Hello, I’ve got a wonderful old sea kayak that really needs a new coat of paint (and some minor repairs in the bulkheads head where there are some spider cracks). I was thinking about taking it to a local boat yard and seeing if they could do the job for me. Is this a good idea? Any ideas how much this might cost? I live in Norfolk (UK).
My only concern with using a boatyard is that they are not accustomed to working on boats with thin hulls and thin gelcoat. They might be overly aggressive in prepping it, which could damage the hull. I’ve seen some really horrendous “repairs” done on kayaks by boatyards. If you’re going to pay someone to paint it, an autobody shop would probably be a safer bet.
If you want to DIY, you can sand, fill, prime and sand again until it’s smooth, then use a paint like Interlux Britesides which is easy to apply with a roller and tip off with a foam brush. It’s a very popular paint with the wooden boat crowd.
Interlux works great I used the two part poly 7-8 years ago. The yellow deck fade a bit but it’s still shinny just looks little lighter in color.
@PaddleDog52 said:
Interlux works great I used the two part poly 7-8 years ago. The yellow deck fade a bit but it’s still shinny just looks little lighter in color.
I used the Interlux Marine one part on the Acuta on the left, rolled/tipped. It flowed out really nice and the coating was hardy and easy to touch up. I wet sanded and primed w/ interlux before color. The deck was very diminished gel. I don’t think the hull was gel at all it had been repaired (thick)
