Bottom Paint Removal
 

I am looking at a boat that I am pretty sure I am going to buy. It is cheap and will get me through a season or so while i am busy paying for a wedding.

Now to the problem. it is bottom painted. In my opinion, bottom paint on a performance boat is the ugliest most undesirable thing. Has anyone ever had it removed? If so how? is the boat screwed up afterword?

I have seen some companies advertising media blasting to remove bottom paint but does it destroy the gel? Please help!!!

my neighbor soda blasted it and it came out like new

Like new not needing work on the gel or like new just having no bottom paint?

I have done it a few times.I used aircraft stripper and a pressure washer.Then I had to wet sand and buff it . It's a little tricky cause you can't leave it on too long,it will start to soften the gel.

This boat was left in a slip in salt water. So I am hoping it was just for the anti fouling properties....

But I trailer and want the paint off. just don't want to screw up the hull doing it!

I used Deck Stain remover from Home Depot. It worked pretty well. You need to use a power washer and it will come off pretty clean. But like was said before, who knows what is under there.

Soda blasting is the quickest and best way to get rid of it. It's not cheap though, I have seen $15 a foot.

Do you mean $15 per foot of the boat size or square foot of the bottom?

No matter what you use to get the paint off, your going to need to have the bottom repainted at least. Before the bottom anti fouling paint was applied the gel coat was sanded with some pretty heavy sand paper to get the bottom paint to stick. After you get the anti foul off the bottom will need a new finish of some sort or it opens up a whole new can of worms.