Bilge Paint for '62 CC Sea Skiff?

[motherofdog]

Hi Guys,

I'm cleaning up the 1962 Chris Craft Sea Skiff we purchased last summer. I'd like to put a fresh coat of bilge paint down, but I'm not sure what brand or color to use. It looks like it was originally a grey color. I'd like to be as historically accurate as possible.

Thanks in advance, Jerri

[Captain Nemo]

Hi,
Sandusky paint co. www.sanpaco.com they have what you need.
-Mark

[motherofdog]

WOW, You're fast! Thanks Captain Nemo.

[evansjw44]

The original bilge paint is medium low gloss gray. Makes sure you get every bit of oil out of there or it won't stick.

[rgmxk22]

Hi,

Another place you could try for bilge paint is Repcolite Paints Inc in Holland, MI. My dad has been buying paint for his 63 CC Sea Skiff from Repcolite for years.

They claim to have been an original paint supplier to Chris Craft way back when and since they are in Holland. MI just like CC had a plant, it makes sense to me that they would have been a supplier.

Dad buys a charcoal blue hull paint from them and it is an exact match to the original hull color and we would know since dad has known all the owners of this CC since day one.

But we have also purchased Repcolite's Bilge gray and it is a close match to the bilge in dad's CC, but after all the years of water, dirt, oil and grime that ends up in a bilge, it's sort of hard to know the exact color.

The last bill we have from Repcolite is from 2002, so I can't be sure if the contact info is correct, but here it is:
Repcolite Paints Inc.
473 W. 17th Street
Holland, MI 49423
Ph: 616-396-1275

One other note about color match of bilge paint, I read once, I believe in the Brass Bell, that at times, the color CC's bilge paint was just whatever they came up with after they dumped all the leftover hull paints and such in a drum.

At the end of the day, the workers dumped the leftover paints in the drum, that got stirred up and then you had bilge paint. I don't know if that's really what happened, but I do recall reading that somewhere. So if that's true, there wouldn't really be an exact color of bilge gray to go by.

Good luck,
Ron Michael
72 CC XK22

[rgmxk22]

Just did a websearch for Repcolite and here's a link to the site. http://www.repcolite.com/

I didn't see anything about marine paints on the site, so it'd be best to give them a call.

Ron Michael
72 CC XK22

[NOT Firewood]

I have a 1961 Sea Skiff 23' and mine looks varnished, not painted.

[farupp]

I had a 1958 22 foot Sea Skiff Ranger in original, unrestored condition. It's bilge was also varnished and not painted. The 1959 22 foot Sea Skiff Ranger I currently have also has a varnished bilge except for the very bottom which has been painted gray. I can see evidence of varnish under the bilge paint.

I wonder when Chris Craft switched from a varnished bilge to a painted bilge on the Sea Skiffs?

[rgmxk22]

Maybe it has something to do with the size of the Sea Skiff we're looking at when it comes to painted or varnished bilges. Dad's SS is a 31' 1963 express crusier and as I said the bilge is painted and always been that way.

Jerri never stated in the original post about the paint what size Sea Skiff is being worked on. Could it be that maybe the larger SS had painted bilges while the smaller open runabouts had varnished bilges?

My brother (a Lyman fan) is on his third Lyman project, and on the Lymans, I have seen all varnished bilges, one of his was painted below the floor boards and varnished above the floors along with all painted bilges.

So as the years pass, it's hard to say some times exactly how something should be, especially as owner's do different thing to thier boats. And factor in how the factories did different things to the same models of boats, who's to say what is the exact way something should be?

Ron Michael
72 CC XK22

[evansjw44]

My 1958 30' Sea Skiff express cruise has varnished bilges. My 1967 35' Sea Skiff Corinthian has painted bilges. My father's 1963 34' Sea Skiff Corinthian had painted bilges as I remember. His 1959 30' Sea Skiff expres c ruiser also had varnished bilges. Now I'm not so sure the varnished bilge was varnish and not sealer. Sealer dries much faster and you could lay up several coats and get a varnish like finish.

As for my Corinthian, I found a Benjman Moore porch paint that is the exact color match. It seems to cover better than anything else I've used even when the surface has a little residual oilyness to it.

[farupp]

Ron Micheal, I think you are probably right about the larger Sea Skiffs (cruisers) having a painted bilge while the smaller ones (runabouts and utilities) had a varnished bilge.

I would guess, though, that a some point all the Sea Skiffs regardless of size had a painted bilge. I was just curious if and when this change might have occurred (maybe in the early sixties?), and I wonder why the bilge was varnished and not painted?

I don't plan on changing mine back to all varnish. There are too many other more important projects!

[motherofdog]

Hi Guys,

Pardon my error on leaving out the size, it's a 20' "sportsman". The new bilge paint looks great. It much darker than the last coat of bilge paint, but seems very similar to an older coat.

I sure hope I got all the oil out, I scrubbed and scrubbed using the automotive purple degreaser. Next year I'm going to take Don Danenburgs advice and pull out the sides & flooring-take the boat to a car wash where I can clean and degrease it before winter.

I just got my first coat of hull paint on today! Summer is almost here.

[FuzzyDice]

Hi out there,
This an update about REPCOLITE. Yes,they are still in business supplying original Chris Craft paint AND VARNISH. I spoke with their plant in Hollland, MI yesterday about bronze bottom paint for my '56 Capri. Their phone number at the factory and retail store in Holland is 616-396-5213.There's another Holland location but it's only a retail store. Best to call the factory if you need tech help. They carry all sorts of other paint at these retail locations as well.

If you were to go to their site http://www.repcolite.com and click on their "Locations" tab it should show you a map of where all their retail outlets are. They have a 6 locations around the Holland, Grand Rapids, Muskegon areas and one down south of Kalamazoo in Goshen, IN. Click on the map pinpoints and it will give you exact addresses and phone numbers. They said CC paint can be ordered from any of their retail stores and either picked up there or shipped to you.

On that copper bronze bottom paint, they said it takes 7 days for a proper cure. That's problematic. My yard isn't going to let the boat sit in the slings for a week waiting for the paint to cure before launching it even if it's just the sections where it sits on the trailer bunks. Never had that problem with my 34' sailboat when using VC-17. It dries in 10 minutes but it would be sacriligeous to use that stuff on a Chris Craft unless you like dirty blue-gray which is the color the copper turns to when it hits the water. Pettit's copper bottom paint dries in 1/2 hour and doesn't change color I'm told.

Happy Painting
Bob