Awlgrip of C&C 40 "Delphinus"

[Figment]

So sweet.

Fear not. Those sags will cut and polish out with surprising ease.

[dkall]

I'm impressed. Can you paint mine sometime. :)

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi All,

Spent time this morning out at the boat finishing up some of the little stuff. I removed the rest of the tape, uncovered vents, cleaned the toerail again, etc. I was going to try and polish out some of the sags but now that the paint has cured for a day or two it was almost impossible to find them. The only two that still showed up were on the transom so I wet sanded the entire transom, prepped it, 3M fine line tapped it, painted it, and quickly pulled the tape. Perfection achieved! I'll start working on the boot stripes tomorrow.

Total time for day 20: 4 hours


George

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi All,


Today was boot stripe day. After looking at a bunch of different options I decided to go with a double stripe that is 3" on the bottom and 2" on the top with a .75" spacer. This gives me a total of 5.75 of boot stripe which seems like a good amount for a C&C 40. It's similar to the gelcoat double boot stripe that came from the factory so it should be a good traditional look for the boat.

The actual taping out of the boot stripes is a royal pain in the butt. The hull of the C&C 40 has some pretty good curves to it and the boot stripes tend to look a little different depending on your perspective. In other words, what looks spot-on standing near the bow of the boat looks a little off when viewed from the side or rear -- and vice-versa. I think the compromise looks pretty good but we'll see in a few days how it really looks. I used a combination of 2" 3M fine line blue painters tape and 3/4" 3M fine line plastic tape.

The cove stripe work was technically pretty easy but still took over an hour to do because of all the angles. Not to mention the difficulty in keeping the tape exactly on the edge of the molded indentations.

I ran out of time today and didn't get a chance to apply any paint, but the taping is all done. I'll sleep on it and take one last look in the morning before I start applying paint.

Total time for day 21: 5 hours

The total project hour count now stands at 94.


George

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi All,


Started the day by making a few small corrections to the tape. Once the tape lines were about as good as I could get them I started in on the painting. I'm using Awlgrip eggshell white for the boot and the cove stripes. As hoped for, the color looks very good against the S&S Blue, with both warm color tones complimenting each other.

The painting went as expected and as I stood back to take some pictures I noticed little white marks below the tape line at several corners of the cove stripe. This was not good. It appears that while 3M fine line plastic tape is excellent for long unbroken runs, it is horrible if you have a lot of tape overlaps -- corners, angles, etc. The tape joints produce a capillary action that appears to have unlimited range when exposed to properly thinned Awlgrip. I immediately removed the tape from around the cove stripe points and stars and cleaned the little white capillary lines up with denatured alcohol. Crisis adverted. I now had to spend another hour and change re-taping the cove stripe with 3M 225 long mask silver. The 225 has a somewhat thick black adhesive backing that you can really squish down and seal the tape joints well. I should have used this in the first place but the 3M fine line had worked so well on my dissapearing seam trick that I had become enamoured with it.

Total time for day 22: 4 hours


Here's a picture of the taped stripes and a picture of the re-taped cove stripe ends and stars






George

[Jason K]

Lookin' good. That's interesting about the fine line tape. Good job spotting it in time - that could have been a nightmare.

[Summersdawn]

That top picture really shows just how smooth and glossy your paint job really is. I know you took it to show your masking job (your stripes are going to look great), but it is, in my opinion, the best shot of your paint yet!

[Tim]

Agreed. Both of today's pictures really show the quality of the shine and the paint finish.

Don't be shy with the photos, George! She sure is looking great.

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi Summersdawn,


The two sags I was worried about are right in the middle of that picture too :-) Which is why I decided not to worry about them at all -- something that you can find only if you are looking for it and standing five feet away just isn't worth worring about.

That perfectly smooth ultra high gloss is the one, and only, real benefit of rolling and tipping versus spraying. The finish really does feel like glass. If I had my choice though I would have sprayed it if at all possible. Rolling, tipping, and endless wet sanding just isn't worth it -- I've had a dull ach in my shoulders every day for three weeks now -- Especially when you can wipe down a spray job with Awlcare and get virtually the same gloss. Also, getting an exact color match, with no vertical banding and no sags is almost impossible when working out in the sun with one of the "smokey" Awlgrip colors. The best I could do was perfection on the sunrise side of the boat and pretty darn good on the shadowed side of the boat. The boat's just too big and too much time elapses between the start and end of the job to achieve total perfection. If I had a huge climate controlled paint shop though...


