need advice on stripping hull

[dwb2620]

I am surprised that nobody has mentioned using a heat gun to strip the paint off. I have a hull that i tried both sanding and paint stripper and it was like watching grass grow trying to scrape the paint off. I went to Lowes and bought a heat gun with adjustable heat and it took me less than a day to remove all of the paint! You do have to be careful or you can burn the wood.

Now all I have to do is re-seal the hull and clear coat it and I'm done.

 

[misshydro]

I am surprised that nobody has mentioned using a heat gun to strip the paint off. I have a hull that i tried both sanding and paint stripper and it was like watching grass grow trying to scrape the paint off. I went to Lowes and bought a heat gun with adjustable heat and it took me less than a day to remove all of the paint! You do have to be careful or you can burn the wood.

Now all I have to do is re-seal the hull and clear coat it and I'm done.

the proublem with heat guns get it to hot and kiss glued pannel good bye. on fiberglass hulls you can warped them easly if you not carefull.

 

[Rudy Formanek]

I have used the orange collored and orange smelling Citristrip to remove urethane clear and Klasskote epoxt paint from a Phil Thomas Sport 40. I would never been able to sand the paint off right by hand because the skin is so flexy! It does take a long while after application before you can scrape the paint off. It will not cause the old paint to bubble and curdle, it will soften the old paint enough to scrape off with a formica scrap (I used old Formica sample squares with rounded corners). It took a few applications to totally get it stripped. I did small sections at a time and covered with aluminum foil and let it sit for a few hours or even overnight(after I was convinced it wouldn't totally eat through the hull). One of the best things was I was able to hose and scrub brush the hull when I was finished. I haven't used it on a wood hull.

 

[mark voorhies]

You have to be smart about using the Aircraft stripper, I use the rattle can, only where I need it. And then when paint is stripped, quickly clean to neutrilize it's effect .

i do not let it eat my epoxy joints, or damage the hull seal, just a quick way to get to sanding when there is paint to be removed. This is on my wood hulls only!

I use sanding blocks of differant shapes to get the hull ready for paint. 220 seems to work well.

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

Well...

My brother has schooled/scolded me many a time about being too timid with surface prep. Claiming I take too long. With him being an autobody journeyman he disassembles, cuts, welds, reassembles, sands, primers, sands, primers, sands, colors, clears, wet sands, and polishes a whole front end in the time that I would still be sanding. LOL!

His first gripe was that I was sanding with too smooth of sandpaper. He said use 80 grit and he was right. 80 grit would rip the paint right off. I would say a Sport 40 would take approximately an hour to sand all the paint off.

Then he suggest that I prime with FeatherEdge Primer.

Keep in mind that for Autobody Specialist it's all about speed. The more cars they can whip out the more they make. They can't sit around waiting for paint to dry. LOL!

The FeatherEdge Primer is a Catalyzed primer with outstanding fill properties. It's catalyzation also allows you to control how fast you want it to dry with the amount of catalyst you put in it. It can dry so you can sand in an hour. And it sands easily with it quickly turning to powder.

I dry sand using a special powder treated sandpaper. I think it's 180 grit. It's not marked so I forget. The powder in the sand paper helps keep the sand paper from clogging. I can sand a primered boat smooth within the next hour. However, it most likely will take another coat to sand fill and sand out the deep scratches 80 grit leaves so that's another hour to prime and let dry then sand again.

But in about 4 hours I have strip sanded the boat, primed and sanded it twice making it ready for for color coating.

Using automotive paint I can color coat. Wait an hour, (hour 5), Mask and paint again (hour 6) let flash 15 to 30 minutes. Add Decals and Clear Coat. (Hour 7 and 8). In one day if I want to hustle through it I can strip, prime, sand, prime, sand, color, mask, color, decal and clear in an 8 hour period. It's a lot of work in one day and you are surely tired But I did it. I painted two boats for my dad over the fathers day weekend last year using this method. I have attached the results here.

Before....bmp

After2.bmp

 

[mark couty]

Go to PEP BOYS or O'REILLYS. They sell a product called PEELER made by KLEEN STRIP. It will take off the paint and leave the epoxy, if it is a wood boat. Another IW member suggested it to me and it works great.

 

[ww29]

started stripping the hull today there was 3 coats of paint on it. orange,yellow, red. i used almost 2 cans of peeler on one front sponson and front half of hull.with rubber gloves on the peeler it still was making my hand burn under the gloves.that stuff melted an old credit card.