Soda blasting a hull to remove paint
 

Anyone ever try this? The paint on this boat has to go!

You may end up with a bunch of gelcoat voids to fill. There was a thread running about a month ago talking about different paint strippers.
Jim

So still the best is to sand the old stuff off with a da.

Not nec, power wash to get all the loose stuff off, If it wasn't primed when it was originally painted try a paint stripper first. If a primer was used it actually melts the gelcoat for better adhesion. If thats the case you got your hands full. The more your scratch it the more finish work you'll make. If you can chemically remove it you can wet sand and polish. If you da it off you may be left with a wavy bottom and a lot of finish work.Try to find old thread some one had success with a particular stripper. It's a nasty job no need to make it harder.
Jim

Thanks for the info.

My buddy had it done and it turned out great but he repainted the entrire boat keel to deck. You will need to repaint or regel the bottom with something.

It also takes special equipment to do, so dont plan on doing it with a regular blasting pot.

So does anybody know what the best paint stripper is? One that won't harm gel or fiberglass.

Wish I knew what to use also...I'm a painter and specialize in exotics but have never been plagued with this question...the graphics are starting to chip away on the starboard side of my Powerplay, and as far as I can tell the gell wasn't sanded or scuffed prior to application. I really want to re paint the whole boat but don't want it to turn into a major project consitering it sits in storage 6 months of the year with no way to work on it then...I will put a call into my Dupont rep on Tuesday but can only expect a "non answer" on Wed......damned tech guys.............

I just pulled all the rubrail off and the paint is real thick and flakeing. Im not looking for a insane paint job , but want something good.

After all these years of painting I learned something new here a few months ago, if it hasn't been prepped right try taking a razor blade and filing the corners down so it doesn't dig in and scratch the gel and scrape the paint off........Seriously I read it here on another thread, but I don't have enough ballz to do it on my boat...........

None exists. If it dissolves paint, it dissolves polyester and epoxy resin and certainly gel coat. I've seen restorers chemically strip Corvettes and it's a very long and grueling process. It takes days to do it on something as tiny as a vette. It would take eons to do an offshore boat.

Soda is nothing more than abrasive removal- You're asking to take something off that's basically the same hardness as what the base is. There's no way to control uniformity. I've seen auto bodies that have been completely sandblasted and the heat literally screws them up. I saw a nice 55 Chevy abandoned from panel warpage caused by blasting. The boat won't warp but I'm going to guess it isn't too good for it.

The best way to completely screw your hull up is to try to take the paint off. Unless it's peeling, it's better off left underneath. If it is peeling, you'll probably have to spend many thousands on a true artisan/professional to sand those sides straight.

Those areas can probably be filled and feathered. If it wasn't peeling off by itself, you likely have no problems. For insurance, use a good heavy epoxy primer underneath.

sunsation 25, I looked for the old thread but couldn't find it. If it has not been primed that is possible. I used Tal strip years ago on a car. It may be worth investigating. I just looked in a marine catolog, found KWIK makes a paint remover for fiberglass. I haven't tried it though. I have removed paint from the side before never had enough ambition to remove it all. The biggest variable in the job is whether it was primed or not. If you scrap a small area to expose gelcoat to see if its discolored and hazed by primer. If it has been primed painting is really the only option for a nice finish.
Jim

Thanks for the reply! I don't want to hijack this fellas thread, but I do know the paint on my PP is factory and hasn't been sanded, scuffed or primed! it has been chipping away slowly. I've been in the business for 12 years and have used many different chemical strippers but am very leary of them..... the thread I was thinking about involved a Nortech I believe and it was only about 6 months ago.....have you used something that doesn't hurt the gell??????

MEK but it is so nasty. If it flaking off it offers hope. The kwik brand stuff is non flammable may be worth trying. I took paint off when I was younger. Never again. Personally if ever in the situation again I would either leave it or bring to a paint shop and have them strip and or sand ,then repaint hull.
Jim

Thats too funny!!! that's what I'm trying to avoid! I've painted many boats up to 38'(even stripped them and started fresh) but can't seem to find time or energy to do mine! there's something about a paying customer vs. job that's gonna cost you many nights away from the family......I'll pick up some MEK after the Leopa pokerrun and try it on a smallspot, if it works I'll srip it all....thanks for the tip............

