[PSUBS-MAILIST] DSV Aquatic Interior Refinishing

[Jon Wallace via Personal_Submersibles]

I have reached a milestone with the K600, interior prep and paint finish is complete. Total time was about three weeks spent grinding, wire brushing, prepping, priming, and painting. I found no significant rust issues that would cause me to call into question the integrity of the vessel. Most of the prep work involved using a wire brush on a grinder to loosen surface rust and feather the surrounding paint. The worst areas were below the main viewport, beneath the hatch area, and the bottom of the aft head. Using a wire brush cleaned the areas easily.The aft section of the vessel was in much better condition than the fore section and in the aft I only spot coated the problem areas with POR-15. In the fore section there was much more area showing surface rust and pin prick rust spots. By the time I was done grinding them down it just seemed to make more sense to completely prime with POR-15 rather than just spot coat each area.I used two coats of POR-15 as the primer and two coats of Macropoxy 646 as the finish coat. All very expensive paint but both providing a very durable and hard finish that I think will last a long time. I was impressed with the POR-15. After two coats it dried hard as a rock and felt extremely durable. I decided on an epoxy finish because I wanted something that would stick and bond to the POR-15, which the Macropoxy did without issue. The only thing I don't like about the Macropoxy is that it's a flat finish. I could have used Sher-Loxane instead but I didn't feel like spending another $240 for a glossy finish when I already had the Macropoxy available to me.The conning tower was in very good shape and required minimal wire brushing. Here again I spot coated those exposed areas with POR-15 however for the finish coat I wanted a gloss finish. While the original paint was obviously durable given it's condition, it showed dirt and scuff marks from years of people climbing in and out of the vessel. I decided I had to have a gloss finish on the conning tower but again didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars for a gallon of Sher-Loxane when I needed less than a quart, so I simply overcoated the existing finish with gloss white Rust-Oleum. We'll see how it holds up.The K600 now has $879 (US) in paint on it. Total cost to refinish the K600 exterior and interior is $2,283 (US) including sandblasting, paint, and supplies.Plan going forward is to let everything harden over the next week and then I can start outfitting the vessel.
For non-Facebook members you can view the photos at http://www.subdb.info/cgi/database/showvessel/albums/index.cgi?A=1320788990&B=1709412155&C=&D=Interior%20Refinishing
Jon
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