Has anyone used Peel-Away?

[sonofasailorsailing]

Now that Patience Too is back in the water and the hull looks so good, we are contemplating our next project, repainting the deck. We have seen advertised the product Peel-Away for paint removal. It is a product that you are just supposed to paint on, place thier special paper over, let stand for a period of time, then peel away the paper along with the old paint. It sure looks like alot less work and no dust from sanding. Any satisfied (or unsatisfied) customers out there? Thanks.

 

[Paul (Affinity C320)]

Peel-Away

Yes, I bought it at Home Depot -- worked great on 10 years of bottom paint.

 

[Matt Kirk]

Peel-Away 7

This may not help much, but I did a complete bottom job on my new-to-me 81 Oday 28 this past off-season (stripped to gel and then Interprotect 2000 and VC17).I found a good deal on ebay for their number 7 product. (Per a phone call with the company, there's no real difference between 7 and marine but I never tried marine so I can't say for sure). Anyway, there was a very thick coat of soft ablative that it removed pretty well, but it took two applications in most spots, maybe because I applied it too thin. It didn't seem to penetrate whatever was under the ablative (barrier? primer?) but that was pretty thin and not too hard to sand. It saved me a LOT of hours on the sander, but the cost was around 500 (two 5-gallon pails). You might wanna try a couple different types as deck paint is sure to be harder than what I dealt with.By the way, get a sander with a dust hose attachment and use a shop vac with a big pail of water in between. You and your neighbors will appreciate it. but then again you've got a pail of 'soup' to deal with.

 

[Ross]

Yes I stripped fifteen years worth of bottom

paint with peel-away. This was the drill; Slather the stuff on thick, I used a dry wall knife, cover with the coated paper, come back the next day with rubber boots, a tyvek suit, rubber gloves and safety googles. Using a four inch wallpaper scraper remove everything that is loose, then with a 3M grill scrubber and a waterhose scrub down the places that didn't scrape clean. Place the used paper in the trash and start the next section. After the first five gallons I read the ingredients label and started making my own with hydrated lime and sodium hydroxide and water. BUT DON'T try it if you aren't knowledgable when it involves mixing chemicals.Edit to add: coated freezer paper also works if you don't want to spend money for paper with somebody's name on it.

 

[Rich]

Sorry, have to disagree

I don't know what you guys are buying, but the "Peel-away pro" that I bought at West Marine last year was utterly ineffective and a complete waste of money. Even after leaving a generous coating on for the full 24 hours it didn't even begin to soften the bottom paint. When I went to the West Marine web site to write up a scathing review I found other people were having the same problem.I think the issue with this stuff is that it doesn't work on epoxy-based bottom paints, which are often the cheaper brands that you'll find underneath your ablative, or in my case, throughout. I happen to like epoxies and I don't blame the bottom paint in this case. The product that really works is Interlux Interstrip 299E, which you brush on and will soften everything up for removal with a spatula.It sounds to me like the guys who thought "peel-away" was really working bought a lot more of the stuff than they would have needed if they used Interstrip and made it work through sheer force of elbow grease...

 

[Larry Wilson]

Use a cheaper stripper and cover with paper

I've used the Interstrip and was fairly satisfied. What I've been doing lately though is to use a less expensive brush on remover, and use peel away's procedure of covering it with paper. In my case, I used paper grocery bags and let the stripper soak for a few hours. The paper just keeps it from drying on the job. The longer you can keep it wet, the more coats of paint you'll soften with one coat.Larry Wilson(90+ degrees, and humid)Richmond,Va.

 

[Larry Wilson]

Why not just sand?

I meant to address this additional issue in my previous reply. All that is needed normally, is to rough up the surface of the old paint. It seems like you're creating a lot of extra work to use a paint remover in this application. 80 grit paper on a random orbital sander, and a wet/dry vac work wonders. Then just prime and paint. Larry Wilson Richmond,Va.

 

[Rick9649]

WOFTAM!!!

Bought "Doesn't" Peel-Away to remove 5 coats of Micron CSC from my iron keel. Followed the directions "TO THE T". Didn;t work at all...IMHO..WOFTAM!

 

[Ross]

Larry raises a good question, Why do you

want to strip the paint off. For a simple new coat we just sand with 80 grit mesh on a sanding pad with a 5 gallon bucket of water to rinse the sanding pad in and hose the whole thing off when we're done ,let it dry and paint.

 

[Ross]

Rick, as I recall Peel-away is fairly

specific about where it works and what it works on. As others here have noted " It don't work wortha ---- on fill in the blank"But on some things it is very good. I won't buy it again because I make my own version.

 

[Paul (Affinity C320)]

Peel-Away

Does not work on two part epoxy - period. But it still removed 10 years of bottom paint down to my barrier coat over night. All I had to do was wash the residue off with water, sand with 80 grit and paint with two coats of new bottom paint. Ready to sail. In fact, when I showed up at the boat the next morning, most of the paint with the paper had fallen off onto the plastic I put down, I rolled it up and put it in the trashafter using a four inch putty knife. I put the Peel-Away on with a 1/8 inch tooth blade, put the paper on and went home for the night.

 

[Mark]

yes it worked for me

There are many different types and grades of stripper made by peel away. Go to their web site and read which ones work on what. I used it to remove at least two coats of non skid paint from the deck, (after trying Soy strip and some fiberglass stripper I got at the auto body paint shop, which didnt work) The secret for me was, put it on THICK, and after pulling off the paper, use a stiff brush and mineral spirts, and then a scotch bright pad and more mineral spirts. Scrub it off. That did the trick. Was'nt easy, but it worked.