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Full and By
04-23-2012, 12:25 PM
I just finished painting the deck of Full and By, C-295 and learned a bunch even though it is my third project like this in the last 15 years. New materials, new techniques, poor memory, old age, etc... I love to use Interlux high end products..they produce excellent results. I though I'd share the following and post some pics, maybe help out some other goo-old-boat-sicko out there. basic steps:

1. Pick the right boat to start with...one that has never been painted. Life is definitely too short to start by removing paint from a PO's botched deck job.
2. Repair soft deck areas, fill holes that won't be used..old instrument holes, deck plates, etc. Don't forget the dings on the outside of the toerail.
3. install new deck hardware temporarily that you intend to reinstall permanently. Remove. Refill holes with filled epoxy, then drill 1/8 in locating holes in the filled holes so you can tell them from the old ones you will conceal with paint
3.1 Remove the rub rail!
4. Dremel out the large gelcoat spider cracks, only the big ones
5. Sand the existing non-skid areas with 60 grit to knock off the tops of the teeth, and sand areas to receive high-gloss trim paint flat, and down to 220 grit. vacuum, wipe and tack before painting each coat
6. Layout trim borders with fine line pencil where these differ from the original non-skid pattern. Be sure areas are dirt free.
7. Mask the trim areas with the highest quality masking tape. I formerly used only 3M plastic fine line tape for this,, but the new green masking tape from Home Depot works well and costs about half. BUT, you do need to use 3M Fine line plastic tape in 1/4 in width for each corner radius, it you've added them. Vacuum, wipe and tack
8. Two coats of Interlux Epoxy Prime Coat, sanding to at least 180 between coats to level the minor whoopees . Might take three, depending. Use the small diameter white foam rollers from Home Depot instead of the west system rollers. Yes, they will get attacked by the solvents...but you cannot compare the finish! roll paint on, flatten with one pass of a foam brush. for one coat, you'll go through three rollers and two brushes.
9. Two or three coats of Perfection two part linear polyurethane, sanding between coats to 320
10 Remove masking tape, and apply masking tape for the opposite side of the line...mask of the non-skid.
10.1 Cut carpet scraps for strategic high-traffic areas..the ones you'll damage when you are re assembling the boat...set these aside
11. hit the deck again with 80 grit just where you dropped trim paint, epoxy, etc....
12. vacuum and wipe down with damp cloth. DO NOT use any solvents to wipe anything down after you've masked!
13. Roll on un thinned KiwiGrip non-skid with the same foam roller you used before...this is not a texture coat, but a color coat! if you have a dark deck, do this twice. One coat like this takes about half a liter (Kiwi grip is sold in liters). Buy the 4 liter can of KiwiGrip and you'll have some (little less than a quarter of the can) left over for repairs later.
14. Practice for the final coat...the KiwiGrip instructions say that you'll get better as you go along and I did. By the time I finished painting the boat, I knew how to do it properly..and that's a little late...
15. Paint the final texture coat of KiwiGrip per the instructions...EXACTLY.
16. remove tape and reassemble your new boat

some interesting facts:

Trim: One coat of either epoxy primer or Perfection will consume about half a quart of material. layout and masking takes about 6-8 hours. sanding between coats takes about 3 hours. initial sanding took....Jeezus....days. Applying one coat took about 3.5 hours

Non-skid: I would use KiwiGrip again for sure, especially now that I know how to get it down pretty well. In the past, I used Perfection with non-skid polyumeric beads for non skid and it worked ok, but prep time is huge and the surface is inferior non-skidwise, inho. A commander takes a little less than 4 liters.

questions? fire away

Full and By
04-23-2012, 01:14 PM
Deck prep and trim masking

Full and By
04-23-2012, 01:22 PM
Trim has been painted, ready for re-masking for the deck paint.

Full and By
04-23-2012, 01:35 PM
Deck paint complete. Some hardware, only that located in the trim areas, was reinstalled before deck paint. This was to prevent damage to the fresh deck paint due to potential dropped tools, gobbed up sealants, hobnailed boots, etc...

Full and By
04-23-2012, 01:53 PM
and a few more....and that's the end

Commander 147
04-23-2012, 02:19 PM
Bill

She sure is looking good. It's amazing what a coat of paint can do to make a boat look years younger...... Hmmmm wonder what a coat of paint would do for me. :-)

So what kind of paint did you use and how did you deal with the non-skid?

c_amos
04-23-2012, 02:20 PM
Absolutely beautiful!

