Bilge Paint

[John Stone]

Hello All,
Happy Thanksgiviing Eve.

Got a question. I am getting close to the point in the rebuild where I need to start thinking about paint for the bilge and other areas that are not in plain view--behind lockers, lazarette, bilge area, etc.

What kind of paint have other sailor used for these areas? I have looked at lots of paints from Interlux Bilgekote to Rustoleum alykd paints. What have you all used and were you happy with it? Also, the colors most popular seem to be white and grey--what do you all like and why?

Appreciate this learned groups thoughts and ideas.

Many Thanks.
John
www.farreachyvoyages.com

[The Froon]

Using Interlux Bilgekote...happy with it thus far. This is my first restoration, so others will most certainly chime in with time-tested product suggestions, but the Bilgekote is performing quite well.

Brian

[LazyGuy]

Ditto on the Interlux Bilgecoat. Although I find the gray to be too dark and I do not want white bilges so I mix the two. I add a quart of gray to a gallon of white.

It sticks to anything that is reasonably clean and it lasts a long time.

[Tim]

I use Bilgekote all the time. Good stuff.

It's been in service on Glissando for 10 years and counting, and I have zero complaints: zero chipping, zero flaking, zero maintainance beyond normal cleaning.

Bilgekote is easy to apply, extremely forgiving of the sort of minimal prep work one might find in bilge areas, covers in one coat, and has proven to be durable under these poor conditions.

The gray color of the 2000 vintage Bilgekote on Glissando is quite a bit lighter than the current gray. I preferred the lighter gray, but I still prefer the current gray to the white. The white has some sort of nasty indefinable yellow-ish component to it that I don't like. I used to mix white and gray to lighten it, but decided the effort wasn't worth the results for me, so now I just use the gray straight out of the can.

[Homer]

In the areas of bilge that I recently rebuilt I used epoxy with white tint. This would be a ridiculous exercise in the back of a cabinet, but down in the netherworld, it is bombproof.