We got the boat flipped over and sitting upright

Well, last week we got the boat flipped over and sitting upright.  I decided to use 4 chain hoists on my A frame lifts instead of having a bunch of people come over.  I figured someone would have too much to drink and end up getting crushed under the boat!

Well, I didn't take any pictures of the actual flip, because I was trying to do it by myself and I was nervous.

About halfway over, with one side of the boat 10 feet straight up in the air and stuck, I called Johnnie for some help.  I had one side of the boat stuck in the dirt and the other side stuck on the A frame.

John came over and promptly told me to cut off about a foot of my 2x6 boards that were bolted across the gunnels and were currently dug into the ground.  A few minutes later with the help of Mr. Sawzall, the boards were cut, the boat was free and setting on the jig, right side up!

I finally got the boat painted!

Well after about a month of weather delays, yesterday I got the boat painted.  I faired the boat as smooth as I was willing to go with it.  I used epoxy with microballons added as a filler.  Then I sanded, filled, sanded, filled.......Sprayed a heavy high build epoxy primer....Sanded, filled...Sprayed more high build epoxy primer....Sanded filled and sanded.

Here is the paint I used to cover the boat with.  Dupont's Imron.  I used the Imron 3.5 HG version.  This paint is an industrial coating designed for firetrucks, 18 wheelers, airplanes, buildings, bridges, marine structures.  The paint is very easy to work with, and very forgiving regarding temperatures and environment.   Subsequent coats burn into previous coats very easily, much like the old school lacquers.

The biggest drawback is the hazard from the fumes.  The VOC's in this paint are very nasty.  There are rumors that persons exposed to the fumes without protection have about a 20% chance of getting chemical induced asthma!  Needless to say, I wore a 3M respirator mask designed just for this purpose with Organic Vapor cartridges.  Here are the cartridges after spraying the green paint.

This 3m respirator worked fantastic, I could not smell ANY paint fumes while wearing it.  If you spray paint, get one of these!

First I put on the very bottom color, the part that will be under the water.  It is a nice light beige / cream color.  It is kind of hard to see in these pictures.

Next I masked off the waterline with the 3M green masking tape, then masked off the cream colored area with masking paper.

I put three coats of paint on the boat.  It took about 1 1/2 gallons of cream color, and about 1 1/3 gallons of the green color to paint three coats.

Now I just have to wait about a week for the paint to cure really hard, then we are going to flip this thing over and build the inside!