Nice job, thanks for taking the extra time to write it up and post the pictures!

Full and By
04-23-2012, 02:38 PM
I used Interlux Epoxy Pre Kote and Interlux Perfection...I love that stuff...with my roller of preference and tipped with a foam brush (see text above) for the trim. And my first time with KiwiGrip...which I also got to enjoy and will never go back to Perfection with beads... KiwiGrip is a whole new animal... cool stuff

Full and By
04-23-2012, 02:39 PM
and thank you, Amos. It is like climbing a mountain...lots of hours in there.

Commander 147
04-23-2012, 03:58 PM
Bill

I have to say for a rolled and tipped paint job I do not see any indication in the pictures that it was not sprayed. Nice work. And another Kiwi Grip convert to boot. :-)

And per your response to c_amos I feel your pain about the number of hours of work that goes into these projects.

Chance
04-23-2012, 05:06 PM
Excellent write up on how to proceed if doing a paint job. Thanks for tips and the photos really show how well it can be done if taken the time and doing all the prep properly. Wow, I see you have had some items rechromed, looks good. Why did you switch the original cleats to those stainless ones? Also, what are those tubular brackets flanking the backstay chainplate? And lastly, is the color of the kiwi grip you have applied one of their "stock" colors or did you have a paint shop tint it to your color choice?

Thanks for the detailed photo spread!

Tony G
04-23-2012, 05:43 PM
Outstanding work, Bill. And a great blow-by-blow write up that seems to include just about everything one could think of. It reads a lot less painful than all the hours you put into it I'm sure. You have some serious shine on your hardware there and I noticed a set of shiney somethings on either side of the backstay chain plate...whuchagot there?

Full and By
05-04-2012, 03:35 AM
Excellent write up on how to proceed if doing a paint job. Thanks for tips and the photos really show how well it can be done if taken the time and doing all the prep properly. Wow, I see you have had some items rechromed, looks good. Why did you switch the original cleats to those stainless ones? Also, what are those tubular brackets flanking the backstay chainplate? And lastly, is the color of the kiwi grip you have applied one of their "stock" colors or did you have a paint shop tint it to your color choice?

Thanks for the detailed photo spread!

First, Chance...I was not intending to do a "restoration" but rather an updating or refitting...modernizing, if you will. For guidance, I think of the question: "If the boat were to be built today, how would she be outfitted."

Cleats: I never really cared for the marinium varieties used by a lot of builders at that time, and I wanted bright finishes after rechroming the other parts. I suppose the alternative would have been to reg the marinium parts re-anodized. The stemhead fitting was a work of art when I got it back from the chrome shop..specializing in motorcycle parts.

The "tubular brackets" are actually components of the boarding ladder. You can see more details about it in the thread "Boarding ladders" in the tech section of the forum.

Full and By
05-04-2012, 03:41 AM
Outstanding work, Bill. And a great blow-by-blow write up that seems to include just about everything one could think of. It reads a lot less painful than all the hours you put into it I'm sure. You have some serious shine on your hardware there and I noticed a set of shiney somethings on either side of the backstay chain plate...whuchagot there?

Those somethings are the boarding ladder....take a look at the thread of that title in the Forum for pictures and description of how it works...

One of the fun aspects of living in Cleveland is that there is a machine shop, chromer, bronze foundry, custom paint blender, imported hardwood vendor, and much more.....everybody you need. Oh, and also ideal warehouse space for rent..cheap. Oh, and a Great Lake full of big water sailing...

Full and By
05-04-2012, 03:50 AM
Kiwi Grip:

I used a custom color, but I could have easily used their standard...I think I ended up about the same place. I did find it quite easy to color by the local Sherwin Williams store (not home depot!). The guy spent 10 minutes punching his calculator, then blended it up purposefully.

I bought white for a reason: painting my headliner inside the boat. I did my best to put a decent surface on the factory roughness...made worse by fiddling through the last 40 years...then rolled on a couple of coats of white Kiwi Grip using a foam roller. The idea was to make the surface uniformly rough so that the whoppies weren't as obvious. This is a subjective opinion, but I'd say it worked rather well. Looks better than the factory original white-grey-black fleck budget housepaint, certainly.

