Paint and finishing ques

[ace028]

What do most of you guys use to paint your boats with and what do you spray on bare wood before you paint it?

On my last boat, my dad thinned out fiberglass resin and sprayed my boat with it, to seal the wood, and make it hard, then we used PPG epoxie primer and used PPG paints and clear coat.

But I was wondering what everyone else uses, because waiting for my dad to help me spray it takes like a really really really long time, I have a air compressor and can do the spraying, but would like to use something that is a little easier. The fiberglass resin takes a long time to dry once it is thinned out.

[deestingray]

Are you trying to seal balsa or ply?? I find that model aircraft dope, thinned 50% with acetone works pretty good for both, it soaks right into the grain for the first coat and dries really fast. Do a couple of coats with the thinned stuff, let it dry and then mix some full thickness dope with a bit of talcum powder to make a thin paste, put that on with a brush, let it dry and sand it back with some 180 grit paper. The talcum acts as a filler and fills all of those little grain depressions as well as gaps if you have any.