Question about Chemical Bottom Stripping.

[ADaily3224]

When my boat was pulled for the winter a few weeks ago as part of the haul out process the yard power washes the bottom. It's fresh water, no growth other than a little green slime. The young employee operating the industrial strength power washer made a mess of my bottom. Granted there was quite a bit of paint, but I had been fairing it out every year before applying a new coat in the spring. Rather than take you through the torrid details suffice to say the wrong tip was used on the washer and there are places where the paint was blown off right to the gel coat. It's a mess. The good news is the bottom is in super shape, no blisters, no damage, just multiple layers of paint. Now that you get the picture my question is, has anyone used the paint stripper specifically engineered for removal of bottom coatings? It's available at West Marine and I think sold under the Star Bright label. My second question: is there any difference between the very high priced marine grade stripper, @ $125 a gallon, compared to the garden variety Zip Strip that can be found at any paint or home improvement store? If you have had any experience with this I would like to know how it worked out. Or if there's a better way, I'd like to know that too. There's no chance of a sand blast job, and I wouldn't do it anyway, and no one around here does the preferred soda blasting treatment. So I'm thinking stripper is the only way to go. What a fun job.

Tony D

 

[Boss Lady]

Have you thought about using a presure washer with a sandblast attachment, no airborne dust! I would find out what the chemicals can do to your gel coat, since it is chemical based the stripper may attack it and cause you unintended problems. I think most of the bottom paints are organic based and the specialized stripper may be ok, I would be wary of using zip strip until I called them asked if it affects polyester gel coat. If you wind up using stripper, don't forget the trick about using saran wrap or wax paper to seal it and keep it from evaporating too quickly. This will really cut down on the amount of stripper you have to apply since a little bit will really do its job of penetrating the paint before the volitiles can evaporate.

 

[dwaynec]

You might also want to look at a product called Peel Away. One of our dock mates used it on the bottom of his Sea Ray last spring, and it worked really well. Took several layers of paint off right down to the gelcoat. I was pretty impressed with the way it worked, and might consider useing it on the bottom paint on our boat this next year when I pull for bottom paint.

Cool thing is that the marina was really happy because the stuff is environmentally friendly, and he was happy because it not only worked, but it didn't burn his hands or arms. No gloves needed!

 

[Banshee36]

Hire a good sodablast or sandblast man, let him remove the old paint themn you can use your sweat equity to fair and sand the bottom, put on the barrier coat and ablative paint.
JW

 

[the kuz]

We had the bottom done by a guy in Rock Hall MD with a planing machine. Kind of like a mini wood planer. It shaves off the paint in thin layers. Got 98% of the bottom paint down so thin you could see through it to the fiberglass. Smooth as a baby's bottom. Took about 800 lbs off our 36C - cost about $600. Only had to hand sand a few spots he couldn't get to like right around the rudder posts and in the shaft tunnels. You might ask around about it. I'll look to see if I can find the paperwork and give you a POC. You may be able to ask the company who makes the equipment for someone in your area. Regards, Bob K

 

[Paul45c]

The best bottom paint stripper I'd ever used was plain old-fashioned "Easy Off" oven cleaner -- the original formulation. This was recommended to me by the yard in Maine where I used to do my work on an older boat. After I saw how it worked, I'm kinda amazed that they were the ones to recommend it; don't get me wrong, it worked REALLY well, but what a mess! The only thing they cared about was that I carefully tarp underneath the boat to catch all the liquified paint. That's right, it rendered it back to liquid form, and you'd need to frequently rinse it away. Eventually the liquid would dry to solid form again, so you'd have dried shallow puddles of old bottom paint sludge stuck to the tarps.

Finding tarps enough wasn't a problem, as there was no shortage of cast away white shrinkwrap in huge bundles near their dumpsters, but still, i'd think the environmental cops would give birth to chipmunks just thinking about it.

I've yet to find a better chemical stripper.

 

[Maynard Rupp]

In nearby Canada,(Sarnia), there is a guy who media blasts bottoms for about $400.00. I am told that it can't be done in the US except in an expensive controlled environement. We had ours stripped by a guy that has done many bottom strips. He charged me $1100.00 to strip and sand the bottom of "Unity". It is quite common in the Detroit area as most everyone has switched to a barrier coated bottom with VC-17. This, (expert), stripper uses the cheapest conventional stripper he can get. On ours he used a stripper from Ace Hardware and he used 38 gallons of it to remove our, mopped on, Interlux Bottomcoat. The previous owner mopped on a new coat of that junk every year for 16 years. I asked him how he can use a conventional stripper and he said the main reason is that it doesn't soak into the gelcoat as you are applying it overhead. It apparently doesn't soak in and he removes it quickly. I must admit, I was concerned. The guy did a super job and I didn't notice any problems even immedietly after he stripped it. I took over then and dug out and repaired about 20 small blisters and one 2" area of missing gelcoat. He then sanded the entire bottom with 60 grit paper on a dustless sander. We applied 7 coats of Interprotect 2000 and 2 coats of VC-17. That was 3 years ago and this bottom has never really needed a preassure wash at fall haulout. We re-coat each season with one coat of VC-17. That entire process, including tapeing, takes about 3 hours. The only question remaining is how it will hold up in salt water. So far, 2 months in Florida, it looks like new. Our diver is amased. I made sure she doesn't use an abrasive scrubber. You only want to use a towel. This stuff is very thin and a scotch brite type pad will remove it completly.

