by DS 129 » Thu Mar 20, 2008 10:34 am
As I mentioned a couple years ago, Rustoleum is the way to go. I used an old spray gun / compressor unit for the hull sides, some brush work for the boot top and parts of deck and squirt cans for most of the deck to get color only available in the cans. The spray is best, but needs more masking. You can get small compressors @ about $50 to $60 at discount places or Pep Boys. Don't need much power for small jobs, cheap spray guns run on only about 15 to 20 psi. Need to thin out the paint a little for spraying.
In any case, for Rustoleum, plan on one coat only, no matter which method. That's all you will ever need, one coat, and will last for many years.
For non skid, what they did in the Navy for small boats, some 50 years ago, they put a coat of paint on the deck, and while it was still wet, they sprinkled some fine, uniform size sand all over. When it dried, dusted off the excess sand, and applied a final coat of paint on top to hold the sand in place, whalaa, non skid deck.
If you artistic you can apply the first coat as pretty little patches or areas, here and there, and only sand those where needed/ looks professional that way.
However, these areas can be tough on the knees, and may tend to wear out the bottoms of shorts prematurely if you sit thereon a lot.