Houseboat Magazine

July 2009

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Stern bow to bow to stern Houseboating's places, faces, views, news, products, and more 10 Houseboatmagazine.com Kevin Williams of Sandy, Utah, has been a proud houseboat owner since May of 2006, and when we put out a call for forum members to tell us their remodeling projects, he was one of the first to volunteer his story. In short, Kevin's boat, a 1988 Skipperliner Custom named Play it Forward, was in severe need of a paint job. It had been a long time since the boat had been painted, but as he purchased the houseboat used, he was un- sure about exactly how long it had been. "Until we moved it to Utah Lake, it spent its life at Lake Powell; I'm not sure the last time it was painted, but we know for sure it was prior to 2001," Kevin said. Needless to say, almost a decade of Southern Utah sun had done a lot of damage to the houseboat. The bottom paint was completely worn out, and though the boat had been repainted at sometime in the past, that was long ago, and it was time to fix things up again. Kevin enlisted the help of family and friends for the project. While he did all of the steam cleaning on the bottom himself, two of his sons spent a day taking turns with him using an angle grinder, grinding and wire-brushing rusty spots. They also helped him apply the rust converter and primer. Kevin's wife, Vickie, and two family friends helped with the bottom painting. Kevin uses an inexpensive vacuum-feed spray gun purchased from Harbor Freight. It is technically intended for automo- tive work, but it gets the job done nicely. He also chose to use Sherwin Williams B54 series industrial enamel, in a color called "Nebulous White." "The paint instructions say the paint doesn't need thinning, but I found it would barely spray without it," Kevin said. He thinned the paint with odorless mineral spirits, and it made a great deal of difference in ease of application. The paint went on without a hitch, lies down nicely, and according to Kevin, it looks great! When asked if there were anything he'd do differently if he had to start the project over, Kevin responded, "I'd love to be able to pay someone to do all this for me, but we're bud- get houseboaters, and we just can't afford it. So far, every- thing's coming along nicely with no big surprises, so I can't think of anything I'd change!" The project is ongoing, and Kevin hopes to have it completed by the end of this month. For other project stories or ideas visit the Houseboat Forum at www.houseboatmagazine.com. Forum Projects Painting by budget houseboaters Before After house boat magazine

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