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Now that I've had a chance to work with this I thought I'd share my experience/impressions.
The goal:
A paint that would withstand the harsh salt environment for extended periods of immersion. My boat is in the water for weeks at a time and normal topsides paint will not withstand this abuse.
Requirements:
Custom color.
High gloss - I intended for the paint to be used above and below the waterline.
Long submersibility.
Non-Ablative
Non-Biocide.
SM1000 isn't paint. Like most boat paints it carries that moniker, but it is actually an oxygen cured epoxy. Excellent!
The website for supermarine is rediculous. It is an over the top marketing exercise in how to oversell your product. There are all kinds of wild statements about increased fuel efficiency, longevity, etc, that can really turn a buyer off. It would do them well to pull it back a bit... I'll touch on my take of their statements below.
After researching other options this seemed the way to go. So I called up their help line and was assisted by knowledgable staff. The gave me product details, application tips, and were very pleasant to deal with. I placed my order, including a custom color, and only had to pay $11 in shipping to Poulsbo. Not bad!
Since they are in Arlington, I received my product in short order; just a few days. Everything was nicely packaged and inteded to get tossed around in a truck wihtout compromising the product. And at these prices it was a good thing!
First order of business was to look at the color. It was a dead match for the color I had picked out. Excellent!
Control Sample
To determine its success in water, despite the claims of the web site, I wanted a control sample to use before I put it on my hull. A 404 is a BIG hull for its size and I'd rather not sand it all off if the paint didn't work! I roughed up a fishing lure, tied a fishing line to it and then dipped it in the can. Cure time is several hours dry to touch, a week full cure. With the extra thickness of being dipped, it took a bit longer to set up all the way, but after a week, I put it in the water and let it finish curing submerged, which it did. It has been sitting submerged for about 2 months now. No signs of discoloration or lifting, peeling, etc. It does allow for growth, but this is expected as it is not a biocide or ablative paint. What growth there is, however, comes right off due to the smoothness of the paint. If you are looking for a paint that you can use on your trailer boat that sits in the water for weeks at a time, this seems to be the stuff.
Application
Like any other marine "paint", it can be sprayed, rolled, or brushed. The customer service person reccomended up to 20% thinning to allow for good leveling and they do guarantee performance if you use their primers and thinners. The thinner for this particular coating is their SM 101 thinner. It smells like highly refined mineral spirits. Clean up is with mineral spirits.
I used 6 inch foam rollers and a quality Wooster nylon brush for tipping.(after lots of experimenting with mohair and hair brushes I found them to leave too many bits behind)
My first application was on the underside of my hull. The primer was a pain to work with and did not sand very well. As a result, my levelness was not acceptible. In the end I had to knock the paint down to get it flat. This worked but was a pain, but wasn't a fault with the paint itself. The initial gloss was great and highly reflective. If this product were to be sprayed, I doubt that any sanding or polishing would be necessary.
After fixing up the bottom and blocking the upper portions of the hull, main application began. 20% thinning yielded an easy to apply thin coat. The opacity was not that great due to the color so multiple coats were required. After the 2nd coat, I decided to pull back the thinning to 10%. This still was easy to work with and provided the opacity I needed to hide the darker spots on the hull. Any runs that I missed I was able to sand inbetween coats.
Gloss
This is a high gloss product. If sprayed, like I mentioned above, it would require no additional work to get a great reflective shine. However, since I rolled and tipped, the shine and smoothness isn't where I would like it to be. I did some run sanding inbetween coats and it sanded easily. I shouldn't have too much trouble getting it to gloss back up with wet sanding and will update this post with those results once it cures fully.
Overall Impression
I have to say, I am very pleased with the product so far. The boat won't be on the water until next year at the soonest, but that sample will stay submerged and I'll continue to monitor its endurance. Once I get the hull shined up, I'll post some pics in this thread for reference.
The goal:
A paint that would withstand the harsh salt environment for extended periods of immersion. My boat is in the water for weeks at a time and normal topsides paint will not withstand this abuse.
Requirements:
Custom color.
High gloss - I intended for the paint to be used above and below the waterline.
Long submersibility.
Non-Ablative
Non-Biocide.
SM1000 isn't paint. Like most boat paints it carries that moniker, but it is actually an oxygen cured epoxy. Excellent!
The website for supermarine is rediculous. It is an over the top marketing exercise in how to oversell your product. There are all kinds of wild statements about increased fuel efficiency, longevity, etc, that can really turn a buyer off. It would do them well to pull it back a bit... I'll touch on my take of their statements below.
After researching other options this seemed the way to go. So I called up their help line and was assisted by knowledgable staff. The gave me product details, application tips, and were very pleasant to deal with. I placed my order, including a custom color, and only had to pay $11 in shipping to Poulsbo. Not bad!
Since they are in Arlington, I received my product in short order; just a few days. Everything was nicely packaged and inteded to get tossed around in a truck wihtout compromising the product. And at these prices it was a good thing!
First order of business was to look at the color. It was a dead match for the color I had picked out. Excellent!
Control Sample
To determine its success in water, despite the claims of the web site, I wanted a control sample to use before I put it on my hull. A 404 is a BIG hull for its size and I'd rather not sand it all off if the paint didn't work! I roughed up a fishing lure, tied a fishing line to it and then dipped it in the can. Cure time is several hours dry to touch, a week full cure. With the extra thickness of being dipped, it took a bit longer to set up all the way, but after a week, I put it in the water and let it finish curing submerged, which it did. It has been sitting submerged for about 2 months now. No signs of discoloration or lifting, peeling, etc. It does allow for growth, but this is expected as it is not a biocide or ablative paint. What growth there is, however, comes right off due to the smoothness of the paint. If you are looking for a paint that you can use on your trailer boat that sits in the water for weeks at a time, this seems to be the stuff.
Application
Like any other marine "paint", it can be sprayed, rolled, or brushed. The customer service person reccomended up to 20% thinning to allow for good leveling and they do guarantee performance if you use their primers and thinners. The thinner for this particular coating is their SM 101 thinner. It smells like highly refined mineral spirits. Clean up is with mineral spirits.
I used 6 inch foam rollers and a quality Wooster nylon brush for tipping.(after lots of experimenting with mohair and hair brushes I found them to leave too many bits behind)
My first application was on the underside of my hull. The primer was a pain to work with and did not sand very well. As a result, my levelness was not acceptible. In the end I had to knock the paint down to get it flat. This worked but was a pain, but wasn't a fault with the paint itself. The initial gloss was great and highly reflective. If this product were to be sprayed, I doubt that any sanding or polishing would be necessary.
After fixing up the bottom and blocking the upper portions of the hull, main application began. 20% thinning yielded an easy to apply thin coat. The opacity was not that great due to the color so multiple coats were required. After the 2nd coat, I decided to pull back the thinning to 10%. This still was easy to work with and provided the opacity I needed to hide the darker spots on the hull. Any runs that I missed I was able to sand inbetween coats.
Gloss
This is a high gloss product. If sprayed, like I mentioned above, it would require no additional work to get a great reflective shine. However, since I rolled and tipped, the shine and smoothness isn't where I would like it to be. I did some run sanding inbetween coats and it sanded easily. I shouldn't have too much trouble getting it to gloss back up with wet sanding and will update this post with those results once it cures fully.
Overall Impression
I have to say, I am very pleased with the product so far. The boat won't be on the water until next year at the soonest, but that sample will stay submerged and I'll continue to monitor its endurance. Once I get the hull shined up, I'll post some pics in this thread for reference.
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