Rustoleum topside paint review

I decided to buy a can to see how it would work. I purchased the semi-gloss white since I intended to use it on the interior of my skiff, a quart cost about $11. Unfortunately I couldn't find anyone at the store willing to tint it, apparently they have been told by the rustoleum rep that tinting it will effect it's performance :.

I tried it on 2 pices of wood, one bare, and one with a piece of glass on it that was lightly sanded. I used a foam brush to apply the paint and did thin coats as suggested waiting a day in between each. No primer was used for this test.





Well it's been 4 days since the last coat and it looks nice and not so shiney.

Now the verdict. It's a very thin paint and shows imperfections very well so even more prep may be needed before painting. It leveled well, but not as well as a poly paint like interlux brightside, and once again due to the thinness of the paint it didn't flow out into lower areas to hind the imperfections. As far as duability is concerned, it is still slightly impressionable. It has gotten harder with each day but you can still leave a mark on it with your fingernail if you try. It is hard enough for use and to walk on and I believe it will continue hardening with time. I had a similar hardening issue with brightside in the past and I believe it is just a characteristic of 1-part paints, but after a few days int he sun the brightside cured nice and hard.

Would I use it.....I probably will, I'll most likely use it for my interior and cover it with webbing. For my exterior I'm going with brightside, just cause I couldn't get this piant tinted like I wanted.

 

Brett I followed the directions with the exception of the primer, which I left out on purpose. Trust me, no thinning was needed! I did 3 coats in 3 days with a 4 day rest. I would rather use the rustoleum then west marines brand paint which never dried!

 

Some Lowes carry it, call first cause if that one doesn't they will know who does. It was in it's own display case with all the colors and primers.

Well here's a little update on the durability. It has gotten harder, you can still scratch it if you press hard, but it is now actually a little harder then the old samples of the interlux brightside I have. I'm debating between it and an industrial epoxy for my decks now, I think I'll still go with the rustoleum cause it will be easy to touch up if needed.

 

Cut, I used 2-part paints in the past and on my last project and it's just not worth the trouble to me since I use and bang up my boat often. Using a 1-part makes repairs easy to touch up. The only place I think a 2-part is really worth it is on the bottom, but since I'm epoxy/graphiting it I don't need any paint there, the sides see virtually no wear and the deck will be webbed again which adds durability. I don't have the ability to spray anymore, but 1-part paints roll and tip so well you can't hardly tell the difference and it uses less paint. Then there is the price, I'm on a fixed budget from what I have left of the insurance check, so $200 is about all I plan to spend. Honestly I'm already over budget on some things but it's not bad yet.

If you've seen some of my old posts here and on other boards you know I've looked at many alternatives, the best one I found was the pilgrim plastic epoxy coating and may still use it, at $40 for a gallon kit it's a great deal and it is the toughest paint I've seen yet! (used alot for floors with forklift traffic).
I looked at gelcoat alot and almost used it last time, but a few things stopped me. First once you buy the duratech you might as well had bought a 2-part paint. Then the gelcoat doesn't look nearly as good to me as paint does. Finally, and some have argued this but I called the distributor and asked them directly, you lose the durability of gelcoat when you mix it with duratech. I had 2 places I checked out try to sell me on duratech, when they showed me samples they looked better then stardard gel, but not as good as poly paint, but I was curious. Problem is the samples, at both locations, they showed me I was able to make a scratch in with my nail just like a 1-part, the samples of stardard gelcoat they had were much tougher and not impressionable. After calling the distributor I learned that thinning gelcoat with duratech sacrifices the durability for better brushability and appearance. I'm not bashing a product you used, I'm just relaying the information I discovered in my research. Still seems like a decent product except for the price, but now most gelcoat suppliers carry "brushable" gelcoat which already has something like duratech built in and usually costs less.

 

Good deal, thanks for posting up the pic.

 

From what I've seen so far I would let it sit for atleast 2 days past the normal 24 hours, or 1 good day in the sun.

 

Updates:

First the samples I made. They have been sitting outside on my patio for the last 3 months. I forgot about them till yesterday when I started priming my boat. The samples have been exposed to sun rain and skunky sprinkler water. They look exactly the same as when I first posted them. However to my suprise the paint has continued to cure and is now much harder then before. Still not quite as hard as a 2-part paint, but it seems much more durable then the interlux brightside I still have samples of. I'm now very happy with my choice.

Next the large scale application. I did the front and rear compartments of my boat. The primer is a little thinner then I would have liked but covered well for only using one coat on non faired glass. I used a foam roller for the primer and it dried within a few hours, but I gave it overnight before a quick sanding with 220. The paint I applied with a small short nap roller. It is very thin paint and really there in no need to thin it more, but it covers well and lays down very well. it is thin so it will show every contour and imperfection so you have to make things real smooth if that will bother you. Here is a picture of one coat of primer and one coat of paint, I will be doing a second coat soon. At $11 a quart I definately think it's a bargain.

 

Might just be too many coats, I believe they recommended 2-3 thin coats when rolling. The stuff dries slow! very Slow! and will continue to cure for weeks, I would just try and not hit it with a direct hose stream for a while, eventually it will harden up.

That being said I do plan to buy some valspar enamel hardener to mix into mine when I do it soon.

As an update, my original test samples have been sitting outside in the sun on top of my BBQ grill for 5 months now on non sealed wood samples (except the one strip of glass). Still lookin good, yes you can still scratch it with a nail, but it seems a bit better then the interlux brightside still.