removing bottom paint
 

My buddys 25 checkmate has bottom paint on it, what can we use to remove it without harming the gel coat.

believe it or not E-Z-off oven cleaner works pretty good. Spray it on but tend it while its working and scrape it with something that doesnt have sharp edges. You can also use a grey scotchbrite to help it along. Final clean up with acetone or lacquer thinner and you may need to do some light sanding and buffing to bring our a final finish. It all really depends on how well it was originally prepped for the bottom paint.

You could look into having it soda blasted. This also may require some final sanding / buffing to bring the shine back!

EZ off, long process, but it works

A good quality marine paint stripper works well. You just need to be patient. The trick is to keep the marine stripper moist. If it is not moist it will not be working for you. You can do this by lightly misting with water every couple of hours, or some folks even wrap the boat is plastic after they apply it to keep the moisture in. They are more application details on the link above.

Hows that sea Hawk work on automotive paint on boats? Does it bite into gel at all?

I have had good luck with just plastic garbage bags or visquene layed right on the stripper to keep it from flashing off. Works Good.

As a do it yourself kind of guy, and after wrestling around on my back for more hours than I care to admit, with a DA and oven cleaner, use the phone and have it soda blasted. Local guys quited about $500 for 26' hull done in one day. I did have it on stands in the drive way.


Jim

I think when you have it soda blasted the gel is somewhat rough and bringing the gel back to a good shine would be alot of work,we have soda blasted a few at the marina to remove excessive bottom paint and then re-bottom coated,We did a 41 sunseeker a few years back we used stripper(did soften gel)and then sanded with different grits ,then buffed,a lot of nasty work,it would be nice to soda blast and buff but don't think it would be that easy,all depends too on how much prep was done on bottom before first coat of paint

petit makes a stripper that I have used in the past with good results, that does not harm the gel coat. Like someone else said the key is to keep the stripper wet .its called bio blast.

Tom

:Score-101010:

$10 - $20 bills work great! Sorry couldn't resist......

I have had good luck using marine paint remover and many plastic scrapers (the paint remover eats the scrapers...). That gets rid of the heavy stuff. I then use MEK to remove the residue and smaller spots.