Rustoleum marine topside paint

[davb]

Saw a thread not too long ago about someone who had good luck with rustoleum marine topside paint on older small fiberglass trailer. Would like to contact that person. Any leads?

[Dennis Clinton]

I just ordered the same product to paint my fiberglass truck. Watched several videos on 'roll and tip' painting and will be trying that in the near future.

[tidewater]

I've had good luck with the roll and tip method on my fiberglass boat, a 26' ex-navy boat. I've found the tricks are to (1) use a top quality paint (I prefer Interlux or Pettitt one part epoxy), (2) use a very good quality china bristle brush for tipping and a 4" foam roller for applying the paint, (3) pick a lower humidity day, not the kind we can get here in tidewater VA in the summer ,and (4) just do a 2' square section at a time. I used paint thinner to clean the surface before painting instead of a tack cloth. Once applied and tipped, the paint will flow together and you can move on to the next 2' square section. If you mess up, let it dry, sand it down, and re-apply.

jack

[Seldomseensmith]

There are plenty of threads on the Tip and roll method and painting threads but I would also like to hear specifically about Rustoleum Topside paint.

[Todd Reed]

I used rustoleum on my rig. Ask away.

[Seldomseensmith]

Did you thin it? and if so, with what?
Tip and Roll?
How many quarts did you go through?
Happy with the results?
Thanks

[Bob Miller]

I recently painted two different pop-up tent trailer tubs with the Rust-Oleum Marine paint with good results. BUT I used Interlux Topside on my Hunter and got excellent results. In any case, always use the undercoat/primer recommended for use with the product.

BTW: when with the primer, the Rust-oleum product did not cover as well and took more paint.

[lynneh]

Peter and I are renovating a Surfside trailer and we used Rustoleum Topside to paint it.

We tried both thinned and not thinned. We preferred the way it rolled when thinned and used 5% mineral spirits as recommended on the can.

Following the advice we found on the Amazon.com reviews, we used a brush only for the edges and used a foam roller everywhere else. This worked quite well although a bit frightening at first! The paint 'bubbles' quite a bit as it is rolled on, but then it levels out and the bubbles disappeared. We sanded between coats and did 4 on top and 3 on bottom. Initial coats looked a bit like orange peel finish but each additional coat (with sanding between) came out smoother and smoother.

The paint gets very hard . . . over time. I tested it in an inconspicuous location and found I could still dent it with a fingernail after several days, but it was much harder by the end of a week, and after a few weeks it was almost impossible to dent. So be sure to give it time to 'cure' after painting.

We used ~6 quarts of Topside. We also used 2 quarts of the Rustoleum Marine Primer before switching to Topside to finish. We made our initial purchase on Amazon.com before finding it on the shelf at our local Ace Hardware store (call and check - only some Ace stores carry it).

We are happy with the results. It isn't super smooth like an automobile paint job. But it looks very good and we like the idea of being able to do a touch-up whenever we need.

--Lynne (and Peter)

[deryk]

I tried it on my boat, used to paint the topside stripe and water line stripe and it held up well for 2 years till Sandy destroyed the boat. Its alot cheaper then the 2 part marine paints but seems pretty good from all the online reviews I have seen.

[davb]

Thanks to all who replied. Got some good ideas. Other questions: Is acetone a good solvent to use? Are the little foam brushes ok for "tipping" ? Any advantage to wet sanding??

[Bob Miller]

As long as there is no existing pain on the surface, Acetone should be fine, but it is very flammable and the slightest static spark can ruin and otherwise good day.

I tried using a foam brush for tipping with the Interlux product and it left streaks, stick with a wide, quality, bristle brush. As you only get paint in the very tip of the brush, it's easy to clean afterwards.

Wet sanding is a must, look up the video's on YouTube on repainting boats for more tips.

[lynneh]

We also tried using a foam brush with the Rustoleum Topside product and did not like the results -- the paint did not go on smoothly.

To clarify my earlier posting, we did not use the tip & roll method to apply Rustoleum Topside. We just rolled it on using a firm foam roller. Just the edges were done using a bristle brush after trying (and failing) with the foam brush.

Hope that helps.

--Lynne