Thanks for the note,

George

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Ok Tim,


Here's a few more...

Starboard side tape job from bow




Starboard side tape job from stern




Starboard side with first coat of Eggshell White paint





George

[Summersdawn]

After you mentioned the sags, I went back to the photo, looked really hard, studied it and ... still couldn't see anything. You are probably the only person that can see the sags from 5 feet.

Can't wait to see the photos with the masking tape peeled off.

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi All,


Day 23:

Spent a couple of hours prepping the boat and laying on another coat of the Eggshell White. Went back and did another coat in the late afternoon. Total time for day 23: 3 hours


Day 24:

Spent another couple of hours today applying more white paint. I'm finally starting to get the blue completely hidden. If I had thought about it I would have done the first boot stripe and cove stripe in Awlgrip White 545 Primer. That way I could have been finished by now. As it stands, it's going to take at least one more coat of Eggshell White to finish up the boat. Total time for day 24: 2 hours


Spider picture. A large black and yellow spider has set up shop on one of my jackstands. A photo of him / her is below.


Close up of the boot after the last coat today.



Shot of the entire boat as of the last coat today.



Picture of the spider.




George

[Mark.Wilme]

Gorgeous, just gorgeous.

It will be inersting at the end to compare your time and materials cost versus any proffessional quote you may have had.

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi Mark,


Total time now stands at 103 hours. I've got one more coat left to paint as well as the dredded re-bedding of lights, ladder mounts, antenna mounts, etc. Not to mention putting on the name and hailing port, wiping down with Awlcare, building the bottom paint back up where it has been sanded down, dismantling and transporting the staging, and re-launching the boat. Probably end up around 120 hours. My original estimate was 90 hours for everything. Can't believe that my man hours estimate was off by 33%. I thought I had done a lot of this stuff :-) It appears that we boat restorers never learn.

All the Awlgrip painting materials with shipping ran me about $1,200. Staging ran $200 ( would have been a bit more but I got some staging from a friend for free ). Hauling fees and yard storage fees ran $400. So a total of $1,800 in cash and 120 man hours in labor for the job I did.

The yard estimate was $9,500 plus a $320 hauling fee plus tax. Probably a bit more because the yard estimate did not include the cove stripe or the double boot stripe I did. Their total would have most likely wound up around $10,800 for everything. The yard job would have been perfect though. Really perfect. One of the true Awlgrip masters on the East Coast runs the paint shop where my boat is located -- beautiful work!

That gives me a total cash savings of $9,000, some sore arms, and a really nice ( but not perfect ) paint job.

For me, this was the only way to go. I enjoy doing the work myself and I was ready for it to be really good and not perfect. It's not a show boat being judged like a vintage sports car in a concourse competition. I sail this thing, a lot! And the truth is, perfection only lasts so long in the real world anyway. Fuel docks, mooring balls, slips, pilings, fenders, racing, raft-ups, dinghys, etc. conspire to make sure that perfection is, at best, fleeting.

I am happy with the way the job has turned out so far.


George

[bhartley]

George,

The paint job looks fabulous. One day I will own a boat large enough to use S&S Blue and have it look as good.

You definately have the right attitude about having a job you can be really proud of without turning the boat into a museum piece which causes you to see dollar signs with each bump of the mooring bouy.

Congratulations for all the sore necks you will be causing in the harbour at relaunch!

Bly

[Tim]

I can certainly handle a few invisible sags for a savings of $9000.

At least when you make your own mistakes, you can decide whether you can live with it or not. Most flaws that seem glaring to you are entirely invisible to everyone else.

I have yet to see a perfect paint job. Very, very close, but nothign absolutely perfect. If you look hard enough at any job, even the seemingly perfect ones, small flaws become apparent. You're just so intimately involved with your paint that of course you are aware of all the "flaws".

Just don't fall into that perfectionist's trap of pointing out the flaws to everyone...no one else is noticing them, but when you point them out, everyone feels compelled to agree with you, even though they probably still can't see the flaw.

I am slowly learning this. Very slowly.

