On to the hull finish

The existing paint on the hull had not deteriorated as badly as the deck surfaces.

I decided that I would spot prep the areas that had dents, chips and scratches, rather than completely remove all paint as I had done on the deck. The hull had been originally treated with a Zinc Chromate primer, THE best surface prep for aluminum, used on aircraft, millitary equip, etc. However, it's highly toxic, a real environmental hazard and as of last year, banned by the EPA and pulled off the shelves for consumer use. You need special permits etc. to get your hands on it, hence I wanted to save it and leave it on. Additionally it would save time and expense not having to go through what I had just done on the deck.

Spot prepping, still have to go through all the steps.

There was a big dent in the port bow, (collision with immovable object?)

Nice thing about metal boats, they may dent, but they still float.

Nice to see it getting to be all one color.

Speaking of color, we raised a few eyebrows with on lookers when it came to our choice of color scheme. We decided on grey for a number of reasons, I'll not get into here.

There are three tones of grey in the color scheme, all based on the primary color platinum grey.

We mixed in black to form a charcoal accent color for trim, and added white to get a lighter grey for the decks. We like the effect, but of course it's subjective.

We'll be leaving the transom unpainted.

I'll be polishing it up to a mirror finish, and then the boat name goes on.

A lot of wooden boats have their hulls painted and the transom left vanished natural wood.

I thought, why not do the same on Kaian, let her show off her metal.

Finally, it was time to get the anti-fouling paint on the bottom.

Roughly 6 weeks, dozens of brushes, rollers, trays, masks, gloves and in total 35 gallons of paint, thinners, primers, etc. she is finally done.

SWEEEEET !!!!!!!