TotalBoatTopside Primer (Gray, Quart)

Great product but its all about the prep before you prime. Sharp edges need to be rounded or you will sand thru the primer. The primer dries very quickly ( even thinned 10% ) so complete the square space in front of you before you proceed but make sure you do a light ( no pressure ) role on your final tip pass. ( I did not use a brush to tip. I rolled my project using a foam roller which works great. My surface was an epoxy sanded with 120 grit. You could still see the swirls after priming in the first coat but the 2nd coat did the trick & seals everything. "Seals".... I have done some minor filler work on a few imperfections before priming. The primer prepped these spots ( dull finish ) in the first pass & sealed them in the second pass along with all the filling all the swirls. The only thing I could see after the second pass was the roller marks. If you make a final no pressure pass this should be minimal.1) There is no such thing as a one coat. I could light see thru one coat but the coverage is excellent. 2 coats are required2) You must lightly sand between coats just to take the roughness out. I use 320 dry light passover on the first coat & 400 wet sanding with orbital sander on the 2nd coat & did not sand thru the primer. I did not need a third coat mainly because the surface prep was almost perfect.3) Do not use the thinner to clean the surface ( primer ) between coats unless its over 24hrs. Only use to prep the surface before you prime. I could sand after 4 hrsCoverage is very accurate based on applying 2 coats. My project was about 120 sq ft so I had to use 2 qts. 1/2 ( 4 oz ) cup will coat about 30 sf. So you don't waste primer, leave the little stuff for leftover paints. I had 4 2x4 hatches that i coated after each of the 4 30 sq ft sections which worked out well.

After buying some "exterior" house paint and trying to make it look smooth, I had to sand it all off and give up being a cheapskate. The primer could have been thinned, and in retrospect I wish I had thinned it, but I used it before I spent any time watching the videos that TotalBoat provides. Naturally, you get what you pay for, and the extra cost here was well worth it. I was pleasantly surprised by several things: first, the package contained a full sheet of instructions and facts; second, the videos these people produce are really great; and lastly - probably because of the prior bad experience with cheap paint, the coverage is amazing.

Used to prime boat floors, stir product well before using as everything settles too bottom..Nylon brush and 1/8” foam roller worked perfect, did 24’ open bow boat with 1 quart still have touch up left if needed after 1 solid gray coat..Excited for the total tread top coat..

will know more after some time on the water next year

Applied grey primer over fiberglass helm and table top. When mixing it was super thick and even after mixing for 15 minutes it had lumps. I rolled and brushed on at a temperature around 60 degrees, so it should have been slower to dry, but it dried extremely fast almost to the point of not able to do any back rolling.