Ready for a Touch Up for Your Boat, Car, or Motorcycle?
Is there anything better than a vehicle with a fresh paint job? Whether it’s a sleek boat on the water, a car reflecting the road, or a motorcycle shining with the promise of open skies and rushing winds, it just feels right. But it’s only a matter of time before it isn’t fresh any longer; mishaps, scratches, minor scrapes, grit, dust, water, the elements all add up.
Keeping a vehicle’s paint job looking fresh is great, but more importantly, it affects the overall performance of your vehicle. Here’s what you need to know about painting your boat, car, or motorcycle.
Painting Your Boat
The paint on a boat, particularly the bottom, is vital to its performance and durability. Any object in water eventually becomes home to barnacles, weeds, and algae, and falls victim to biofouling. This gets worse over time, and can eventually cause up to a 60% increase in drag through the water and increase fuel use by 40%.
What You Can Do
A boat requires work, but keeping up with regular maintenance is advisable and prevents a great deal of (more expensive) work down the line. Cleaning a boat, hosing it from top to bottom and into the hard to reach places, is one of the best things that can be done for the paint, greatly increasing its lifespan.
Anti-fouling paint is typically layered paint with copper or otherwise biocidal compounds that slowly break down in water by design. These should be replaced from time to time to continue their beneficial effects.
Another thing to consider is where the boat is being stored. If a boat sits in water all the time, the paint will likely only last a year to a year and a half. If it is taken care of and kept out of the water, paint jobs can last several years.
Painting Your Car
Everyone likes the look of a car with a brand new paint job. Besides looking great, automotive paint is layered to provide essential protection against pollution, water, sunlight, and other things that damage the coatings of a car, preventing against corrosion and lasting damage to the frame of the car.
What you can do:
Automotive paint has three layers: the primer, the basecoat, and the clear coat. Before you’re ready to do a touchup on your car’s paint, it’s important to first remove all of the old remnants of these layers, and then make sure all three are reapplied. It’s a lot of work, but it’s necessary if you want the best and most lasting paint job possible.
Paint touch ups on cars are usually best left to professionals. For large scrapes or other damage, touching up automotive paint at home can be hard to do, especially if you want to hide the damage completely and have your car look like new again.
Automotive paint is typically good for at least four years. You can expand the life of your car’s paint job by regularly washing and waxing your car, and parking out of the way of direct sunlight, tree sap, falling leaves, and bird droppings.
Painting Your Motorcycle
Although the painted areas on a motorcycle are smaller compared to larger vehicles, motorcycle paint still contributes to the durability of your motorcycle. Similar to a car, a motorcycle’s paint job protects the frame of a motorcycle and helps to prevent parts from wear and rust.
What you can do:
Motorcycle paint is much easier to maintain without professional help, but a professional who is trained in motorcycle maintenance will be able to give you the best paint job possible. Just like a car, regularly cleaning and waxing your motorcycle is important to keep the paint job fresh. Try to park your motorcycle in a garage, away from direct sunlight and out of the way of anything that could damage the frame.
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