 

[Genesis]

I'll tell 'ya what - if you can survive a summer in Florida with VC-17 and not get hard growth - I'm sold. I've heard all the evidence about the great lakes, but I gotta see it on a boat down here, in these waters, to believe it.

Sounds like you're getting there

 

[34Hatt]

Well I tried the Peel away after watching another boat do it with Great result. Well did not work for me maybe its because of different paints??? So I tried a bunch of different ones and Interlux Interstrip worked the best for me. I suggest buying small can of which ever one's you want to try and compare then start buying the gallons. I still have a Big bucket of Peel away and if you come to L.I I will give it to you or anyone else that wants it!

 

[Maynard Rupp]

I'll tell 'ya what - if you can survive a summer in Florida with VC-17 and not get hard growth - I'm sold. I've heard all the evidence about the great lakes, but I gotta see it on a boat down here, in these waters, to believe it.

Sounds like you're getting there

I am planning on hauling in late March, Karl. I plan on a re-coat then and will provide both text and pictures regardless of the outcome of the test.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

I'm sold on VC for fresh water, but my dad is taking the 18' Whaler to Marco for the month of Feb and it will stay in the water. I told him I would paint the bottom for him, but I was hesitant to use VC because I didn't know if it would be okay in salt water. Now that Maynard has been down there for a while with his, I figure I can go ahead and paint it. It sounds like one month in salt water with VC should be alright. Thanks for the early test results, Maynard.

 

[jim rosenthal]

I would stick with either soda blasting or a chemical stripper made for taking bottom paint off. PBR did a trial of PeelAway a few years ago and they were pleased with it. I would avoid sandblasting the bottom, you may take off stuff you would rather have on there. Like gelcoat. Is there really no one in the area doing soda blasting? You might call a few motorcycle shops, they do a lot of motorcycle frames with that stuff.

 

[ADaily3224]

Well. lots of options, I think I'll try a few of the products suggested, see which one works the best. The $139. a gallon West Marine stuff doesn't look like an option if Maynard needed 38 gallons to do his boat. I'll pass on that. I know oven cleaner works to remove a painted name on the transom, but wondered if it would take any of the paint off the hull sides in the event a bit splashed on the finish. I guess I"ll have to check. The boat is inside but the heat gets turned off soon and there is a restoration job going on right next to me. I seem to remember it has to be pretty warm for stripper to work. I don't want to sand and get dust all over my neighbors boat. By the way, it's a beautiful 42 foot Chris Craft Aluminum Romer Riveria. They have it looking like brand new. I'll do a test and report back on which product seemed to work the best. Thanks for the suggestion on the plastic wrap, wouldn't have thought of that.

Tony D

 

[67hat34c]

I would think plain old stripper from home dept. would work fine. dont leave it on too long do areas no bigger than 4x4. get plenty of rags to wipe residue off and wash the area. Thinner for most bottom paints is Naptha. I used it to clean up dry bottom paint out of my prop hubs. possible naptha in a spray bottle may work as well.

 

[Maynard Rupp]

Well. lots of options, I think I'll try a few of the products suggested, see which one works the best. The $139. a gallon West Marine stuff doesn't look like an option if Maynard needed 38 gallons to do his boat. I'll pass on that. I know oven cleaner works to remove a painted name on the transom, but wondered if it would take any of the paint off the hull sides in the event a bit splashed on the finish. I guess I"ll have to check. The boat is inside but the heat gets turned off soon and there is a restoration job going on right next to me. I seem to remember it has to be pretty warm for stripper to work. I don't want to sand and get dust all over my neighbors boat. By the way, it's a beautiful 42 foot Chris Craft Aluminum Romer Riveria. They have it looking like brand new. I'll do a test and report back on which product seemed to work the best. Thanks for the suggestion on the plastic wrap, wouldn't have thought of that.

Tony D

Tony, the guy that stripped and sanded mine did not hurt the Imron. He did not strip the last 1" or so near the water line. He easily took that off when he sanded the boat. He taped visqueen around the entire boat about 2' above the waterline. The duct tape sealed the visqueen to the boat, then it tented out and down to the floor. A bunch of wood blocks kept the visqueen in place on the floor. He used a commercial orbital dustless sander. I don't think any dust escaped that enclosure.

 

[Maynard Rupp]

I would think plain old stripper from home dept. would work fine. dont leave it on too long do areas no bigger than 4x4. get plenty of rags to wipe residue off and wash the area. Thinner for most bottom paints is Naptha. I used it to clean up dry bottom paint out of my prop hubs. possible naptha in a spray bottle may work as well.

Here is another trick I learned. Place a 10' length of visqueen from the keel line of the boat out beyond the fall of the waterline. Cut pieces like that for the entire length of the boat. Make seperate pieces for each side. Each needs to be no longer than 10'. Now brush the stripper on using a wallpaper pasting brush. Apply the stuff in one pass and make it very thick. Cover the entire area of the hull, but only from the keel line to about 2" below the waterline and only on one side, and only about 8' fore and aft. Wait about 20 minutes. Now scrape with a large putty knife from the waterline toward the keel. Now here is the trick. Roll up the visqueen toward the keel as you scrape. When you get to the keel, dispose of the goop and that piece of visqueen. Do this and you should not spill a single drop. Neat eh?