Painting my Cafe Racer...
 

As some of you know, I undertook painting my Cafe as a winter project. I have a few minutes so I thought I'd bring everyone up to date...

I'll start at the beginning. First, I pulled the boat out of commission back in early October to begin stripping the hardware out. By the end of the month, the engines were out, transom was bare, and cockpit was dis-assembled. In short, it was ready for sanding.

Around the first of December I started the fun part - intimate association with a DA sander. Here's a few shots.

Side...

Stern.

While I'm at it, I'm replacing the k-planesand all four indicator cables, painting the drives/gimble housings, and having my swim platform fixed where I messed it up last summer.

Bye bye, Cig logo. See what's left of the "1" in the logo? Remember it - it comes into play later in the process.

I'm also having custom made NACA ducts installed where the old rectangular ones were. The rails are being replaced with new ones that I purchased from Tres.

Deck..

Cockpit.

All the black is going white. I polished the grab handles that attach to the backs of the bolsters, and will buy new stainless stell ones for the one near the glovebox and the one over the cabin door. I also bought a Garmin 188i and a Livorsi GPS speedo to install.

Looking back.

While the cockpit is torn out I'm running wire for a new stereo. Clarion subs will mount down low, Babbs 6"x9" in the side panels, and Clarion components in the dash area.

I am EXTREMELY fortunate to have a friend that owns a boat paint/repair shop here in Richmond (Progressive Boat Works). I took the boat to his shop on 12/26 and he and I spent the next three days taping off the boat, applying the sealer/primer and white base coat, and painting all of the piece/parts (pod, glove box door, etc.). This is right after getting to his shop.

The cockpit taped off.

Looks good so far!..

Fred we know you like this kinda stuff... seems like the only boating you DO! :D (ya knew SOMEONE was going there...)

Engine compartment.

The hull after applying the white base coat.

Looks good, can you finish my project next?

your a mad man..... looks great. do you know what your doing for a paint job yet?

The deck. This is where we ran into a big problem - fisheyes. I had cleaned the deck while sanding, and we re-cleaned before spraying, but even that wasn't enough. Eventually, I re-sanded the entire deck area and we repainted it. There are still a few small fisheyes, but they should go away with the clear coat.

On Monday 12/29 we got started on the graphics. Steve (I believe he goes by Speeddoc on OSO) and I started taping and painting.

Red stern - I won't have to clean it as often as the old white one.

Hull..

Closeup of the hull. The red is tipped in a metallic rasberry - very cool looking.

HOLY CRIPES Steve!! Big project. I will not recognize you in the spring.

Deck. Again, tipped in Rasberry.

Stern looking forward, end of day on the 29th.

After peeling the paper off. Notice the sharp tips on the graphics - Steve was able to keep these looking great throughout the rest of the painting.

The front red-graphic...

Keep those pics commin!!!!
Lookin good

Next, we tapped off again and shot the purple and tipped it in silver.

Other side..

Shot a lighter shade of purple through the graphic, and here's the result after the paper is peeled.

From a dsitance.

One color to go - yellow. There was supposed to be yellow between the front edge of the purple and the red graphic, but I decided it ws too much. So just shot yellow into the back white area. Results...

AWESOME!!!! Best thread all year!! :D

Deck..

Other side of deck..

very nice cant wait to see the finished product...

The Cafe Racer logo comes back to life..

Remember the "1" in post #3? Despite at least 10 coats of primer and paint, the damn red paint from that "1" kept bleeding through into the yellow, making it Orange in that spot. So we decided to put the new Cig logo back in the exact same spot, and use dark purple to cover it.

Results..

OUTSTANDING! Jo

Steve - That looks awesome!!! Can't wait to see it this summer.

Patti and Bill

More..

And this is where we're at - end of day on Jan 7th. First 3-4 coats of clear applied to the hull.