Tinting marine paint

[Scott Trotter]

Greetings:

I'm getting ready to paint an old wooden cruiser hull - the dry part. I'd
like to use one of the honest-to-goodness boat paints, Interlux or ZSpar.
I don't want just old white, though; in fact, I more or less want to rip
off the color scheme of the boat "Zulu", which appeared on the cover of
WoodenBoat a while back - a really, really attractive home built.

My question, though, is this: can I take my cans of R.E.P. (Rather
Expensive Paint) down to the local paint-store, with their little
color-matching scanner, and have them tint this type of paint? I've been
assuming, in the back of my mind, that marine hull paint is in the same
family as exterior gloss enamel, and could be dealt with as such. However,
I want to be quite sure about this before the clerk (you know The Clerk -
graduated from high school by the skin of his teeth, hopes the Clearasil
will kick in real soon now, and thinks marine paint is for sprucing up
the barracks... ) starts juicing my R.E.P.

Thanks in advance - S.T.

[Dorian Jessick]

I am no expert but I am sure you can not do this. The dye
used in the enamel most likely will not mix well with the
poly/enamel marine paint.

Dorian

[Anne Morris]

SUBJECT: Re: Tinting marine paint

I believe that the Interlux 220 (semi-gloss) or 242 (flat) or else the Z-
Spar 99 or 100 paints are straightforward alkyd enamel paints that aren't
different from household enamels except perhaps in having somewhat better
gloss retention. So it may be right that you'd have trouble with
something like Miracote or International's one-part polyurethane
(Brightside? I've forgotten), you should be all right tinting a base
white marine paint. At least the tech department at Woolsey/Z-Spar says
so.