It's time to start thinking about removing the bottom paints from my E25 and start a new process of painting the hull. I've had the boat for 2+ years & haven't repainted her yet. Any advice on how to remove what may be 25 years of old paint? Heat gun? Chemical stripper? Scraping & sanding? Thanks in advance, as always. Mark
Removing bottom paint
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Walnut shells
Mark, here is some info on different ways to remove bottom paint. Soda blast - expensive, not DIY, but very effective and fast. Chemical strippers - can be harmfull to gelcoat, messy, mixed results especially in colder climates, DIY or Yard($$$). Scraping/sanding - cheap, you will be in great physical shape when done, tedius but very satisfying. Walnut shell blasting - more than scraping but less than soda blast, DIY, fast, relatively easy to learn technique. Heat - bad idea. You will wreck your boat. I have stripped 3 boats so far. An 18ft, 28ft and 35ft. The 18 and 28 I used the scrape and sand method. The 35 I blasted with shells. It took 1 day. I rented a commercial blasting tank, hood and compressor. Bought 4 50 pound bags of shells and recycled most of them. It cost about $500. Once all the paint is off you will need to fill any voids, do blister repairs or maybe some fairing. I used West system thickened epoxy. The final sanding was with 80 grit using a porter cable 6" DA sander. Once sanded, I applied 4 coats of Interlux interprotect 2000e followed by a coat of red ablative paint and 2 coats of shark white Micron Extra. Finished hull was nice and smooth and well protected. Tim R.
Mark, here is some info on different ways to remove bottom paint. Soda blast - expensive, not DIY, but very effective and fast. Chemical strippers - can be harmfull to gelcoat, messy, mixed results especially in colder climates, DIY or Yard($$$). Scraping/sanding - cheap, you will be in great physical shape when done, tedius but very satisfying. Walnut shell blasting - more than scraping but less than soda blast, DIY, fast, relatively easy to learn technique. Heat - bad idea. You will wreck your boat. I have stripped 3 boats so far. An 18ft, 28ft and 35ft. The 18 and 28 I used the scrape and sand method. The 35 I blasted with shells. It took 1 day. I rented a commercial blasting tank, hood and compressor. Bought 4 50 pound bags of shells and recycled most of them. It cost about $500. Once all the paint is off you will need to fill any voids, do blister repairs or maybe some fairing. I used West system thickened epoxy. The final sanding was with 80 grit using a porter cable 6" DA sander. Once sanded, I applied 4 coats of Interlux interprotect 2000e followed by a coat of red ablative paint and 2 coats of shark white Micron Extra. Finished hull was nice and smooth and well protected. Tim R.
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