I’m not going to be unduly negative in the following little dittie I hope, just informative. If you’re at all into onboard DIY these days, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Frogtape, a new product that purports to prevent tape-related bleed-through during painting projects, both big and small. My brother told me about the stuff and, at his behest, I used some on a home-improvement job I had going around the ol’ ranchero.
It worked great, I gotta say. Seemed to live up to its billing in all ways. Easy to apply. No bleed-through. Just crisp, precise lines between what was painted and what was not.
I was overjoyed. Beside myself (virtually schizophrenic) with exaltation.
Of course, I had to try Frogtape afloat. Like immediately!
So just last weekend I taped off all of Betty Jane‘s windows with a couple of rolls of Frogtape while preparing for the annual ritual of the painting of her maxi-numerous teak window frames with white Petit Easypoxy paint. And, to ensure that I was giving the new product a fair seafaring test, I made sure I was extra careful about pressing the tape hard against both the glass and fiberglass surfaces involved during the prep phase of the chore.
The photo below will give you an idea of the result t (and don’t miss the top edge of the window):
After the tape-pulling party was over, I was big-time peeved. Not only did my green Frogtape do a poor job of preventing Easypoxy bleed-through, it seemed to do a poorer job than plain ol’ varnishing tape, whether green, blue, orange, or whatever.
But before I made a precipitous judgment on this new product and followed up with a vast, bloggy bloviation concerning its basic shortcomings, a voice at the back of my doddering mind suggested I do what I’d failed to do before transferring Frogtape technology so briskly from land to sea–I went to the Frogtape website to do a little exploration.
And guess what, folks!
Turns out Frogtape’s PaintBlock technology is designed to work with water-based latex paint, not the epoxy-type I typically use on Betty’s window frames.
Heck! Shouldn’t a guy who’s as aged and fraught with imperfections as myself be a little embarrassed about all this?
Not really. I’ve grown comfortable with admitting I’m wrong over the years, most likely because of all the practice I’ve had at it.
Anyhoooooooo.
Next year, when the annual window-frame extravaganza rolls around again, I’m gonna stick with the blue 3M varnishing tape I’ve been using since ol’ Bowser was a pup.
Apparently, Frogtape isn’t quite froggy enough for boats yet.
