Been there Done that.
DON'T Re-invent the wheel here. Torsk has had the same problems and there are some work arounds. From what I understand your getting purple heart. It's a good HARD Stable wood, with a tight grain. It WILL be hard to get paint to stick to it BUT the MACRO EPOXY Primer will take care of that. As for the wood aging it WILL turn Gray NOT brown or black.
Probably best thing to do with the superstructure after repairs to steel is:
1.) Use a 2 part MACRO EPOXY Primer on steel and wood. This stuff is super thin and gets in UNDER rust, loose paint, etc. and seals it in, encapsulating it.
Only drawback is it takes 24 hours to set up and dry. Sherwin Williams makes it. It's a marine painting system and the topcoat is vinyl (YUK!!!
)
2.) Get a good Alkyd Enamel (Rustoleum or Equiv.) for Gray. We've been using Rustoleum Ocean Gray and Rustoleum Semi Gloss Black. Make sure it's a Blue Back not a Brown Black. Or if International Paint has a Marine Epoxy that they are willing to donate or even bring down to Rustoleum prices, use that. The Epoxy will last one hell of a lot longer than an alkyd, which lasts a hell of a lot longer than a vinyl.
3.) Fade in the turn of the superstructure edge. NO HARD EDGE. Use a sprayer and feather edge it. Make it so that when someone looks straight down over it they DO NOT SEE GRAY.
When using the topcoat for the First Time, put down TWO COATS! Let the Stuff set up at least 4 hours between coats (even in the OKLA Summers). With the Gray and Black on the vertical surfaces of the superstructure it will need touch up or a re-coat in 5-6 years. The horizontals (deck) will require every two-three years. Your deck is similar in structure to ours in that it's a mix and the paint wears off faster than it fades, checks, cracks, peels, etc. HOWEVER We DON'T have a fenced in section of plywood and DO allow visitors to roam all over deck. We do keep a section (2ft across) the length of the boat for those who prefer high-heels (personally you better be wearing a skirt with those heels) but I'd rather have the museum require them to wear flats on the boat. You'd probably be better off keeping the fenced in area. Kids just LOVE to climb on the wire ropes and swing, and it's a looooonnnnnng way down to hard ground.
Although some adults/parents are just as bad if not worse.
It doesn't matter what kind of topcoat you use on the deck due to visitor wear and the deck cooking in the sun. Wear and deterioration is accelerated as it's a horizontal surface. So be prepared to paint every two years or so. It takes me about 8 hours to paint the deck from stem to stern with a roller after it's been run over with a scraper and a needle gun. Don't worry about the sides and the bottom of the deck boards too much. The initial coats will be sufficient for about eight-ten years. It doesn't get as much direct sun, rain, snow, etc as the ttop. TWO good coats at first with a re-coat every two-three years is sufficient.
In the last ten years we've only had to paint the sail TWICE. And that's mainly from interior deterioration (backside pinholes) and pigeon crap. Bird Crap is your biggest problem as far as paint holding up. If you've got a major pigeon problem, you may end up having to paint every two years instead of 5 on the vertical surfaces.
Sideboard Numbers 18" High 12" across with a 4" thickness. White with Black offset of 2" on the right side and lower diagonals and bottoms. Note: Those numbers are what I remember (I'll let Darrin tell you how feeble minded you can get when you hit 53!
) but they are bound to be off. If your numbers look good take a metal punch and make marks at each corner. When you get to the point where you are ready to paint in the numbers, just tape off from punch mark to punch mark, and go to town.
If you have a pot sprayer it goes a lot faster. AND you can get places that rollers and brushes can't.
Have fun, I DON'T ENVY you guys one bit. AND FOR GAWDS SAKE DON'T PAINT ANY TEETH ON HER!!!
Doc