Dry ice blast it....

THey also use peanut shell blasting these days, it's not as abrasive...works pretty good from what I remember.

Bead blasting isn't a magic bullet.:mad:

A guy said it would work great for removing bottom paint. It looked like it took a twelve gauge of birdshot in some place.

There are all different types of media for blasting nowadays. Nutshells as already mentioned, plastic pellets of different durometers, metal/lead pellets, baking soda and so on depending on what you are blasting, talk to someone who specializes and you would be surprised what blasting can remove and not damage the substrate when properly applied.

I agree, we use nutshells on our car bodies to strip them down.....it's funny how every square inch of paint gets blasted away but the body filler from previous repairs stays in place undamaged!

I'd say if Bondo can survive the blasting it would be safe to presume that gelcoat would too.

We have used the razor blade deal as well, and while it works good, it is VERY time consuming......

Greg

:cool-smiley-011:

My boat was painted yellow then into orange and fades to purple All over top of the yellow. So the purple at the back 3rd of the boat is real thick and orange peeled. Can I just da. off the purple down to the orange and fill and grinde the rubrail area to fill all the holes from 1000s of screws. and re paint over every thing? Using the same orange and yelow and a lighter purple.

A couple of years ago I talked to a guy about soda blasting a 25' Searay I was working on. It had 3 layers of bottom paint that were flaking and chipping and two to three coats of paint topsides that I had already da'd off. He told me he could do it for me no problem and in fact he said he had done over 100 boats with bottom paint and offered to give me phone numbers to call for references. I never called him for the job due to the guesstimated cost of having it done. His price was high (to me), partly because he had to travel over 125 miles to come and do the job, and I was on a tight budget. I ended up scraping with a paint scraper (rounded edges) and then using an air file to fair in the scratches I left. It was extremely time consuming but I had more time than money right then. If I'd had the money at the time I would have done it in a New York minute. Could've been enjoying the water instead of swearing at the boat. I'd call around and see if you can find someone who has done performance boats who is willing to give you references, call a few and see if you can look at their boats. You might find the right guy to make the job easy. According to the guy I talked to, it has to be a soda blaster to do the job right without damaging the boat.

Dry ice blast it...

I own a boat repair shop and paint 300-350 bottoms each season. I have had numerous bottoms soda blasted, and it is a common thing in my area. If you decide to chemical strip use the bottom stripper by sea-hawk paints. Its the best out there but it is very time consuming and very messy. Around here the soda blast cost about $ 100 hr. including soda, and it takes about 3-4 hrs for a 25 ft. boat with 3-4 layers of paint. It leaves a 180-220 scratch and if the guy doing it knows what he is doing it is not messy at all. If your not putting paint back on the bottom you will have to re-gel or paint the bottom. Hope this helps

I just got done stripping the graphics off my Powerplay. I used a DA to take off the pink name on the deck and pink bolt on the hull sides. Be very carefull with this, you can burn though in a second. I used "Capt. Lees' Spra Strip" for the rest of it. It's a corvette stripper, I spoke with the co. and they told me it would not hurt the gelcoat. Spray it on, use a wet towell to get any drips or runs beyond the paint. Water will neutralize it. Let it sit for about 5-6 mins and use a plastic bondo spreader to scrape most of it off. Spray it again, and use a scotchbrite pad (Capt. Lee sells them) to get the rest of it off. Spray with water. Be very carefull with the drips past the paint, it will leave marks so wip it up with a wet rag quick. The areas stripped will be whiter than the rest, wet sand, compund, polish, wax etc.. I just did mine today and it looks pretty good considereing it only took us two days and about $80 worth of stripper. You can see the where the paint was but it should fade over time with sun.

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