BYYB Forums

I just finished building my sculling boat for the up coming duck hunting season. It's a cedar strip hull, with a plywood top. Completely encapsulated in epoxy (mainly West).

I have heard some horror story about paint not sticking or rather not curing to epoxy. What do you guys recommend at a primer? I saw Menards has Rustoelum boat paint, including a primer. At $20 per quart it isn't cheap and say nothing about use with epoxy, only fiberglass and wood.

Thanks much for the advice. Remember I am cheap.

Andrew

Andrew Paint will stick to epoxy,Epoxy won't stick to paint don't ask I don't know. Let your epoxy cure good 2 weeks if possable. Sand it enough to give it some teeth wipe off sanding dust with paint thinner, paint. It will stick. paint that says fiberglass should stick to epoxy, after all when you wet out your fiberglass cloth you are actually painting epoxy. Good luck with the paint, and the ducks also Bud

An old thread, recently revisited by someone, so I thought I make a few corrections.

Not all paints stick to epoxy coated surfaces, even if well toothed as Bud mentions. The most common of these questionable paints are the alkyds (oils) and there's no telling (without previous experience) which brand or formulation, will stick to an epoxy surface. Acrylics, urethanes and polyesters do stick, but some alkyds can be troublesome.

To avoid any issues, just prime the surface. This acts as a "tie coat", which bonds the epoxy coated substrate, to the top coat (finish coat stuff). Primer also can be used to fine tune the finish's smoothness (blocking). I use an epoxy primer on most things, but any good primer, from a major paint formulator will usually do.

If you're cheap (like Andrew ) the acrylic house paint (exterior) primers, from the usual sources are an option. Zinsser "Bull'sEye 123" is a cheap and popular brand, but Valspar, Kilz and others have similar products. Stay away from shellac primers, as they don't work on exterior environments very well. Even the Ace Hardware brand, has a good (re-badged) primer. If your finish coat will be something, well try to use a similar primer, so if the finish coats are acrylic, use an acrylic primer, etc. The only exception to this is if you're using some of the specialty paints, like acrylic urethanes, which typically require epoxy or special primers.