Stripping/Redoing Bottom Questions

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Rick

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Oct 5, 2004
1,098
Hunter 420 Passage San Diego
Hi, all fellow Hunter lovers! My H285 is in need of a new bottom. I've owned her for 6 years and I, and the previous owners never took her all the way down, epoxied her, and repainted. OFr the last 3 yrs I'vew only power washed her and touched up the bare spots. Stiil, about 80% of her has multiple coats of ablative (Micron CSC) paint. I'm thinking of taking her all the way down, putting 4-5 coats of barrier coating, and switching to VC17. A few questions for you, since I've never done this before... 1. Can I use a pressure washer to remove as much paint as possible before resorting to Peel Away-type paint stripper? I think I can get a PW of about 1800 psi to do most of the heavy work. 2. Can I then use Peel Away and do major portions of the hull at one time? I'm thinking of getting several sheets of plastic to apply over the hull so I spend as little time as necessary in this ugly process and get as much chemical working as I can. 3. I know I then need to rinse her well, and do 2-3 applications of wax remover/prep to make sure whe is totally wax-free. 4. I would then assume I need to sand the bare hull lightly, tack-rag ger, and then start applying the epoxy barrier coat in a wet-on-wet method. My concerns here are how to do under the cradle pads. Do the whole boat except the pads, then put her on 4-6 jackstands, and then feather in the remaining areas? Any advice/experience/tips from others who have done this would be appreciated!
 
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John

Sandblasting

I sandblasted our bottom, then patch blisters. Barrier coat, then paint. we droped the pads for each coat. Good luck
 
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Mike McKendy

Strip Tease

Rick, here's my experience. I did my '91 30"t" a couple of years ago - I had no problems but figured that it was cheap insurance against future problems. After I hauled the boat in the fall (that's mid-October here in New Brunswick, Canada), I used peel away. It was a tedious process because it needs reasonable warmth to activate. Anyway, I got probably half to two thirds off relatively easily but I did a pile of scraping with various implements to get to bare hull. A word of advice - the bottom needs to be sanded anyway, so get as much off then take to it with a sander. Preparation for Interprotect suggests sanding with 80 grit. Seemed very heavy to me so I used 120 with a random orbital sander (a cheap Black and Decker job). It made getting the last of the antifouling easy. Anyway, I left the bottom clear for the winter and then applied five coats of Interprotect. There is a very specific temperature related window between coats. Read and heed the instructions because if it dries too much you have to sand in between coats to ensure adhesion. Also, they recommend that the antifouling be applied a certain time after the bottom protection (I have these specification if you need them). When completed (and after I forgot about the painstaking stripping) it made an excellent bottom and I am very confident about it being impervious to water infiltration. As to the hull under the pads - I am on a cradle that has bunks instead of pads. I did not strip under the bunks in year one. When I hauled out the next year, I had the crane advance the boat a couple of inches which exposed these patches and then I did short work of them. Any more help or advice, I'd be glad to provide, Mike
 
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Ed Schenck

Scraped 37 feet!

Used various size scrapers and an orbital sander(with vacuum)like Mike. Had about 50 pencil eraser size blisters which I dremmeled and filled. Then followed the Interlux 2000E instructions for temperature and timing. I had the marina put her in the sling on Friday which gave me the weekend to scrape, sand, barrier-coat, and bottom paint the cradle areas. Then a launch on Monday morning.
 
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