Resto questions
 

I am restoring an old '85 38' scaracb flatdeck and have a few questions.

There was plywood glued, looks like silicon, on the cockpit textured fiberglass floor, I want to leave the fiberglass exposed. What is a good way to strip the silicon off the floor?

There is a good amount of stress cracks down the bow rail and, well every where. Someone told me to grind out the crack and fill it, but since there are so many, is there a better solution?

The hull is painted and cleared, I want to strip it down and repaint it. This might be a stupid question but can you use liquid striper? I heard an old wives tale that liquid striper will soften the gel coat and resin in the glass. Is sanding the best way to go? If so, how do you strip the paint in textured surfaces?

Any help getting this project going would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
steve

Anyone have any suggestions???
steve

Hi Steve sounds like ya got a good project there. I been away all weekend and had no real intyernet access :D

Silicone is tough to strip off but i've heard there are a few chemicals just for this purpose. Hopefully someone will chime in on that one.

Stress cracks are very common on the flatdecks and if its a Kevlar boat even more so. Most ihave seen require some extensive work to get rid of them. You will need to basically sand/grind down past the gelcoat and laminate on a new surface including gelcoat.


no chemical strippers are out there that work mvery well. Best to sand off what ever paint you want to remove. Thats not an old wives tale most strippers will destroy polyester resins.

as far as the textured part do you want to retain that or make it all smooth?

I was on the assumption that you have to take the paint down to the gel coat, the sides have about 8 different layers of paint including primer layers topped with clear coat.

The non slip on the deck I would like to get rid of, I sanded alittle section of it, it looks like that could just be sanded off. But the non slip in the cockpit area I would like to keep and just remove the silicone.

As far as the stress cracks, can you buy a thick primer or put down multiple layers of primer to fill them or will they just come back?

thanks,
steve