Bottom paint not wanted!!

[billmart67]

I have a 1987 24' checkmate with a 1999 225 efi mercury. I can only get 52mph on the gps . The rpms are 5900. It has bottom paint on it; which i need to remove!! Any ideas would be apprieciated. Also i am going to install a jackplate to get more height . What would be the best prop for this setup? Thanks guys.

[delawarerick]

Get the paint media blasted off. They use baking soda and it will not hurt the gel coat. Rick

[Charger200]

Trophy tempest or bravo. seems alot of success with checkmates and tempests

[billmart67]

ok, i will have to ask around to see who has that kind of prop. thanks for your help
:cheers:

[billmart67]

Get the paint media blasted off. They use baking soda and it will not hurt the gel coat. Rick
ok, i'll do some research . thanks rick

[stvhelm]

tristatesodablasting.com

[mragu]

post a pic of the boat. i had an 87 enforcer with an outboard. it was a pretty rare boat in an outboard, most had i/o's. i never painted the bottom but you never know what happened after i sold it

[RobF]

removal of your paint depends on the prep used for its initial application.

Chemical removal is the best chance you being left with a nice finish on the bottom of your boat, soda or media blasting is going to leave you with a blasted finish, it wont be shiny or pretty.
You MAY be able to achieve a nicer finish after blasting with alot of sanding and polishing but you will more then likely end up breaking through the gelcoat in spots, and I can bet you that 1/4 of the way into it you will be regretting it.

Try various chemical strippers and follow the directions to the letter especially paying attention to application temperatures.

[billmart67]

ok, rob i'll try chemicals first . yea i can't believe somebody painted the bottom of this boat. thanks for your help

[vnemous]

My friend just soda blasted his 24 Baja and it left the bottom a mess. Fine if your gonna fill sand and paint but try to find aother way to go.

[amityray]

I used peel away marine strip.
It worked well but its really, really messy. It needs to be used when warm out and follow the directions. Put it on thick and DON'T let it dry. Depending on how many coats of paint there are you may have to let it sit overnight. I was left with just a slight tint of color....a little 1000 grit wet/dry paper cleaned it up to look great. You would never know it was painted! But ya gotta take your time and be prepared to get messy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVBa_oW2XMs

[delawarerick]

If the guy didn't just buy the equipment and opened i've seen vettes soda blasted. I guess its who has experience blasting. If it was 2 parted paint especially the stuff we use to sell at west marine yea that's a mightmare even hand stripping you might have voids. 20 year old grady up home get walnut shell blasted.:eek:walnuts mixed with the sand he dropped that stuff in.:D Rick

[billmart67]

thanks guys for all the advice. the peel away system seems to be the safest way to go. sounds like the soda blasting is a little riskey, especially if the guy doing it is a little reckless.

[RobF]

If the guy didn't just buy the equipment and opened i've seen vettes soda blasted. I guess its who has experience blasting. If it was 2 parted paint especially the stuff we use to sell at west marine yea that's a mightmare even hand stripping you might have voids. 20 year old grady up home get walnut shell blasted.:eek:walnuts mixed with the sand he dropped that stuff in.:D Rick


difference being they plan on painting the corvette, the poster wants a shiny original finish, which wont happen with any blasting unless he plans on refinishing as well.

[delawarerick]

Thanks Rob you are one I have always listened to your advice most of the stuff I did got repainted. I think petit made a sandless primer and you wiped down with acetone and then painted that and it seemed that stuff went into the gel cause it never comes all the way off. Rick

[spbutler]

I used Peel Away on a boat I Epoxy Barrier coated and it only removed the bottom paint which is what I wanted. It was a dirty, dangerous job as it burns your skin, so have plenty of protection. You paint it on thick and cover with the paper and then wait the appropiate time depending on the temperature. Then scape it off with a plastic putty knife as you peel the paper. Then I kept hosing it and brushing it till it was all off. It removed a good 3 coats of bottom paint and it looked great when it was done. My advice would be to do one small section at a time, That was my mistake and one night I was out there till 2 AM because i tried to do half the boat at once. I would do the transom first to get an idea on how it goes. You are supposed to neutralize it when you are done which can be done with a sprayer and white vinegar.

[Powerplay25]

Soda blast it. The results are amazing. Highvelocity had it done. There was years of bottom paint on the boat. Here's a few pics.

Before:

http://i46.tinypic.com/2w50vt5.jpg

After:

http://i48.tinypic.com/sbsfbm.jpg
http://i47.tinypic.com/1zcjsyh.jpg
http://i46.tinypic.com/2exwmk7.jpg

[1980 hydro vector]

WOW great results.

[flabum1017]

Blasting is ok if your'e going to re-paint the boat, this is the texture you get after a soda blast........ plenty of sanding to get it smooth:

[delawarerick]

Ron is that years of coats of paint on the boat in the picture? Rick

[Powerplay25]

Blasting is ok if your'e going to re-paint the boat, this is the texture you get after a soda blast........ plenty of sanding to get it smooth:


Two of my friends had it done here in our area and had much better results. I couldn't believe how smooth the hull was after being soda blasting. There was no sanding needed.

[sschefer]

I think we all know why bottoms are painted for the right of reasons. But sometimes its an afterthought and the most common is when the owner leaves the boat in the water for an exteneded period of time and gets osmosos blisters. Or, if the boat is trailered on bunks that were covered in cheap carpet that didn't drain resulting in blisters. The blisters are usually only cosmetic and bottom paint is an easy solution when selling a boat.

Should you soda ash blast it and find blistering, then repaint it with Interlux VC Performance Teflon infused two part epoxy. You can leave your boat in the water well over the 72 hour limit without any problems and it will stand up to bunked trailering. I have it on my boats. The stuff is slick as a whistle and used a lot in the off-shore world.

[HighVelocity]

Dave,
You can really see the big difference after the blasting. That old green stripe and black bottom paint had to go!!!!

I had very good luck with soda blasting as you can see in the pics. Obviously there are 2 things to consider though.

How old is the hull?, and how long has the paint been on there? For example if you had a new boat with bottom paint on it and a year later you soda blasted it off. The hull will be smooth and look like new. My boat in the pics above is 24 years old, so it's fair to say the gel coat is not going to be as smooth. But in my case it was still not bad, Dave has seen my boat first hand and can attest to that.

Ed