When to use high build primer

[Ryan]

I am trying to get my ducks in a row for painting my decks and topsides this fall. As it is now, the boat has gelcoat that is in good condition in most areas. There are half a dozen or so areas with old (and poor) repairs and a couple of spots with stress cracks that will need repair (and for some odd reason I have yet to discover, the PO painted the port toe rail and nothing else). After the old paint is removed and the required areas repaired, is there a need to go with a high build primer before using a finish primer (I plan to roll and tip using Awlgrip)? My original plan was to fix all the required areas and remove the random paint, then fair and apply 545 primer. My reading of this forum suggests that a lot of you have used a high build primer first, but this also seems to coincide with decks and topsides that had crazing or other issues that made the original gelcoat less than ideal for finish primer without a high build first. Thanks for any opinions!

Ryan

[Tim]

If the gelcoat is in good condition, and you haven't done (or don't need to do) any major repairs or fairing, you can skip the high-build primer. It's not required in order to get a nice finish.

[Ryan]

Thanks Tim. For the areas I need to make repairs (no major repairs, just spot repairs and stress crack fixes), Originally I had planned to fill in the areas with an epoxy/microballon compund. Would a compound like Awl-Fair be better choice and leave me better prepared for primer?

Ryan

[Tim]

If the amount of filling is minor, Awl-Fair is a good choice.