Bottom paint

[chadwiseman]

Preparing to put bottom paint on my boat while on the trailer.. how do people get access to the areas touched by the bunks?

[dlandersson]

You wait till it dries, then move the hull enough to paint the missed areas. Can be a bit of a pain.

Preparing to put bottom paint on my boat while on the trailer.. how do people get access to the areas touched by the bunks?

[dustoff]

It definitely is a pain, but I think I have a pretty safe technique that was derived from one of the threads on the forum. I have four 3000lb auto jack stands that I made wood jack points for where it touches the boat hull on the stern and the bow. Connect each pair together with wire rope (leftover from my standing rigging replacement) so they won't tilt laterally away from the curve of the hull. You then lower the trailer tongue jack as low as you can, place the rear pair of jack stands under the stern, then raise the tongue jack as high as it will go and do the same for the bow. When you lower the tongue jack back to mid position, you'll have about 2-4 inches of clearance from all the bunks. Then move the trailer just enough to get access to the spots on the hull that were previously resting on the bunks. If something goes wrong, the boat is only a couple of inches above the trailer bunks at all times.

Dustoff

[Starscream]

Preparing to put bottom paint on my boat while on the trailer.. how do people get access to the areas touched by the bunks?

You can use a 2-ton auto jack to lift one end at a time off of the trailer. you need to use some plywood and wood scraps to disperse the load and not damage the hull but it's totally doable. Consider safety...jackstands and such.

You can check out this thread, full of ideas and photos:

viewtopic.php?t=27058&hilit=interprotect&start=30

This one, too:

viewtopic.php?t=27626&hilit=interprotect

[OverEasy]

Hi Chadwiseman!

Here what we did for our DIY bottom painting redcoat project this year

Now I can get on to some of the boat prep work!!!
First on the list is redoing the bottom paint myself this year…..
It can be a bit more involved than that simple task sounds.
I made a rear support frame from pressure treated lumber… hopefully to get several more years out of it





Next was figuring out how to levitate Over Easy up above its trailer.
First make sure the wheel cocks were in place and the hitch Jack wheel was securely captured.
( Note: Harbor Freight has some good solid rubber cocks for about $7 each... got 4 of them)
This was a bit more involved than I anticipated as the dual axle trailer doesn’t teeter-totter as much as I’d hoped.
The first go round of lowering in hitch end all the way down to teeter the stern up - slipping the rear support frame in place - then jacking the hitch end all the way up totter the boat off the trailer bunks —- good intentions but the springs of the trailer just took up the slack and remained in contact with the hull 🫣
So Plan B ( always helps to have a couple of fall forward plans ) went into effect.
Lowered the trailer hitch Jack all the way down again.
Out came the 6 ton Jack stands and the 3 ton hydraulic truck floor Jack.
Placed the Jack under the rear of the trailer frame port side and raised it up to the max height of the Jack stands.
Repeated for the starboard side.
Removed the rear support frame… added more contact support cross section.
Then placed and screwed on a pair of 2 x 6 to the saddle … slipped the frame back in place … then jacked up the hitch up again this time with the assistance of the floor Jack under the tongue.
SUCCESS! The trailer bunks were finally free from boat hull by more than enough to fit a roller brush!

Now it was time to mask off the trailer so I don’t spatter the nice trailer random blobs of bottom paint.
I chose to utilize an old trick of wrapping the trailer frame with “Stretch-Tite” … took 3 rolls and a bit of a fourth.
Lots of crawling around and squirming my not so svelte 6’1” tall frame under the trailer axles ….

That done out came the scrapers to clear all the residual barnacles and hard crud from the hull bottom.
This was followed by an aggressive high pressure washing twice over.
Took advantage of having the pressure washer out and gave the upper hull to the rub rail a good once over as well.
That showed me that the over winter mildewish stuff was tougher than before and the “tea-staining” at the waterline from last year’s extended season needed more work.🫣 Especially before doing the bottom paint work.
After getting set back $28 for a bottle of “Star-Brite” and a couple of “Magic Erasers “ I gave the hull a good cleaning and rinse off to neutralize the acid in the Star-Brite. I was also able to remove the various inevitable fender and dock rub rashes.

I hadn’t been planning on it but judging by the streaking on the old bottom paint I’m gonna go ahead and scrub the top deck as well before actually doing the new bottom paint. Sooo there goes my schedule plans…🫣…for the week.
Serendipity comes into play as the “Interlux ACT” bottom paint delivery has been delayed for some reason or other… time to roll with it.

Here are a couple pictures of our “flying” Over Easy….









Tomorrow’s another day…

Best Regards,
Over Easy


Best Regards,
Over Easy

[Russ]

Wait...what?

You wrapped your trailer in cellophane?

That's brilliant. Why mess up a nice trailer with bottom paint.

[OverEasy]

Yup!