# I want to paint it for duck hunting.



## lawnboy (Jun 5, 2000)

I need some help again. I have a 14 boat and I want to paint it for duck hunting. But I need some ideas as to what to do. Should I brush it on or spray it? And as for the stickers on the side should I take them off or just paint over them? I cant peel them off because their dried on and have lost their flex, so I would have to grind them offor is their an easier way? What color would be the best? That Lund green?


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## Bow Hunter Brandon (Jan 15, 2003)

I dont know what paint to use but try some "downy" fabric softener on the stickers. I know it will take wall paper off it just might work on the stickers.


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## Jethro (May 8, 2003)

I just finished painting my boat and it turned out great.

A blow dryer works great for stickers. Just peel up a small corner and heat up the sticker as you SLOWLY pull it off. It comes off very easy.

1st prep/clean the alluminum and shoot it with your choice of flat color. Any olive drab brown or green is my choice. 

2nd, depening on your hunting location I'd pick up some cattail or thicket patterns. 

I bought a stensil kit through Cabelas and it really made a proffesional job. I shot it with a light sand/tan color

I did all the stencils under 50$

Parker makes some good camo paints I know cabelas sells them but I'm not sure who else.

Post a pic when it's done.


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## fowl (Feb 15, 2003)

Instead of stencils for the camo on my boat i used real vegetation. I got some branches with leaves, and grasses and just held them up to the side of the boat and sprayed over them. it came out great. 

i would also recommend using a light color, such as grey, with the other camo colors. It helps the boat blend in by giving the illusion of soft light shining through the vegetation. It really helps to break up the outline of a big camo boat.


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## AllFowledUp (Jan 3, 2002)

a good home made prep for aluminum is...dont laugh....vinegar and water 50/50 mix. it removes the oxidation and allows the paint to stick. paint over the stickers.....if your like me...you will paint it every year anyways...touch ups that is.


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## Bang-n-Fish (Mar 11, 2002)

I made my stensile with luon ( thin wood sheeting) and used my router, they will last forever.


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## solasylum (Mar 29, 2000)

Jethro...I bought one of the camo stencils from Cabela's am getting ready to paint my boat. Is there anything you would do different according to the instructions? Any other tips?

Thanks,

Scott


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## Jethro (May 8, 2003)

Solasylum,
The instructions say to clean the stensil with a paint thinner or such to remove the excess paint build up.

Just leave it alone, the added paint makes the stencil heavier and less flimsy and requires less tape to keep it inplace while spraying.

I haven't seen the design of your boat but mine has a 2 in horazontal lip along outside center of the hull.

If your's has any variations from a smooth hull, improvise using a ruler or something like it to either form the stencil to the hull or prevent overspray.
It also helps to hold it inplace while spraying.

There will be some overspray. Let the paint dry overnight then go over the boat with a dry towel like taking off car wax. It brings out the paint detail.

PM me if you have any questions.


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## lawnboy (Jun 5, 2000)

Well thanks for all the ideas, seeing how the power was out and I was not planning on going anywhere I went into the garage and got all the stickers off the side of the boat. Man what an easy job with a heat gun. I just heated it up real well then started to peel them off while I was working the gun right in front of me. Even the adhesive was coming off great. Now I think Im going to clean the boat get some aluminum primmer then some good flat enamel paint. Anyone know what the color would be if I went to Home Depo? I want the dark green like trout has.


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## GoneFishin (Jan 11, 2001)

Cabela's has Parker Duck Boat paint in various colors. 

I found the Zinc Chromate primer at West Marine.


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## Barry (Sep 19, 2001)

I painted my 14' alumunm boat two years ago and the camo pattern is holding up very nice.

I put a wire brush onto my hand drill and gave the whole boat a once over. It cleaned up areas of old loose paint and removed stickers and dirt. Bought liquid alumunm cleaner from the auto supply store (brushed on).

