Bottom paint removal

[jk kudera]

I need to remove the accumulated bottom paint this year, and I wondered if anyone has used a heat gun to do this hard, messy, toxic job?I do plan to scrape, and use paint stripper on the stubborn areas, but wondered if heat would help.What are your thoughts??

 

[Richard Bryer]

have used a heat gun

a few years ago helping a friend strip the bottom of his CS30. We used heat guns and flat "putty knives" about 2" wide. The drill was to warm up a spot, start the knife moving and turning up the anti- fouling and barrier coat ( i believe the barrier coat was Interprotect 2000- it was grey in colour, the anti fouling was certainly VC17) by moving the heat gun along with the blade at just the right speed you could peel off a strip the width of the blade and as fat as you could keep it going. Worked very well. You did have to be careful not to over heat the gelcoat. I cannot remember whether we used a high setting on the heat guns. I dont know how well this would work with different coatings

 

[Duke13540]

West Marine

West Marine has a paste you put on and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes then scrape off. Thats what I'm using this year. Its expensive about $70 a gallon, but I want to do it the right way and hopefully the easiest way,Richard

 

[steve rainey]

accumlated bottom paint

when I first bought mine 30 Hunter I thought I was doing a great job by putting on 3 coats of bottom paint. Really proud of myself, been regretting it ever sense. Slowly the first coat has been failing and flaking. Now I pull it out every 6 months and do a light pressure wash. When its mostly gone, I do a heavy pressure wash, light sanding, fix any blisters and put a fresh thin coat on. Seems to last about 3 years... I found that I could use a scrapper and it came off in big flakes...you might try scrapping, put on a thin coat of paint on the exposed parts and over the next 2-3 years it will mostly ware off. this would save you money unless its going to keep you up at night thinking about it..

 

[antoineH336]

HEAT IS A MUST !!!

Hi fellow scraper!Take my word for granted, wait until the temperature will be way over the 50’s °F to try any kind of paint stripper.I bought 2 gallons of Soy Brite, a Eco friendly stripper, and tried to do the job will the temperature was around 48°F. I put a thick coat and put plastic film over the stripper to avoid drying will curing. They said that it normally takes about 4 to 6 hours to give some result, but let me tell you all dear boaters, it just simply and totally didn’t worked at all.So I let the stuff work all night long and tried again next morning… NADA, NIET ZITCH NOTHING !!!!Since I’m from Montreal in the boat was in Boston, I had to leave after the Easter Week-end, so I took the plastic film out and let everything dry until shipping the boat over Lake Champlain next week… I emailed Capt John which is supposed to be the Guru of Soy based product and he told me that I tried to strip at a well under temperature limit…Hope the next coat I will apply at 60°F will work well and make the job easy… But like everyone say… Don’t under estimate the joy of bottom paint stripping !!!

 

[Robert]

Soda Blasting

You might really consider soda blasting. For the time saved, the money is worth it. I suggested it to a friend last fall and it worked great for him. Not as aggressive as sand, or glass. And really only takes a few hours.RobertSt. Louis, MOReally, you can sail on the Mississippi River

 

[jk kudera]

Thanks for all the ideas,

What I decided to do, is scrape the areas that the bottom paint is flaking off, then use the peel away paint remover. I did the first step on Wednesday, and have a nice 2 gallon bag of paint chips! I ordered the peel away from an on line discount store, now I need to wait for the delivery and warmer weather to apply and peel the remainder. With my steel keel, there is a bit of annual maintenance, I have hammered and scraped the blisters, and filled with a waterproof "bondo" type filler, then I use Pettit 6980 Rust lock primer to cover the few bare spots that I wire brushed where rust appeared over the winter. I will also take the advise to put on only one coat of paint! Thanks for the replys.