Removing Bottom Paint

[Ralph vaughn]

My 290 Sea ray is kept on a trailer 5 minutes from a free boat ramp on Lake Lanier. Five or six times a year I take my boat and launch in salt water for about a week. I plan to remove my bottom paint down to the gel coat and not use any ablative or thin film Teflon paint. Any suggestions if this will pose any problems. Also what is the best way to remove existing bottom paint without damaging my hull.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Ralph

 

[paulswagelock]

If the boat was sanded with 80 grit to prep it for bottom paint, you will be repainting it after stripping it all off, or re-gel coating it. The bottom will be a mess from the sanding. Sand it smooth, and paint with one of the new modified resin white bottom paints. Save yourself the headache and expense.

 

[b_arrington]

Why do you want to remove the paint? Purely cosmetic? Is the paint in bad shape?

This has been discussed here before. The easiest thing and possibly most prudent is to just leave it. As long as the paint isn't chunky and chipped, it's not doing any harm.

The most effective way to remove the paint is media blasting. But that is going to also remove some of the gelcoat, and will leave a rough surface. There's no effective way to smooth that out except for heavy sanding (more gel removable and lots of work), or some type of paint (like an epoxy barrier coat and then a hard bottom paint or other suitable paint).

I'd suggest to get the paint in good shape, then apply a compatible paint over it. You could go with a hard type paint if it's compatible - it would eventually loose it's antifouling properties but the hard part would remain.

 

[Last Dollar]

I did this several years ago on a 21' cuddy. I purchased a special paint remover that was designed for fiberglass and did the job in a few days just doing a small section at a time. It came out very well although it was hard messy work.

 

[Lazy Daze]

As noted above, if the original bottom paint job was done correctly, it was either physically sanded or chemically etched. Both would require lot's of work to either buff out or re-spray with gelcoat.

Try a section and see what you're up against. Get some gel KleanStrip (or similar) from HD or Lowes and put it on a section about 2' square. Put a piece of plastic over it to help it work.