Commander227
05-05-2012, 03:21 PM
Really nice job there. Good idea using the Kiwi in the cuddy, the gloss paint I used is pretty good at highlighting every ripple. You guys sailing in Cleveland yet?
Mike
C227

Full and By
05-09-2012, 09:54 AM
I installed one of these on my last boat and they are a great pleasure to have aboard. At 1.5 amps...probably less on a small boat like the Commander... they're not very hungry. On big boat deliveries offshore, I've enjoyed the sophisticated autopilots that include a sea state compensation feature...even in some pretty extreme conditions (see Ocean Navigator Nov/Dec 07, October 2010, pg 28-33, and May 2012 pg 24-28.) Incredibly, this little Raymarine T-1000+ has all the same features for way under $500 bucks, including sea state compensation. Often, I'm alone when the conditions are just right so my companions are the Pandora app on my Iphone/stereo and my T-1000+.

This generation of autopilots has nothing in common with the older Navicos, et all. If you gave up on them then, it might be time to give them a try again.

Full and By
05-09-2012, 09:59 AM
Yes, Mike...sailing season started very early this year, and it has been great because the spring heat has not arrived yet...and the customary violence of the daily T-storms hasn't b een in evidence. It will come! But, "Full and By" is still in my shop, receiving her wood trim and wiring....

Full and By
11-11-2013, 11:37 AM
We're just completing our first full season after a complete rebuild of C-295 and wanted to share some pics of this wonderful design. I'm happy to respond to questions about the boat and the rebuilding process. Ask away.

The boat was originally delivered to Seattle in 1967. I purchased the boat from Dr. Charlie Weems in 2011 and trucked it to Ohio. I spent 16 months, off and on, rebuilding her.

Full and By
11-11-2013, 11:51 AM
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Full and By
11-11-2013, 11:57 AM
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Full and By
11-11-2013, 12:02 PM
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Full and By
11-11-2013, 12:08 PM
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Full and By
11-11-2013, 12:19 PM
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Full and By
11-11-2013, 12:29 PM
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mbd
11-12-2013, 04:45 PM
Gorgeous! And thanks too for the write-up. I'll 2nd or 4th the Kiwi Grip. The boat I sailed this summer had the decks redone with it and it is superb stuff. Easier to clean than the beads and it doesn't sand you knees when you're doing work on the decks either.

PS. I hope you don't mind me stealing your anchor storage idea. :)

PSS. I'm wondering about your locker hasps. Pins that you can lock? Never seen the design before.

Full and By
11-13-2013, 06:40 AM
Mike,

Those hasps are know as bullet latches and are lockable using the traditional small padlocks. The beauty of them is that they don't bloody your shins like the old hasps and latch automaticaly when the hatch is dropped. I consider this a safety feature as the integrity of the hull envelope in heavy weather is protected to a greater degree. These bullet latches are used by "J-Boats" on most of their models although I bought these from an on-line vendor.

You might note also that I replaced the original bronze open style turnbuckles with stainless steel tubular type, which was also a good modern upgrade, in my opinion. If the boat were to be built today, she would have these. The backstay tensioner was salvaged from a Tartan 27 with a distinguished racing history in her day...but was ready for the chainsaw to make way for the next group of abandoned boats.

Thanks for your kind words. Good luck with your project.

Commander227
11-21-2013, 05:00 AM
Wow... Beautiful job!
I just Googled your fridge, I want one. How nice to have a cold one waiting.
What is the ring that your vang runs thru? Is it just bungee to keep it out of the way?
Boarding ladder is excellent, how Is the flip down in the companion way? I'd like to find an option that is less awkward than the original library ladder. ( sure wish I had the older layout without the bridge deck.)
Really nice job there. Beautiful boat!
Mike
C-227

Full and By
07-18-2018, 12:43 PM
Hello Sailors!


A lot of water has passed under her keel (my keel, actually) since the re-launching of Full and By in 2012. She has aged well, better than I have, frankly.



My beloved Pearson Commander hull no 295 (1967) is for sale on the hard in Cleveland Ohio. Give me a shout if you have an interest in acquiring her.

Lucky Dawg
07-18-2018, 08:30 PM
Beautiful Commander. Thanks for your stewardship of the old girl! Good luck with the sale.

Full and By
07-19-2018, 07:46 AM
Thanks a bunch, Dawg. She's been great fun to build and to use. She has also taught about 20 high school kids how to sail...her forte.


It's a wonderful design, Alberg's Commander. Enjoy yours