If you have the spray equimpment, it is cheaper and better than brush painting. I didn't have the spray equipment so I brush painted the base coat and used spray cans for the camo finish. Gander Mountain has dead grass, drab green and brown camo. I brushed on a gallon and a half of the dead grass for the base of my boat (2 coats). I bought a can of drab green and sprayed it over stencils for the camo pattern. Added some brown to give it a cattail swamp/dead timber look.

Keep in mind that the color used to spray stencils will become the main color of the boat. For example, I used 1 1/2 gallons of dead grass for the base but the two spray cans drab green used to spray on the stencils made the boat primarily drab green. 

My stencils were cut cattail leaves. Get plenty so you can throw them away when the spray paint builds up. Just hold a handful of the cattails in one hand and place against the surface and spray a mist of paint over the area. Just move your way along the boat repeating the pattern. 

You can do the same pattern inside the boat. Just lay out the cattail leaves on the bottom of the boat and spray away.


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## just ducky (Aug 23, 2002)

Lawnboy,
I painted my 14 footer two years ago, and it started out much like yours looks in the picture, stickers and all. I know you said you've taken the stickers off already, but I just painted over mine, and you'd never know it.

As for paint and color, I did a real good job cleaning the boat inside and out before painting. Then I debated the primer, but I decided to try it without. I used a Wagner power painter, and I got the paint at Gander Mountain by the gallon (I think it's called HS camo). It worked fantastic, even without priming, and after two years, there's hardly a change after some pretty serious useage. So my advice is from the looks of your boat in the picture, you probably can skip priming, but it's your call.

The color depends upon where you're going to be hunting. I do 90% of my hunting with this particular boat on Saginaw Bay or Lake St. Clair. Gander Mt. has two good choices in the HS camo stuff.....there's an olive green, and a tan. I chose the tan, did the whole boat inside and out, and didn't do any leaf stencil or any kind of camo design, I just left it flat. I'm telling you, that color is a DEAD RINGER for the color of the sand/mud up on the bay. With the water so low the last few years, I can park that boat in the open water, throw the anchor, and walk with a bag of decoys into the cover, and you wouldn't believe how well the boat blends in when you look at it. Now I usually use my boat blind that I made if I'm hunting out of the boat, and that obviously helps as well. But all by itself, the color is outstanding. I've seen a lot of guys on the bay with the olive green color, and if you compare the two colors side by side, the olive green stands out like a sore thumb up there. Like I said, the tan is a perfect match for the sand up on the bay. So consider the area you plan on hunting and the available cover before you choose the color.


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## stevebrandle (Jan 23, 2000)

Being a sheet metal worker, I have a lot of experience painting aluminum and galvanized metal. 

I think preping and priming the aluminum is the most important step. If you skimp on this base, you can have the best paint in the world come off. The viniger is good and a VERY WEAK muratic acid solution will work, too. A complete water rinse job is a must with the acid!!! 

Zinc Chromate primer has been the stand by for years, but there's better stuff out there now. The zinc chromate tended to chip some, too. Benjamin Moore makes a product called "Perma-Bond". It's made for adhereing insulation, but it's great primer for oxidating metals like galvanized and aluminum. It dries to a thin permanently tacky finish that'll hold paint like crazy. I used it on my aluminum skined garage doors about ten years ago, and it's still holding up without chipping off. It costs about $45-50 per gallon, but a gallon should almost cover two 14 ft. boats inside and out. 

On colors of paint, like mentioned above it depends on your locations. One thing I learned awhile back was wash the mud out of the inside of the bottom of the boat or cover it up in the field. We were having trouble with birds flaring one day and I went back to our boat to set my gun down for a minute, and noticed the clay form the shore had dried in the bottom on the boat and it was almost white! We were trying to hunt in flooded corn strips with a big white spot in the middle.


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## lawnboy (Jun 5, 2000)

Well here it is the end result of the paint jobI think it turned out well and Im pleased. I did use the Wagner sprayer and it worked great.


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