Before you pick up a brush or roller, make sure your workspace is set up for success. Bright, even light will help you spot imperfections as you go, and a quick misting of the floor helps keep dust out of your finish. Painting outside? Line the boat up north to south so you’ll always have one side in the shade: west in the morning, east later in the day.
The roll & tip method is a non-stop, fast-moving, two-person paint-a-thon where one person applies a thin coat of paint with a roller, and the other person follows immediately behind with a brush to remove the roller stipple (the so-called ‘orange peel’ texture) and smooth out the surface.
There’s no stopping and no do-overs, so be sure you have the paint mixed properly, and enough paint in the roller tray and paint pot to complete each large section. Also, have the thinner handy to replace that which evaporates.
As far as what direction to roll and what direction to tip, the variations include: roll horizontally and tip horizontally, roll vertically and tip fore and aft, or roll fore and aft and tip vertically. To gain confidence, you might want to practice first on a piece of primer-coated plywood, and use the method that works best for you and your painting buddy.
Whichever style you adopt, get into a rhythm and keep moving or the paint will dry and the brush will drag. If you run out of topside paint part-way down one side and stop to get more, you’ll get an ugly ridge at the point where you stopped and started up again. Here are a few other things to keep in mind:
- Check that your roller and brush are solvent resistant or the solvent in the paint will ruin them and they’ll fall apart.
- To help prevent surface bubbles when rolling, be sure to use a 1/8″ nap high-density, closed cell foam roller. Large cell foam rollers or other types of rollers will cause bubbles and other texture problems, including sags.
- Mix enough paint to do one whole section at a time, planning ahead for logical stopping points, such as after you finish one side of the hull. To make it less noticeable, pick the bow or a corner of the transom.
- Load the roller evenly. If too heavy, the paint will run. If too light, you’ll get places where the paint is thinner and the gloss won’t be as good, or you’ll see skips (also called holidays) where there’s no paint at all.
- Holidays are no picnic when you’re doing a rolling and tipping session, but they happen. If you get them, leave them alone. Touching them up will make them worse. After sanding, you’ll cover them with the next coat.
- Avoid rolling the paint on too thickly. Aside from the potential for runs and sags in the paint, solvents can get trapped beneath the film when it skins over and affect the cure time.
Don’t get discouraged or intimidated if the first coat is spotty or sags. You’ll develop a better feel as you continue, and by the final coat, you’ll have it figured out, and it’ll look great.
- Roll the paint on in small sections (for example, approximately 2 feet wide) that are appropriate for the size of the boat and the temperature (hot or cold) conditions. This gives the person rolling adequate time to distribute the paint evenly and keep the wet edge, and the person tipping enough time to tip without the brush dragging from drying paint.
- Roll back toward the freshly tipped paint.
- When tipping, use a light hand. You’re not applying or distributing the paint, just smoothing it out. Don’t overwork the paint or it will pull and fail to level out properly.
- If the brush starts to drag even a little bit while tipping, mix a capful of thinner into the paint cup.
- Paint starts drying really fast, especially when rolled out thinly on a hull. Don’t rush, but don’t relax or stop until you reach a logical end point, or it may be noticeable.
- Apply 2-3 coats in this way, allowing for proper curing and any necessary sanding between coats.
- Sanding between coats: Sand with 220-grit paper. Remove sanding residue by vacuuming, then wipe with a tack cloth, then wipe again with a lint-free rag dampened with the solvent recommended by the paint manufacturer. Allow the solvent to flash before applying the next coat.
- After the last coat, remove the masking tape after–and no earlier than–1 hour for the best-looking line.
- When you’re done, take a bow and give yourself a pat on the back. Sit back and admire your beautiful handiwork for a few days, giving the paint a rest and keeping it out of the hot sun until it cures.
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