strip or paint over

[Ed]

I am curious whether I should strip the old bottom paint off the hull of my 1976 O'Day 25 or just paint over the old paint next season before putting it in the water. Please let me know your opinions on this.ThanksEd

 

[Alan Wiser, '89 240 O'day]

What brand of paint is on there now?

I have alway's heard that if you use the same brand of paint and the condition of the old paint is okay, then you can paint over it. As long as you clean the surface of the old paint. If you decide to strip/sand the old paint, I recomend a product at Sherwin-Williams called "PEEL AWAWY 1". It did great on stripping my old bottom paint off, then using a presure washer to get off the remaining residue. Hopes this helps. If you need more info you can e-mail me at budwiser1@fuse.net

 

[Justin - O'day Owners' Web]

Type matters more than brand

Ed -Most paints are actually compatible with each other. If you have an older style epoxy based paint now, or a newer ablative paint then you can put an ablative paint over it. You want to make sure the paint that is there now is solid, well attached to the hull, and you should sand and chips fair.If you have a sloughing paint or a teflon based paint it needs to come off if you are not going to use exactly the same paint.Justin - O'day Owners' Web

 

[Paul Palmer]

Bottom Paint

The West Marine catalog has a bottom paint compatibility chart on page 375 of the 2001 Master Catalog.Paul Palmer

 

[Pat Liston]

I just finished a bottom job.

I just finished a bottom job on my 25. I know that the bottom had not been stripped for at least ten years as I have known the boat that long. Much of the bottom paint was aligatored (crazed cracking and delamination of the paint). I decided after looking at the paint to go ahead and strip it. It turned into the bottom job from hell. The stripping chemicals did not work. I wound up scraping the paint of with a razor (the type you use to clean paint of windows) and then sanding what would not scrape. Being as the sanding got into the gel coat I decided to give the hull a barrier coat. By the time the job was over I had quite a bit of both sweat and money in the job. As far as your boat is concerned, if you aren't a racer (all those coats of paint add weight) and if the paint is not cracking or peeling off, I would give it a scrape and light sanding as per the bottom paint manufacturers instructions and put her back in the water. The only caveat is that some bottom paints will adhere to other bottom paints and some will only adhere to certain kinds of bottom paints. Do you homework on paint types and properties before you make any decisions. The West Marine catalog is a good place to start. Good luck. If I can be of any help just ask.Pat