Bottom Work - Paint Removal

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Kelper
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Bottom Work - Paint Removal

Post by Kelper »

Wondering if anybody has some advice for removing old, layered bottom paint off the bottom of a fiberglass boat? Grind it? Sand it? I really don't want to spend the money to soda blast it.
Drew
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Re: Bottom Work - Paint Removal

Post by Drew »

How much do they charge to do that blasting? I've seen the flyer at the harbor master down there.
Kelper
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Re: Bottom Work - Paint Removal

Post by Kelper »

$110 a day for the compressor rental.
$110 a day for the Soda Blaster
$70 per 100lb bag of the Soda

Tyler Rental is now renting the compressor, and DJ a worker there owns the Blaster now and rents that.

(these prices are off the top of my head, so don't shoot me if I'm wrong)
fveureka
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Re: Bottom Work - Paint Removal

Post by fveureka »

If you want to go old school, use a 1.5 metal putty knife after you have power washed the bottom and it is dry. Be careful scrapping. Wash again and then follow it up with fine wet sand paper on a hand sanding block. rinse, you will be real close to the gel coat but it should be real smooth for a fresh coat.
curmudgeon
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Re: Bottom Work - Paint Removal

Post by curmudgeon »

How big is your boat? Ours is 42 and I paid a guy for four days of work sanding ours down to gel-coat. Even at the prices you quoted for the soda-blast, if it only takes one day you'll be money ahead. The only thing is, I'm not sure how rough a surface finish remains after soda-blast? Bottom-paint doesn't like to stick to cured gel-coat, so you might either need to sand everything to get a good "tooth" for the new paint, or paint on an epoxy barrier-coat primer first before doing the bottom-paint.
We had ours done at the yard in Wrangell and they have a huge airless spray system to apply bottom-paint. It comes out smooth and shiny when done and they guarantee it for at least three years. I saw one boat that they'd done four years ago get hauled and there was only slime and there wasn't a speck of hard-growth anyplace but the keel-coolers. Save you money in the long run and it only takes about 1-1/2 hours to shoot the whole thing.
Kelper
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Re: Bottom Work - Paint Removal

Post by Kelper »

I'm 32'. I might get on the sander tomorrow and see how much progress I can make. If I could get it off in 4 days with the sander, I'd be all over it.
curmudgeon
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Re: Bottom Work - Paint Removal

Post by curmudgeon »

Scraping it like FVEureka says will help. Even a regular hardware-store paint scraper will get the big-pieces off and make the sanding go much faster. You might be able to rent one of those orbital sanders that attaches to a vacuum cleaner. We have one of those Fein systems and it makes the job WAY more civilized that a regular disc sander which will blow red or black dust all over the place and make you look like a coal-miner!
Kelper
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Re: Bottom Work - Paint Removal

Post by Kelper »

Thanks. I'll scrape it up good.

Another questions, completely unrelated.

What's the preferred fuel tank material in the fleet now? Aluminum sees the easiest to get welded up, but I hear of corrosion issues that lead to pin holes. I've been reading a lot on Poly tanks by Moeller. The guys on the trawler forum seem to think highly of them, due to corrosion not being an issue. My concern would be fire, but I'd stick them all the way back in my stern, it's not really an issue. Anybody use the the poly tanks?
Fishnpohl
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Re: Bottom Work - Paint Removal

Post by Fishnpohl »

Fiberglass only way to go. Guy in wrangal makes great tanks lay up in the boat or he will make a stand alone. Aluminum is fine but it has to be blocked up can't sit in water.
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