Stripping the paint from the haul

[Whim Sea]

I need some ideals on removing the paint from the haul. This is a 1974 23', it been out of the water going on 4 years, It need alot tlc and this is my frist time doing any thing with fiber glass and gel-coating. It had paint on it that had run during the time when it was installed. I'm rebuilding it from the swing keel to the top of mast, so i'm going to need some help on to this little project.

 

[Joe11688]

You can buy a paint remover that is used specifically for fiberglass. I remember using it on one of my small sailboats years ago to remove the old bottom paint. I then removed every trace of the blue bottom paint using Acetone.
Joe

 

[48dodge]

I used Peel Away on the bottom paint. I tried it on the topsides as well with luck, but I found out that I was able to scrape about 90% of the paint off the topsides with a long handled scraper. The kind with about a 4" long razor blade on the end that you push along the surface. I think I lucked out because of poor prep by the previous owner. I ended up sanding the entire surface of the boat with a RO sander with 80 grit paper.
Before

After. I think some of the dark area was some of the hull that I tried the peel away on before finding out the scraper worked as well as it did.

After sanding

Hoping to get this thing painted and back on the trailer soon. There is a recipe for homemade "Peel Away" on this forum somewhere.

 

[Whim Sea]

Thank you gave me hope that there any end to this, good job on painting

 

[bullwinkle]

48Dodge
I'm intriqued by the way you supported the bow. Is that a 2 x 6 or 2 x 8? What is the the length of the board ? Appears to be strong enough. Could you send me pics of the supports ( front and rear ) ? I need to do the same with mine. Mark
e-mail mknewman24@yahoo.com Thank you

 

[48dodge]

The front support is made up from doubled up 2x8s and 4x4s. If I were to rebuild it, I'd replace the 4x4s to use double up 2x4s or 2x6s so the width would match up with the 2x8s. The boat has been on the supports for around 9 months now (I know, I know) and the has been MAYBE a half inch of sag. The rear stand is built up from 2x6s scraps that I had. If I were to rebuild that, I'd do it the same way that I built the front support (like a big sawhorse). All pictures can be seen here.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v96/blustig/Sailboat/