Marine Paint and Boat Paint for Hulls, Decks and Trailers

Salt water is harder on a coating than anything a car will ever meet. Affordable Paint Supplies has been supplying paint and coatings since 2008, to boat builders, marine repairers, trailer-boat owners and restorers who want their work to last more than a season.

Whether you are antifouling a hull, refinishing topsides or painting a boat trailer that has spent too many years being reversed into the sea, we can help you put together a system that suits the substrate and the exposure. We also stock the abrasives and spray equipment the job needs, alongside our automotive paint range.

Why Marine Paint is Not Automotive Paint

Constant water, salt and UV ask far more of a coating than a driveway does.

Automotive paint is engineered for a surface that gets wet and then dries, whereas marine paint is engineered for surfaces that stay wet, sometimes permanently. Below the waterline a coating faces continuous immersion, water pressure and marine growth. Above it, salt spray and unfiltered UV work on the film year round, with no garage to retreat into.

The way each one fails is different too. A tired automotive clear coat goes dull and chalky, which is an appearance problem. A failed hull coating blisters, and on fibreglass that can progress into the laminate underneath - a far more expensive problem than a repaint.

Putting an automotive clear over a hull is a false economy. It will look right for a season, and then it won’t.

Build the Right Marine Paint System

Primer, build coat and topcoat have to be compatible with each other and with whatever is already on the boat.

Antifouling goes below the waterline, and its job is to stop growth rather than to look good. It needs a compatible primer or barrier coat beneath it, and antifouls of different chemistries do not always go over one another.

Above the waterline, topside enamels and two-pack polyurethanes provide the gloss and the UV resistance. Deck areas usually want a non-skid additive or a dedicated deck coating instead, because gloss on a wet deck is a hazard rather than a feature.

The same discipline that applies to two-pack automotive systems applies here. Check the technical data sheet for the correct activator, thinner, mixing ratio, recoat window and overcoat times before you open anything.

Know Your Substrate

The substrate decides the primer, and getting that wrong undoes everything above it.

• Fibreglass and GRP need the release wax and any old antifoul removed, a thorough key, and usually an epoxy barrier coat before the build coats go on.
• Timber It wants a flexible system and properly sealed end grain, because end grain is where water gets in first.
• Aluminium needs an etch or self-etching primer, and it must never see a copper-based antifoul. Copper against an alloy hull sets up galvanic corrosion, and the coating becomes the least of your problems.
• Steel needs the rust dealt with properly and then a high-build epoxy over it.

For repairs to the laminate itself, our fibreglass repair and fillers and putty collections cover resins, matting and fillers.

Brush, Roll or Spray

The method follows the coating and the size of the job.

• Roll and tip is the standard approach for topsides and it produces a genuinely good finish. One person rolls a narrow band, the other lays it off with a dry brush before it tacks.
• Brushing suits touch-ups, awkward corners and small patches of antifoul, where masking and setting up a gun would cost more time than the repair is worth.
• Spraying gives the best finish on a large hull and the most control over film build, but it brings overspray and containment obligations with it, and two-pack marine products demand proper respiratory protection.

Guns, suits and filters are in our spray guns, suits and respiratory collection.

Brands and Ranges We Stock

Our KBS range covers rust treatment, tank sealing and high-temperature coatings that suit restoration and repair work, and Imron is a durable two-pack system used across fleet and industrial applications. We also stock the abrasives, fillers, masking products and application gear that any marine job runs through.

Practical Advice, Without the Runaround

Marine coating systems get complicated quickly, and the cost of getting one wrong is a boat out of the water twice. Tell us the vessel, the substrate, whether the surface sits above or below the waterline, what is already on it and what equipment you are working with. We’ll help you narrow it down. We have been trading since 2008, we’re open six days a week, we do expert colour matching, and we run B2B accounts for trade customers.

Need a hand choosing marine paint?

Get in touch with the Affordable Paint Supplies team for straightforward advice on marine paint systems, substrate preparation and compatible products. Free express shipping applies on orders over $500, Australia-wide.