Rebuilding, I mean refitting an older boat offers so many opportunities to not just learn new skill, but to perfect them. That is a positive way of saying that it gets really frustrating to work your butt off to repair something correctly and then have the final stages go wrong. Calling it really frustrating is being polite. I believe the tack Mark takes is to begin weaving an elaborate tapestry of obscenities where in he curses the project, the products used in the project, the people who designed the products and then he saves the really strong derision for himself.
After carefully removing the rot from around the port light and carefully rebuilding, fairing and epoxying it (which took days and days) he was ready to paint it all to match. It looked perfect. He prepared everything and did a few practice runs with the spray gun and was pretty chuffed that he found an exact color match with the Awl Craft. If you have been reading this blog for any length of time you know that all of this is foreshadowing for what was to come.
After carefully, painstakingly and meticulously painting the port light it looked like this-
Pretty good, right? From a distance, with your eyes squinted it looks good. Without the benefit of Hyperopia the flaws become very, very apparent.
Despite carefully researching and practicing with the paint gun, the paint spattered and speckled its way to a lovely textured finish reminiscent of that ever so popular in the 80's ceiling treatment called a popcorn finish. Fabulous. Note to self- higher pressure is a good thing.
I asked Mark if it was something he could live with and he replied that it would catch every speck of dirt in a 5 mile radius and would slowly, but surely drive him insane. So he now has the opportunity to perfect his sanding and fairing skills- again- before tackling the painting again.
Me? I'd give it one more go after fairing it if it falls short of perfection just live with it until the time comes to have the boat repainted. But its not me and its not my project so I will just get Captain Perfecto to laugh about it in much the same way as you would laugh at Lucy and Ethel on the chocolate factory line and get on with it.
After carefully removing the rot from around the port light and carefully rebuilding, fairing and epoxying it (which took days and days) he was ready to paint it all to match. It looked perfect. He prepared everything and did a few practice runs with the spray gun and was pretty chuffed that he found an exact color match with the Awl Craft. If you have been reading this blog for any length of time you know that all of this is foreshadowing for what was to come.
After carefully, painstakingly and meticulously painting the port light it looked like this-
Pretty good, right? From a distance, with your eyes squinted it looks good. Without the benefit of Hyperopia the flaws become very, very apparent.
Despite carefully researching and practicing with the paint gun, the paint spattered and speckled its way to a lovely textured finish reminiscent of that ever so popular in the 80's ceiling treatment called a popcorn finish. Fabulous. Note to self- higher pressure is a good thing.
I asked Mark if it was something he could live with and he replied that it would catch every speck of dirt in a 5 mile radius and would slowly, but surely drive him insane. So he now has the opportunity to perfect his sanding and fairing skills- again- before tackling the painting again.
Me? I'd give it one more go after fairing it if it falls short of perfection just live with it until the time comes to have the boat repainted. But its not me and its not my project so I will just get Captain Perfecto to laugh about it in much the same way as you would laugh at Lucy and Ethel on the chocolate factory line and get on with it.
I think you need Lucy's special Vitameatavegamin to make it all better. Here's hoping it only gets better from here!
ReplyDeleteThere are some days I'm happy Sundowner is so flawed and old that if I mess something up cosmetically no one will notice and the "oops" will fit right in with the rest of her.
ReplyDeleteIts the old adage '2 sides to every coin'. On the one hand, Mark's level of craftsmanship is something to hold in high regard and worthy of respect. On the other, it means he never accepts less than a stellar end product and this drives him to redo things until he gets it right- no matter how many attempts are necessary.
DeleteOOOH, that's just not fair. And it did look so pretty, too.
ReplyDelete