Preparing to paint a steel boat

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Rustic Charm

6 weeks?

What were you using to remove it with? A butter knife

I'm intending to use 'Peelaway'. It's meant to be pretty good in removing 'paint' and is said to easily remove AF's

Ended using a long handled carbide tipped scraper. The old AF was very very thick and soft. Tried various high and low speed sanders with grits as large as 16 but everything just clogged up within seconds.

Then tried a fair number of chemical strippers and found the best was a locally made (Perth) gel. It's main active chemical consistuent was caustic soda. This was held in suspension by a concotion of oils and fillers. It applied with trowels a bit like tile adhesive would be, wait 24 hours and scrap off. Sometimes it would take several layers off and other times hardly one layer.

I think we used 20 Kg of the stuff but it may have been 40.

The caustic nature of the stripper left many burns in clothing and skin .

I wasn't game to try burning the old AF off, I figured I would burn the boat and half of Perth or kill myself with toxic fumes.

Hopefully your peelaway will perform much better.

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by Wotname

AFAIK, tar epoxy is no longer permitted on recreational boats in Oz. Has been banned for some years now.

thanks.

[sunbear1]

suggest you join the origami boatbuilding site and read the painting posts. a huge amount of tried and true info on painting steel sailboats. most use coal tar epoxy or wasser tar. brent explains his technique for bottom paint. yahoo groups--origami boatbuilding. all the best.

[RaymondR]

"Tar epoxy on boats banned in Australia"

I don't think it is banned just hard to get and no longer manufactured in Australia because it is carcigenous.

[micknor51]

Try Carboline Altra Lock 576 which is a 2 pack epoxy sealer on the bare steel then overcoat it with 3 coats of 2 pack epoxy high build before the anti foul paint (2 coats). I used Altex Coatings Epoxy No 1 Primer then Altex No 5 Antifoul. This has worked well on my steel boat on Lake Macquarie.
Make sure that the metal surface is clean (ie wipe down with acetone before applying the Altra Lock.
Good luck
Michael

[Rustic Charm]

Guys, and gals,

I've been asked to give my chandlery a list of what paints I need in readiness for the job. Boats coming up the river on Sunday ready to come out. I'm trying to work out the area for paint and it's not easy given its got three chimes on each side. I've worked out a total of 57 square meters. Does that sound roughly about right for a 36 foot (11m) boat?

[gilgsn]

Hello, no matter what you do and whatever you paint, the surface must be bare metal, freshly blaster or ground. You will have to paint within 30 minutes. Tom Colvin told me to use Amerlock 400 on my steel ketch, without primer. It worked extremely well..

Gil


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[ausnp84]

Hey RusticCharm,

Some good advice here, some not so. At the start of our project we were recommended to needle gun the whole boat, or acid wash it, or apply Ospho. In hindsight, I would've disregarded most of that info and just gone down to the local fishing dock for a discussion with those guys. They rely on their boats 24x7 and know what to use.

We ended up having our steel motorsailer blasted back to bare metal over the course of 10 weeks (don't ask) and for those areas they couldn't get to with the grit, I hit the existing paint with a wire wheel to take all the loose / flaky paint off, faired it with 2 part epoxy filler, then painted it all with a 2 pack Jotun paint system.

J87 Aluminium for below the waterline - three coats
J87 standard for above the waterline - three coats

Hauled out after three years in the water (two years of that in a mud berth) and everything is still hunky dory.

Bear in mind that's for a usable boat that goes cruising. If you're looking for a glass marina-queen finish, be prepared for some serious ££. Here's a pic of how ours turned out:


n