bottom paint removal

gbf03

Cadet
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
Messages
8
Hey guys,<br />Just wondering the best way to remove the bottom paint off my 20 seacraft. It is a complete restoration so, I am not too worried about the gelcoat underneath. It is going to be resprayed with gelcoat. I have heard of soda blasting, walnut shell blasting, and sand blasting. What is the best? What are the pros and cons? Also I heard that there is an apllication to hook up a sand tank to your pressure cleaner is that true or do I have to rent a whole system? <br />Thanks,<br />George
 

flashback

Captain
Joined
Jun 28, 2002
Messages
3,987
Re: bottom paint removal

walnut shells work good. but I would rather get into it with a D.A. with 60 grit, then 80, then 150, and make sure the hull is fair...............Then spray it with a good paint, if you can't spray, then roll it...........
 

Ryoken

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Nov 22, 2003
Messages
179
Re: bottom paint removal

the pressure washer hookup is hydroblasting. works nice for keeping dust down, but you need a good pressure washer, usually 3000 lbs +...<br /><br />any blasting dry or wet will give you varying degrees of roughness depending on the grade of sand used (00,0,etc). other forms of media, plastic, walnut, etc are usually not necessary. you can control how smooth it comes out by the grade of sand, if you want a smoother finish, just use a finer sand, just takes a little longer. when we do barrier coat jobs, we generally go pretty course, repair any blowouts, run over with 60 on a DA and barrier coat.<br /><br />i just reread your post and your going to regel.. i'd go pretty course then.. good to get a few mils off that old gel, then sand a few more off. i wouldn't recommend walnut, doesn't cut into the gel much and if your regeling it's good to remove a fair amount of mils on the old, less chance of too thick gel issues, ie cracking, etc.. lot of work there, not fun wetsanding fresh gel on a bottom, unless of course you have it flipped over...<br /><br />if your getting any moisture readings or think you have any blisters, i strongly suggest blasting over strictly sanding. very easy to miss blisters and just sand them flat. plus stripping with a DA just sucks, i've down about 70 bottom jobs on bigger stuff and the less sanding you do, the happier you'll be ;)
 

G DANE

Commander
Joined
Nov 24, 2001
Messages
2,476
Re: bottom paint removal

I bought a chemical to remove the antifouling paint from my boat at a boat store here in Denmark. Kind of paint remover for glass fiber. Applied it several times, but it got off and Gell Coat was undamaged. If I were to do it again, I'd choose same method.
 

ratherbefishin

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Aug 11, 2003
Messages
240
Re: bottom paint removal

go to www.napierenvironmental.com for a complete line of non toxic chemical strippers.The R&D was done at CanoeCove marina here on Vancouver Island, specifically to come up with safe, efficient chemical stripper to remove anti fouling paint without sanding or sandblasting.Simply spray[or brush] it on, leave it overnight and hose [or powerwash ] it off.
 

cory43

Cadet
Joined
Mar 12, 2005
Messages
9
Re: bottom paint removal

Can anyboby tell me which one of the products they used, I don't see any for marine use only.
 

JustMrWill

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Aug 12, 2003
Messages
877
Re: bottom paint removal

looks like it should be <br /><br />RemovALL 610- Anti-Fouling/Fiberglass Paint Stripper<br /><br />-JustMrWill
 

linmat

Cadet
Joined
Jun 23, 2003
Messages
9
Re: bottom paint removal

Depends on how many layers of bottom paint. I recently cleaned over 20 coats of paint off my 22' outrage. After trying all types of paint strippers to include the envirofriendly types I found they only removed money from my pocket. Good old fashioned scraping and sanding with grits from rough to fine did the trick. Had I not been lazy in the first place I would have saved a lot of money and aggravation.
 

cory43

Cadet
Joined
Mar 12, 2005
Messages
9
Re: bottom paint removal

I only have about 3 to 4 layers, I'm really not even sure the top[ one is bottom paint.
 
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