up and begin the multi-day process of painting the transom and, along with the boatowner, we discussed the job details and various chitchat.  Then, she got to work and, after setting up and preparing the area, laid down the base coat and background color for the transom, which worked in concert with the goldish base coat I’d prepared for the task.  With various applicators, and making the process look easy (it isn’t), she created an already-convincing wooden effect that would only be enhanced by later layers and graining effects.

With various applicators, and making the process look easy (it isn’t), she created an already-convincing wooden effect that would only be enhanced by later layers and graining effects.

Tools of the trade:

With the base coat complete, and already looking stunning, the work for the day was complete, since the base had to kick before she could continue work.

Total time billed on this job today:  1 hour (Renee:  1030 – 1430)

0600 Weather Observation:  43°, light shower, overcast.  Forecast for the day:  Becoming mostly sunny, 51°

Monday

I spent part of the morning getting the boat and shop ready for the boottop painting.  I started by getting rid of the low staging platforms I’d used for the hull–no longer needed–then masked off the top edge of the boottop, following the scribe line in the hull.  As usual, I started with a thin strip of vinyl masking tape that helps provide a crisp paint line, then covered it with regular masking tape since the shiny vinyl allows paint to run if left exposed.  Then, I masked off the whole hull with plastic and paper to protect it from overspray.

With preparations complete, including solvent wash and tack-off of the boottop area, I applied three coats of Alexseal snow white to the boottop, taking a few elapsed hours to do so.

Total time billed on this job today:   5.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  37°, overcast.  Forecast for the day:  Cloudy with chance of showers, 46°

Friday

After final preparations, over the course of several elapsed hours I applied three coats of Alexseal stars and stripes blue to the hull.  The color variations between photos are the result of the variable positions of the strong lighting and camera in each case.

Total time billed on this job today:  4.25 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  54°, overcast.  Forecast for the day:  Mostly cloudy, 60°

Wednesday

I took a day away from the project while I waited for the transom base coats to cure sufficiently; I couldn’t sand or mask over the fresh paint for at least 24 hours.  Now, having well eclipsed the required curing time, I got to work sanding flat and smooth the transom base, using 320 grit wet-dry paper.  I removed all traces of gloss and spray texture from the surface.

Next, I masked off the boottop on the rest of the hull (I’d previously done so on the transom), using the molded scribe line as a guide.

At the transom, we wanted a narrow border of hull color at the outboard edges, to provide a natural stopping point for the faux wood finish and to simulate the typical thickness of hull planking as would normally be seen were this a wooden boat.  I eventually determined that around 3/4″ was the right-size border for this boat, and marked and masked accordingly.  Studying photos of the boat with the swim platform still installed, I determined where to mask the lower edge of the faux portion (just below the top level of the platform), and masked across the transom at that level.  Then, I filled in the field with masking paper to protect it from overspray.

I rounded out the day with the normal final preparations, including another floor washdown, solvent-washing the hull with the proprietary solvent, and preparing paint and equipment for the hull painting next time.

Total time billed on this job today:  4.5 hours

0600 Weather Observation:  48°, mainly clear.  Forecast for the day:  Mostly sunny, 65°