paint removal?

[Mick Young]

Hi people, being the wealth of information that the subscribers are to this board are, when they arent giving it to each other, I was wonerding if anybody has a effective way to remove layers of paint that the previous owner has put on my trailer sailers topsides?

I was thinking about sand blasting it off with low pressure air to slowly remove all the build up and then patching what needs to be done and repainting. Any other advice?

Keep it black side down

Mick

[Idiens]

What material is you boat made out of?

[Mick Young]

fibreglass, hence the reason I dont want to use high pressure air.

Keep it black side down

Mick

[Idiens]

Or heat. That leaves chemicals and hard work. I believe there are some paint strippers that are kind to resin, but it needs to be one specifically for the type of paint used as well.

[Faster]

I've just bought a product, listed in a previous thread, that claims to remove up to 10 layers of bottom paint, marine paints and even 2 part polys while apparently safe to use on gelcoat. "Aqua-strip" by Back-to-nature products. Google it for the website.

I haven't tried it yet, but will do so as soon as it warms up a bit and will pass on the results. I'm just taking off some old faded painted stripes on the hull.

They warn that if the boat has an epoxy barrier coating you must clean the stuff off before it gets deep enough to attack that layer.

[resdog]

I wouldn't recommend sand blasting figerglass. It's just too abraisive. You could have it soda blasted which is much gentler. There is no "easy" way to remove paint. Sand, sand, sand...

[sailingdog]

Soda blasting or walnut shell blasting are far more friendly to fiberglass than sand blasting is. Personally, I'd go with soda blasting if anyone in your area does it. While it is more expensive than a chemical stripper is, it will probably be easier and more thorough for you.

[Chaunclm]

This is a related question how does one prepare an Awlgrip nonskid surface for painting? This looks like sand that was painted into the surface.

[sailingdog]

Many non-skid paints are done by having a "grip" material mixed in or sprinkled on to the wet surface. The ones that use sand tend to be a bit hard on the skin, your clothes and your bare feet. I prefer the ones that use the plastic or rubber granules for the non-skid material. Sanding a non-skid paint to prep it for painting, especially if it has sand as the non-skid additive is going to really suck... the surface will shred the sandpaper almost as fast as the sandpaper will rough/prep the surface.

What you'll probably have to do is strip the old non-skid paint and then start over. Stripping it is probably best done chemically, rather than physically. Scraping sand-laced non-skid paint is generally a bad thing.

[Faster]

In all likelihood the original Awlgrip nonskid contains their "Griptex", small rubber granules added to the paint. These rubber bits will plug up the sandpaper too, so sanding probably isn't an option.

Just repainting will probably cause you to lose too much "nonskid" as the paint will smooth over the original pattern.

You're probably stuck with removal, as SD suggests, to get a good looking job the second time around.

Why does it need redoing? Is it worn and slippery now or just unsightly?