Making Desert Tan Bottom Paint

Repair or modification of Boston Whaler boats, their engines, trailers, and gear
einspritzer
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Joined: Sat Jun 08, 2019 9:56 am

Making Desert Tan Bottom Paint

Postby einspritzer » Sat Jun 08, 2019 10:43 am

To make Desert Tan [anti-fouling] paint, I was thinking to mix a little red and green to get brown, then add a little of the brown to the white to get tan. Compare at:

http://www.pettitpaint.com/media/4141/pettit-paint-2019-bottom-paint-color-card.pdf

Q1: Has someone else experimented with [creating Desert Tan bottom paint]?

Q2: Is there a document I can follow?

Thank you.

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Phil T
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Re: Formula for Desert Tan pigment

Postby Phil T » Sat Jun 08, 2019 11:01 am

1992 Outrage 17
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Member since 2003

jimh
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Re: Making Desert Tan Bottom Paint

Postby jimh » Sat Jun 08, 2019 11:06 am

I have made a good match to Desert Tan by using only two acrylic Artist's pigments: RAW SIENNA and TITANIUM WHITE. I first made a much less intense pigment by mixing the raw sienna with white to get a light brown. Then I mixed the light brown into the white until I was satisfied I had Desert Tan. I used this to tint clear epoxy resin. I wrote about this in 1997 in

The Epoxy Cure
http://continuouswave.com/maintenance-logs/epoxy/

I also described in that 1997 article how I used paint color chips from paint stores to help find the actual color of my boat's hull.

In the specific instance of creating a bottom paint, I presume you want to preserve the anti-fouling characteristics of the bottom paint. If you got white bottom paint and added raw sienna pigment to it, to know if the resulting paint preserved the anti-fouling characteristics of the original paint would have to be determined by testing.

If you bought three cans of paint (red, green, white) I would speculate that you could mix them without harming the anti-fouling properties--but you'd end up with a lot of unused red and green paint.

Phil's link to the 2008 thread about Desert Tan bottom paint is a dandy.

Regarding matching hull color to a paint chip, you should view the two in sunlight but probably not in direct blazing sunlight. Also, buff the hull gel coat to the same lustre or reflectivity of the paint chip. This will help get the match easier to make. Finally, matching shades of off-white colors requires very good color vision and some ability. There are thousands of shades of off-white.

Use the present color of your hull for the match, as the present color of any older Boston Whaler hull is likely to be different from the original color due to fading, weathering, oxidation, and so on. If you are going to buff out and polish the hull, do that first before you try to match the color.

jimh
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Re: Making Desert Tan Bottom Paint

Postby jimh » Sat Jun 08, 2019 11:26 am

Also read the advice from the factory about bottom paints:

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/refere ... tml#bottom

einspritzer
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Re: Making Desert Tan Bottom Paint

Postby einspritzer » Sun Jun 09, 2019 10:25 am

[E]xcellent. [L]ove this forum. Thank you very much. [T]his is exactly what I needed.

jimh
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Re: Making Desert Tan Bottom Paint

Postby jimh » Sun Jun 09, 2019 10:46 am

If you decide to get the Petit VIVID white anti-fouling paint, you just need some brown universal colorant to tint the white to become Desert Tan. By my eye, the hue of Desert Tan is a yellowish-brown, the color of raw sienna. I don't think there are universal colorants called raw sienna, so you will have to mix available universal colorants to get the right hue.

In color there are two properties: hue and saturation. Once you have the correct hue for the pigment, you just need to find the proper saturation of the color into the white base. The paint store supplier should know the proper volume of pigment for a particular volume of white paint.

If you are going to try tinting the white yourself, I recommend starting very easily. You can always make the color saturation higher with more pigment. Also, hold back about one quarter of the white base paint so you can de-saturate the color-mixed paint if you add too much pigment.


Corollary questions:

Q3: how much surface area will need anti-fouling paint?
Q4: what is the recommended coverage rate for the Petite anti-fouling paint.
Q5: will one-gallon of anti-fouling paint cover most Boston Whaler boat bottoms?