If you just go for a paddle than you can stop thinking about wanting to go for a paddle.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

2011: Post 59 – Painting the Disko Bay

Continued from Post 57…

This week it was time to paint the Disko.  I debated about what kind of paint to use as I would be painting it inside the house; it is too cold outside now.  I thought about using latex, but from what I gathered on reading the latex would require more coats and would not be as durable as oil paint…. a quick e-mail to Sean regarding paint choice and it was clear that oil was the way to go.

Off to Home Depot (again) for paint and supplies.  I went with black.. I believe Sean offered to help me build it if I painted it pink..  But when I first seen the one on Dave Gentry’s web-site I thought the black Disko looked pretty slick.  The when I saw Sean’s Disko in person for the first time I knew if I built one I would go with the black as well.  

Before beginning to paint I 'burned' holes in the skin at the locations of the pre-drilled holes I put in the frame for the deck rigging.  I used a soldering iron and it worked like a charm… nice round holes in the polyester…



I had pre-drilled some holes in the fore-deck stringers prior to skinning.  There will be a little bit of space above the legs so I wanted to add some bungee so as to have a place to store some smaller items, like maybe my pump or paddle float.  Just a few minutes effort and I had the 1/8 inch bungee in place…



Then I closed the storage room door, opened the window, turned on the fan and heater, and put a coat of paint on the hull.  The smell was not as bad as I thought it would be.  I did get a little light-headed while painting but once I was done and left the room that went away.  The next day, once the hull had time to sufficiently dry, I flipped it over and put a coat of paint on the deck…



So far this week I have managed to paint on two coats.  There are some holes along the stitching that are being a little stubborn to fill in, so I am in the process of adding extra paint in just those spots to close them over.  Once I get those holes to close up then I will carry on and put on a couple more coats….


I hope to have the other coats of paint on before the coming weekend is over...

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