Progress Report

Today I solved my paint supply problem.

Ib Svane had recommened Dupont at the corner of Serdan & Legaspy for paints, particularly  2-part paints, and his advice turned out to be very good.  I got great help from the paint technican behind the counter and the manager, who spoke pretty good English.  I started off by producing my nearly full can of Dulux "Antique White" paint which is what I had used to paint some of the cabin surfaces in Australia.  I asked them they could supply something comparable.  They recommended a 2-part paint that is good for wood and particularly good for fiberglass.  I liked the sound of that because it would obviate the need to purchase 2-part paint specially for the fiberglass. 

I asked if they could supply two liters and they said that they could, but it would be provided in some flimsy-looking plastic containers.  I elected to keep it simple and purchase a regular 4-liter can.  The manager said that (as in Australia and everywhere else probably) buying a 4 liter can was a much better buy.

They asked if I wanted gloss paint as was the Dulux and I replied that I preferred semigloss.  No problem.  The technician removed about 10% of the paint from the can and mixed in some honey colored goo which according to him turned it into semigloss.

He then proceeded to match the color.  Forget the carousel of tints and working from a book of color formulas.  This man came back with 3 tints and hand squirted a bit of each into the white paint.  The result looked pretty good to me, but he wasn't satisfied.  "Mas amarillo" he said, and put in another squirt of yellow and teeny amounts of the other two pigments.  Still he wasn't happy.  After the third iteration he was happy and to me it looked like a perfect match.

Genesis of Despair

I took the material to the boat satisfied that I had gotten good paint and plenty of it, but it didn't come cheap: 2800 pesos for the paint, two bottles of accelerant, one bottle of thinner, and a bunch of paint brushes. 

At the boat I had to weather an attack of despair.  The boat was a shambles with furnishings and painting equipment heaped in stacks wherever I could find the room.  Everything was dusty.  There were no floor boards in place so that walking had to be done on the narrow fiberglass supports.  Ahead of me was more hours of sanding before I made the decision of whether to apply the varnish or the paint first.  After two hard weeks with the floor boards I felt that I was going deeper into the mine, so to speak.  Maybe I should have taken a day off.  But I took a few deep breaths and told myself to get it together, hold steady, and keep concentrating. 

Sanding completed, Varnishing started

I decided to do the varnishing first.  I used satin varnish for the pots & pans cupboard then switched to high gloss for the rest.  At the end of the day I was happy with the result and felt better about the situation.  Ib came by while I was cleaning the paint brush and that cheered me up a lot.  I loaned him my cable so that he can try the marina's hard wired internet and see how it compares to the wireless facility.  I won't need that cable until I move back into the boat in 4 weeks time.

It will be 3 or 4 days before I begin with the white paint.  That will be a tricky one because I'll have to ladle the paint out of the big can into a measuring cup and mix the correct amount of accelerant.  I'll have to assemble plenty of rags, paper towels, paper cups, newspaper,etc; and somehow I'll have to clear the cabin table to minimize the chance of an accidental spill.