Best Bottom Paint Stripper

[talbot]

I've tried the West Soybean based bottom paint stripper and also an orange stripping agent purchased from Home Depot. Neither outperformed the other and both took many coats in order to get through the many layers to the actual fiberglass. I heard that keeping it moist longer with Tyvek will allow it to work longer with each coat, with kits available including bottom stripper and Tyvek sheets.
What's the best stuff (method) out there today?

[Sabreman]

I used a carbide tipped paint scraper and a 3/4" wood chisel (sharpening frequently) to strip the paint followed by 60 and 100 grit on a 6" random orbit sander w/ shopvac. Took 8 hours to strip to bare glass and another 4 to sand many layers of paint off our 38' down to the glass.

Best method IMO is elbow grease or soda blasting. The strippers are expensive and a mess. We deliberately avoided them after seeing what another couple of owners went through. Ugh!

[US27inKS]

I ordered Kleen Strip paint stripper for fiberglass from the local auto parts store. You have to make sure they get you paint stripper for use on fiberglass. Aircraft stripper will do bad things to your boat. It was about 1/3 the cost of Interlux paint stripper, and it was much more effective than most "safe" strippers you get from HD. Most places took about 15 minutes of soak time before scraping, and some places needed 2 applications.

[talbot]

Thanks for the ideas. I'm still thinking something chemical will be less painful, but if that doesn't work, I'll get out the old chisel. Let you know how it turns out, probably in the spring.

[Sabreman]

If you use the chisel, knock the corners off to prevent gouging the gel coat. Also buy a cheap hand held diamond shapener and sharpen about 20 strokes on each side of the blade every 20 minutes or so, A sharp blade makes a world of difference.

This was not an original suggestion on my part. A friend and his wife who were liveaboards tried a number of techniques and found this to be the cheapest and most effective. I tried a test area last fall and stripped a 4' x 4' area in about 20 minutes. I was sold. Two of us stripped our 38' hull in 8.5 hours stopping frequently to sharpen and rest muscles. I also found a carbide scraper to be very effective on the keel. I sanded and filled small blisters in another 6 hours. The result as good as I've ever seen except for a wet sanded race finish. Not a bad time investment - 23 hours and $1800 saved.

[T37Chef]

FWIW, look into soda blasting. I paid about $500 for 37' boat

[imagine2frolic]

I second KLEEN STRIP. I was replacing the seals on my sail drives. I brushed this on over possibly 8 coats of bottom paint. Within 10 minutes I could scrape easily down to the hull, and it was perfectly clean.......i2f