PAINTING ENSOLITE

[Dawn S]

Should I add a textile medium to my acrylic paint to paint my ensolite?

It makes sense to me, but I am not a painting expert and don't know that it is necessary.

Anyone paint their ensolite and add anything to it to enhance the pliancy of the paint?

D

[Roy in TO]

Dawn,

I don't know what a textile medium is so I can't answer to that.

I used Kilz Primer, and One shot sign paint and it is still holding up after 2 years, the paint still stretches with the ensolite. If I were to do it again, I'd use 2 coats of Kilz ULTIMATE primer and use the additive for the One Shot paint that will bring the sheen down from a gloss to an eggshell.

Once I'm finished tinkering with the interior, I will put a second coat of One Shot on useing the additive. When I researched what paints people were using and how, I found a lot of different answers and most seemed very happy with their results. Time will tell what holds up best over the years.

[Dawn S]

Dawn,

I don't know what a textile medium is so I can't answer to that.

I used Kilz Primer, and One shot sign paint and it is still holding up after 2 years, the paint still stretches with the ensolite. If I were to do it again, I'd use 2 coats of Kilz ULTIMATE primer and use the additive for the One Shot paint that will bring the sheen down from a gloss to an eggshell.

Once I'm finished tinkering with the interior, I will put a second coat of One Shot on useing the additive. When I researched what paints people were using and how, I found a lot of different answers and most seemed very happy with their results. Time will tell what holds up best over the years.

Thanks for the reply. Yes, most do seem happy with results, which is encouraging.

The textile medium just allows the paint to have a bit more "give", which I thought would be helpful in maintaining the authentic "feel" of the spongey ensolite.

I wondered if I should prime...I know about the kilz. I will give it a coat of that first. Thanks!

Dawn

[Loren G. Hedahl]

I used a couple of coats of Kilz primer then three coats of white enamel floor paint. It has been about 3 years and seems to be holding up OK.

If I were to do it again, I might spend the extra money to purchase Interlux BriteSide fiberglass enamel were I to do this project again. It has even more gloss which I like for clean-ability.

It also might be quite a bit more flexible. Cracking paint hasn't been a problem except in one small place where something bumped it hard. But in the long run, it may hold up better and be well worth the extra cost.

[Bob Cupp]

When I rebuilt my Love Bug a couple of years ago, I caulked the gaps in my ensolite with latex caulk (good caulk, not cheap stuff) I then primed with Kilz and painted with basic latex paint. For the outside I used Interlux Brightside paint and love the results. I will need to recoat the outside pretty soon because the Bug was parked under some trees that dropped sap all over it, when I washed it I must have used the wrong soap because it took some of the shine off. My kids and grandkids love my Bug and I am looking for another 13' to add to my group of campers.

[Raya]

Just as a side note, there is a chance it wasn't whatever soap you used that took the shine off of your Brightsides. I say that because the "limitation" of one-part paints such as Brightsides (or EasyPoxy or the other similar marine paints) is that they don't retain their shine for all that long.

In contrast, the two-part LPU marine paints (Awlgrip, Sterling, Alexseal, etc.) will stay shiny for 10 - 20 or more years, depending on the climate. My boat had been Awlgripped in 1985 and still looks fabulously shiny (it was in Michigan, mostly, which is fairly benign to paint). Something like Brightsides would probably only have stayed shiny a couple of years or so in the same situation.

A one-part "polyurethane"* such as Brightsides is a fine paint, less expensive, and relatively easy to apply, but it is "softer" than a two-part, and won't retain shine as long.

*I put the asterisk there because these paints are not really polyurethanes, in the sense that a two part LPU is (Linear Polyurethane). They are more of a modified alkyd paint.

Raya