She looks great, George. You ought to be thrilled! I can't wait to see the finished striping.

[Figment]

I can certainly handle a few invisible sags for a savings of $9000.

Whenever I feel a twinge of disappointment in my own paintjob, this kind of thinking gets me over it pretty quickly! Sometimes being a Cranky Old Yankee comes in handy like that.

Fuel docks, mooring balls, slips, pilings, fenders, racing, raft-ups, dinghys, etc. conspire to make sure that perfection is, at best, fleeting.

Boy, ain't that the truth!

Great work, George.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go out and get some eggshell white for my own....

[Ancient Race]

Beautiful job, George. I'm looking forward to seeing the final stripe coat done and the tape pulled.

Greg

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi All,

Final coat of Eggshell White was applied today. I'll most likely pull the tape tomorrow and do any touch up work that might be necessary. I'll also sand the drips off the bottom paint and touch up the bottom to give it a uniform appearance. Total time for day 25: 2 hours

George

[Robert The Gray]

great work george
congrats on the savings!

r

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the note. Right now my shoulders feel like I really worked for that 9K. A month from now I'm sure I'll be ready for another project.

George

[Tim]

A month from now I'm sure I'll be ready for another project.

It's an incurable disease.

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi All,


Got away from work for a few hours and removed the tape, cleaned up any marks left from the tape, sanded off the paint drips on the bottom paint, and feathered in the transition from the scribe line to the old bottom paint. When she's finished the bottom paint will just cover the boot stripe reference scribe line. Total time for day 26: 4 hours


This picture gives a feel for what the stripes will look like when she's all done. The bottom stripe looks a little wide at the moment because bottom paint needs to be applied that will cover about 1/4 inch of the lower boot stripe.





This picture shows the boat after I've completed finish sanding for the bottom paint and washed off all the dust. If you look close you can see the feathering of paint from the Awlgrip to the primer, to the barrier coat and finally back up to the old bottom paint. I'll lay up a couple of coats of bottom paint in this area to level it all out before I apply the final two coats prior to launch.





George

[Tim]

Jus in case there's anyone out there who still wonders whether boottops are worth the effort...

[Tim]

George,

She looks great--really nice. Keep those photos coming! Can we see some stern shots?

I expect a full side-on view when she goes in the travelift and back in the water too! (My usual request)

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi Tim,

I'll see what I can do with the photos. Most every photo that shows the full length of the boat is from either side of the bow. There are boats on the other three sides of her which make it tough to get a full shot from those angles. I'll see what I can do though.

George

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi Tim,

I was able to get down on the ground and take this shot of the underside of the stern.



Also, here's a shot of one of my new favorite tools. A wire brush on my trusty DeWalt angle grinder. Perfect for bronze props.







George

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi All,


Spent a few hours out at the boat before my Wednesday Night Race. Wiped down the boot stripes with alcohol and applied some fine line masking tape for bringing the botom paint up to the boot stripe. Applied a coat of West Marine CPP ablative bottom paint in black to the areas of the boat's hull that had been sanded or repaired. I'll apply two more coats tomorrow to the sanded areas and then pull the tape. Total time for day 27: 2.5 hours

Here's a shot of the boat after the first layer of bottom paint has been applied...




George

[Tim]

When's your relaunch date, George?

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi Tim,

I don't have a date set at the moment. Denise and I are going to be out of town for a week at the beginning of October. I thought I would let the Awlgrip bake in the sun at least until we got back from that trip -- let it really harden up before it goes in the Travellift slings.

George

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi All,

Swung by the boat after finishing up another project in the area and rolled on the last bit of bottom paint in the sanded areas and then pulled the tape. Looking good. I'll put the name and hailing port back on and re-mount the lights, hardware, etc. over the next few days. I'll take some more pictures after I get that stuff done and dismantle the staging.

Total time for day 28: 1.5 hours


George

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi All,

Stopped by the boat for a few minutes today and cleaned up around it. Four garbage bags worth of trash for the project -- mostly rusted paint trays, old brushes, lots and lots of used sandpaper, and big balls of used tape.

After baking in the sun for a few weeks now it is pretty much impossible to find any flaws even if you know where to look. I think the additional curing in the sun has evened out the color a little bit as well as flattened out the couple little sags to the point where you can't see them. Job looks essentially perfect.

