Carver Owners Forum

Greetings! One of the things I need to do this year is to repair a panel. The upper Sundeck on my 1994 390 CPMY has plexiglass or acrylic around the bottom half of the deck, and the canvas enclosure snaps to it. The panel on the port side has yellowed, so much it is not pretty. Has anyone ever painted an acrylic panel before? I was thinking of sanding it with perhaps 22 grit and then getting a white enamel and use a fine foam roller to paint the panel. Another option is to take it off and have a body shop prep and spray it, but I am sure that will be a few hundred. Any advice?

Painting is probably your easiest and cheapest route. You will get a much better finish if you remove it and lay it flat as opposed to trying to do it in place. 22 grit is like gravel, I think you meant 220 grit. Biggest problem is to match the white, sounds easy but white is difficult. Then again almost any white is better than the yellow on there now. Another option to consider is to have it wrapped.

Like Hans said, matching white is brutal....any final sanding of primer before paint should be 600 - 800 grit if you want a smooth shiny finish........I have an idea, try wet sanding a small spot on the panel first, maybe the color is under there still, who knows....good luck man

Yes. I meant 220 grit. Fat thumbs typing! The panel has yellowed right through. I was also wondering what would any of you use for paint or primer? I don’t think spray cans will work as I am scared or runs. Perhaps a gloss enamel with a primer for acrylic? I just did my kitchen cabinets in place and prep, careful prep was the recipe for success. I used a small foam roller after a coat of primer on a carefully sanded timer then 2 coats of primer. Looks outstanding! I am hoping for a 1/2 as good job on the HOLODECK.

Hans had a great thought. Take that piece to a sign company that does wraps with vinyl tape, along with another piece to color match. They do wonders with that stuff and it does not fade any faster than plexi. That is a strange fade. I assume you have that same piece on the starboard side. White only has 80 different shades, and then experiences fade. This also may be an opportunity to do an accent color, like mirror chrome. You would be easy to spot on the water and at the dock. AND, other boaters could apply makeup, brush their teeth, and style their hair on your dock. Could be some serious entertainment and free drinks. er

Its strange that piece yellowed so much and the others didn't. I would GUESS it was replaced somewhere along the line. Maybe the quickest and possibly best route would be to cut an new white acrylic panel?

Since it appears you have knowledge and experience in painting, I would try painting this panel, what have you got to lose? Worse case scenario you have to get a new panel made. With technology to day I'm thinking a good paint supplier would be able to match that shade of white you have!

You should find the Interlux Brightsides Off-White Poly (4381) to be a very close color match. Don't use the Hatteras Off-White - it's a little too beige. This paint has nice gloss, flattens well, and you and apply it with roll and tip, foam brush, fine brush, or spray. The match is surprisingly good on my Carver.

Sounds exactly what I need. Thank you!

If this was the summer or you have a lot of sunlight, then I'd suggest trying Retrobright first. The solution requires UV light to activate the process, so natural sunlight is desired. You can use UV lamps for smaller projects.

It's a concoction of hydrogen peroxide and oxyclean detergent. They use it when restoring old computers and printers to 'like new' condition after they've yellowed out. Many years ago a couple guys figured out that it's some of the flame retardant chemicals used in the manufacture of the plastics that are coming to the surface that causes the yellowing.

There are numerous places to get info on this. Here is one that I quickly found:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/how-to-use- ... ic.339736/

I've used it on a couple things I have. One is a little round cap for my digital compass. It had yellowed pretty bad and the retrobright process made it look like brand new.