Paint removal struggles

[CFrankum]

I’ve been working on stripping the paint and repainting the bottom of my 1872, and it’s proving to be very very difficult. I am not making much progress. I’ve tried chemical strippers and it kind of works, but is VERY slow and doesn’t get it all. I’ve tried a wire wheel grinder and it is slower and sanding has been about the same. I’m at a loss, I’m looking into a commercial sandblaster to come and blast it but I am concerned with cost, and the fact that this boat is big, we were able to get it flipped inside our shop but that’s only because we used a chain hoist to hold up one end, and manhandle over onto some sawhorses. So I don’t think I have a way to flip it upside down outside where we would need to to do sandblasting.

Does anyone have any ideas to help? Or know of anyone in the Rockport Texas area that does this professionally?

Thanks

 

[flatheadsteve]

Harbor freight sells a cheap portable sand blaster. You could set up a tent In your shop with cheap tarps and use glass beads instead of sand to reduce dust. I'm assuming you already have a air compressor.

 

[CFrankum]

Harbor freight sells a cheap portable sand blaster. You could set up a tent In your shop with cheap tarps and use glass beads instead of sand to reduce dust. I'm assuming you already have an air compressor.

Thanks, no doubt that would work, but in all honesty that sounds like a quick way to spend a few hundred bucks on materials and still find out that i have another pain point that needs addressing and then still need to hire a professional.

 

[ripdmup]

I am with Flatheadsteve on his recommendation
I had the very same thought about spending the dough as you have. But in my case I figured I got to keep my tools. I have also used my set up more times than I can count, so in essence the tool saved me way more than it costed.

 

[flatheadsteve]

Thanks, no doubt that would work, but in all honesty that sounds like a quick way to spend a few hundred bucks on materials and still find out that i have another pain point that needs addressing and then still need to hire a professional.

The portable sprayer is $39..u can save $10 with a coupon. You'll still spend another $150 or so on blasting media but the beads are reusable. I got quoted almost $1k to have a proffesional sandblast a JD 620 frame.

 

[CFrankum]

We were quoted 1,000 to blast our boat today.

This is how I anticipate it going if I were to go the diy blasting route, I would need the harbor freight soda blaster for 130 (because I’ve heard that sand blasting is a big no no for aluminum because it could be too abrasive and take too much metal off), then the soda media would take roughly 400-600 pounds, so that’s 400-600 bucks, then the plastic tenting and everything would be a close to 100 at least but could go up to 300. So all in I’d be at the same cost as a professional. Also, I’d have to get a new compressor because Then you calculate the time, since it would be my first time, I’m betting that it would take me forever, I’m guessing around 20 hours, because the videos I’ve seen on these the nozzle is very small and works on a very small piece at a time.

If this was a smaller project I’d be more willing to try, but this is a pretty big boat for a diy job.

Before I continue down that route I guess I’ll stick to trying to use chemical paint stripper, and I’ll get some new paint stripper grinder wheels to give that a shot.

I do appreciate everyone’s opinions, I am just very hesitant because I’ve already dumped money in this thing that I regret haha.

 

[LDUBS]

If the old paint is in good condition, do you have to remove it?. Just paint over it.

 

[CFrankum]

If the old paint is in good condition, do you have to remove it?. Just paint over it.

The main reason I’ve had to do this right now is because there is some corrosion on the hill from pressure treated bunks, and there’s a leak in the boat. Originally the plan was to be using the boat now and do restoration work in the spring after duck season ha. So I’m stripping the paint to get to the problems, epoxy the damage, and I’m going to gator glide the bottom. And what I’ve read and seen is that I need to have a the hull stripped clean for that. There’s also 3-4 layers of bad paint in portions of the boat, mostly the back third. I’m hoping that once I get these layers peeled off that the front half won’t be that bad since it seems there is only one layer of paint up there.

 

[mirrocraft16]

If the paint is that hard to remove, I'd leave it. Aluminum can be hard to get paint to stick to. Fix what needs fixing, feather out the rest and repaint it. give the inside a coat of Gluvit as insurance and some fresh paint over top of it and you'll be old and gray before it needs your attention again.

I had an old Duracraft aluminum trihull that had sat on the beach for most of its life. Somewhere along the line someone put a pressure treated floor in it and bottom coated it with copper sulfate based paint. It was free and I was poor. I started with tossing all the wood and stripping off the bottom paint. The boat had a mix of rivets and welds, a few rivets were corroded away, those got drilled out and replaced with new rivets. None of the perforation was structural but a few areas had window screen sized holes where the wood contacted the hull, just below the water line and down the keel where they had put a center board to support the middle of the floor. The center board is what caused the big issues since the boat had a riveted keel strip the entire length of the boat, which was structural. I checked and repaired any bad rivets, chemically cleaned the hull, then used Gluvit to seal up the inside of the hull. after two heavy coats I could see all the spots that would have leaked but didn't show before, but they were now sealed. Gluvit has no UV resistance, so i painted the interior of the hull with gray non-skid paint.
I then flipped the hull, and sanded and primed any bare spots, then I rolled the entire hull in some green/gray looking aircraft paint I had gotten for free from a neighbor. After rebuilding the deck and a new console, I used that boat for the better part of 20 years before stumbling on my current boat. I sold the Duracraft to a guy who took it to TX who uses it there to this day.
I could have easily torn that boat apart down to the last rivet and made myself a major project and opened up something I couldn't fix. The fix I chose worked fine and has lasted for many years and likely will out last me and its new owner.
It made me a believer in Gluvit and I've used it even on hulls that may or may not have needed it but its cheap insurance against small leaks.

 

[airshot]

I agree, if it is sticking that well, leave it !!

 

[LaqueRatt]

What you need is a D/A sander. Feather in the edges and make sure the rest is slightly rough. Matters not one little bit if there is some paint left. If you D/A it well you won't be able to tell. Should only take you a few hours. For what it's worth I've had two Harbor Freight sand blasters and neither one is fast. At least not with a 5 HP compressor. So if you're going to blast you better figure on a thousand bucks for a quality compressor if you don't already have one.