I'll put the name, hailing port, lights, and hardware on over the next few days. I'll also dismantle the staging. The paint job is finished though.

Here are the photo's of the finished topsides paint job ...













George

[Jason K]

She looks stunning, George.

[David VanDenburgh]

You 'da man! Great job. Enjoy it.

[Tim]

Nicely done, George! Congratulations. She looks awesome. Time well spent.

I think a few "before and after" comparisons are in order here. You only posted one distant shot of the boat before, but I bet you have more!

I'd love to see photos when she goes back in. Thanks for all the updates along the way.

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi Tim,

I will most likely launch her on October 11'th. Let me know what you are looking for in photo's of the launch and I'll try to make sure I get them. Also, here are a few more "before" images.

Underway getting ready for a spinaker hoist


Close up of the Port bow


Shot of her starboard stern quarter


Close up of her in her slip


Showing off her "two tone" Imron green stern



George

[Figment]

Glorious job, George. She's a stunner.

I've been meaning to ask, what's with the torpedo tube in the transom? :)

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi Figment,

The boat was built for doing, among other things, offshore racing back in 1979. One of the features of a lot of those offshore boats was a quick deploying man overboard marker. The marker consists of a weighted buoy with an 8 foot fiberglass mast and a bright red and yellow flag at the top. ( if you look carefully in some of the pictures you can see the red / yellow flag up on the deck in the middle of the boat on the starboard side ) The tube in the back of the boat is similar to the marker -- it's about 10" in diameter for the first three feet and then becomes a two inch tube for another 6 feet. The idea is that if someone goes over you toss the life ring and then reach down and with one hand slide the MOB marker out of the tube. It actually works real easy and is a great visual reference. I have the race crew train with it every spring. I've also added some SOLAS reflective tape to the marker so it shows up better at night.

George Jones

[Figment]

I have the race crew train with it every spring.

Excellent. Far too many view the MOB gear as decoration.

But do you WARN the crew in advance of the drill?
One of my favorite past skippers has a lot of fun springing surprise MOB drills on the crew. Usually he waits until after the finish of a race, when everyone is settled down with a beer and a snack. He tosses his hat over the side (with floaty keychain thing attached, of course), drops the tiller and yells "SKIPPER OVERBOARD". While everyone scrambles to sort out responsibilities and get the boat turned around, he goes below and mixes a drink with a big cheesy grin on his face. I think his rule is that if the hat is recovered before he comes back on deck, he buys dinner. Great fun.

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi All,


Here are some of the final reports...

Day 29

Re-installed the lights, bedded in the ladder mounts, re-bedded the quadrent cover that I had removed to re-bed the ladder mounts, bedded in the antenna mount. Touched up some of the bottom paint. Total time for day 29: 3 hours.


Day 30

Put the name on the boat. Rolled on a fresh coat of bottom paint.

Total time for day 30: 3 hours.


Day 31

Re-installed the antenna and the swim ladder. Painted under the jackstands. Wiped on a coat of AwlCare. Dismantled the staging and put it in my truck. Cleaned up the area around the boat and took some pictures.

Total time for day 31: 5 hours.













George

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi All,


Day 32:

Launch Day! Everything went smoothly and the boat is now at her new home at the Wormley Creek marina in Yorktown, VA. She appears to sit exactly evenly on her waterline and everything looks good.

Total time for day 32: 2 hours.

[cliffg]

Simply magnificent job. Congratulations! I am soooo envious.

[bhartley]

Wow! I envy your focus and intensity. She looks fabulous and the entire process was kept on a pretty tight schedule. I would still be sanding and chatting with people in the boat yard.

You have one good looking boat -- and the satisfaction of knowing that you are entirely responsible for her looking that way.

Well done!

Bly

[dmairspotter]

I am now officially and openly ashamed of not even starting the process on my 27 footer! Curse you and your beautiful paint job!!!!!

[George ( C&C 40 )]

Hi Again All,


Thanks for all your kind words. I wanted to end my posts with a summary of the job in terms of costs and then some thoughts on the job itself.


