Previous owner of my Starwind gave me a 1/2 gallon of bottom-kote; I'm going to apply to the boat...How should this be prepared and applied (sanding, roller, brush,etc.); this paint is already on the boat; it looks ok, but it needs another coat; any suggestions would helpful; also the cast iron keel is flaking (maybe just scraping).
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Prep
I think that Interlux Bottom-Kote is a hard modified epoxy. If your boat has been out of the water for a while, you'll need to do some sanding to prep it for the new paint. The toxins leach out of modified epoxy paints and leave a dead matrix, which mostly needs to be removed prior to re-painting. If what you have is Interlux Bottom-Kote ACT (hopefully), that is an ablative paint that only needs to be cleaned and roughed up prior to repainting. All this assumes that the old paint is in good and tightly adhered condition. Any flaking or badly adhered paint always needs to be removed. Iron keels (I have one, too) are another matter. If yours is flaking, the best thing to do is to sand it down to bare metal. At that point you have a number of choices. Some people like to put an epoxy barrier coat on them. I do not. You could use any of a number fo zinc chromate based paints like Petit Rustlok and bottom paint over that. I did that the first year I have my boat and with decent, but not great, results. I subsequently applied a coat of POR-15 (see link)and then bottom painted and that worked very well for me.
I think that Interlux Bottom-Kote is a hard modified epoxy. If your boat has been out of the water for a while, you'll need to do some sanding to prep it for the new paint. The toxins leach out of modified epoxy paints and leave a dead matrix, which mostly needs to be removed prior to re-painting. If what you have is Interlux Bottom-Kote ACT (hopefully), that is an ablative paint that only needs to be cleaned and roughed up prior to repainting. All this assumes that the old paint is in good and tightly adhered condition. Any flaking or badly adhered paint always needs to be removed. Iron keels (I have one, too) are another matter. If yours is flaking, the best thing to do is to sand it down to bare metal. At that point you have a number of choices. Some people like to put an epoxy barrier coat on them. I do not. You could use any of a number fo zinc chromate based paints like Petit Rustlok and bottom paint over that. I did that the first year I have my boat and with decent, but not great, results. I subsequently applied a coat of POR-15 (see link)and then bottom painted and that worked very well for me.
If you are thinking ablative...
...or plan on going to ablative in the future, I would get rid of it and not use it. To apply ablative, you would have to completely sand off all of the bottomkote that is currently on the boat. Otherwise, you may have to sand and paint it every year.
...or plan on going to ablative in the future, I would get rid of it and not use it. To apply ablative, you would have to completely sand off all of the bottomkote that is currently on the boat. Otherwise, you may have to sand and paint it every year.
Paul, your comment is confusing to me...
... A bit more explanation might help. Tom.....I would recommend reading the west marine advisor on bottom paints... then reading the instructions on the paint can. It's that simple. My understanding is you can paint ablative over hard shell, but not hard shell over ablative.
... A bit more explanation might help. Tom.....I would recommend reading the west marine advisor on bottom paints... then reading the instructions on the paint can. It's that simple. My understanding is you can paint ablative over hard shell, but not hard shell over ablative.
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