Summary:

All the bills are in and here are the final totals. Paint and supplies for the project totaled $1,378. This included fixings for 1 gallon of primer and two gallons of topcoat. ( I only used one gallon of topcoat and am keeping the second gallon as a color matched reserve ) Wood, screws, and sawhorse caps for the staging ran $210. ( the staging would have been closer to $350 but a friend loaned me some of his ) Yard fees including hauling, spraying, storage, and launching from August 8 to October 10 ran me $815. Total cash outlay was $2,403. The professional bids averaged about $10,800 for a 40 foot boat with a double boot and cove stripe. Total cash savings ended up being $8,397. Man hours for the entire project totaled 126. This hour count does not include my helper when we were actually applying the topcoat paint. Each coat took about 1.25 hours to apply.

Once again

$2,403 in cash.
126 man hours.



A bakers dozen of my personal thoughts on Awlgrip...


1. Do anything, and I mean anything, you can to make this a spray job rather than a roll and tip job. The glass smooth finish and ultra gloss just isn't worth the weeks of wet sanding and painting. Spray it and wipe it down with Awlcare.

2. If you must roll and tip, use 2.5" or 3" Corona "Urathaner" brushes and Corona "Glasskoter" rollers in the 7" length and 1/8'th inch nap. It is extremely important to use these or their Redtree counterparts. These are the only rollers and brushes that produce just the right thickness of paint for a good Awlgrip tip job.

3. Make sure you have 2 to 3 times as much T0031 reducer on hand as topcoat. I used 2.2 gallons of T0031 during this job. Keep lots of Denatured Alcohol on hand too. And bags and bags of tack cloths!

4. Build good quality staging. There must be good quality staging around the entire boat at all times. You cannot move staging while you are painting.

5. If you are rolling and tipping try to stay away from the "smokey" Awlgrip colors if you are working outside -- Colors like Stars and Stripes Blue, Jade Mist Green, Claret, etc. When working outside it is almost impossible to find a painting temperature that keeps the color tone of these paints exactly even and still flashes the paint quick enough so there is no sagging. The side of my boat that came out perfect was done starting about 8:45 am with the rising sun shining on it on a day the 2pm high temperature was 85 degrees. The rising sun warmed the paint so it flashed quickly but the underlying fiberglass had not yet become so hot that it cooked the paint and produced dark streaks. The west side of the boat was painted 5 times under all sorts of different conditions trying to match the sunrise side and I was never able to get it as good. I think a 95 degree completely overcast day would have been perfect but I never got one of those.

6. An add on to #5 above -- Use a white topcoat if possible -- People love white sailboats! I've never had any problems applying white Awlgrip. You can do it in direct sunlight and it flashes beautifully with no color changes.

7. Do not apply topcoat unless it is warm or downright hot out. Awlgrip needs heat to flash properly. I've seen lots of really nasty Awlgrip roll and tip jobs done in the spring and fall. All those ripples, sags, and puckers come from painting when it is too cool out.

8. Don't paint in the late afternoon. The falling dew of sunset will kill the paint job.

9. Use 3M plastic fine line tape for long straight runs of masking tape. Use 3M 225 long mask silver anywhere there is an overlap of tape or a corner. Press both types of tape down hard!!!

10. Use lots of reducer with both the primer and topcoat. Lots!!! Too thick is always much worse than too thin.

11. Get all your topcoat painting supplies and mixing tools set up before you mix the paint and then work very very very fast. Remember that you need to keep adding reducer every few minutes.

12. If more than 60 seconds have passed since you tipped out a section do not go back and try to fix a sag. Awlgrip sags mostly bake away in a few weeks time but the color tone change from fixing a semi-flashed sag is forever.

13. Don't sweat the small stuff. Awlgrip is so glossy that once the boat is in the water the reflections make it impossible to see any errors in the paint.



Happy painting and sailing!





George

[Tim]

Nicely done, George! She looks gorgeous.

I echo all of George's comments on Awlgrip. All are extremely true. A fine Awlgrip job is a lot of work, and is expensive even given the do-it-yourself aspect, but nothing else comes close.

Happy sailing, George!

(Can we have a photo when you replace the green sailcover?)

[dasein668]

Great job taking us along for the ride, George. Now go enjoy her! She looks excellent.

[Figment]

So.... cost savings divided by man-hours.... roughly $65/hour for your labors?.
Not too shabby!