Getting rid of house paint on a hull

[Leggless]

Hi All.
I'm new on here, so please bear with me.
I bought a Robb Legg 24' yacht and am doing her up slowly. The problem is that one of the previous owners had taken to the hull with house paint, which now is fading and cracking. At one stage the bottom was ani-fouled, but that was painted over as well. My question is: How do I get rid of the paint without damaging the Gelcoat?
Or. Will I have to repaint the hull again and if so, what paint should I use? PLEASE don't say house paint or that she is now a house boat.

[Simi 60]

Here's a start.

how to strip paint - Google Search

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Leggless

Hi All.
I'm new on here, so please bear with me.
I bought a Robb Legg 24' yacht and am doing her up slowly. The problem is that one of the previous owners had taken to the hull with house paint, which now is fading and cracking. At one stage the bottom was ani-fouled, but that was painted over as well. My question is: How do I get rid of the paint without damaging the Gelcoat?
Or. Will I have to repaint the hull again and if so, what paint should I use? PLEASE don't say house paint or that she is now a house boat.

Welcome

There are several alternatives, all labor intensive. While it should be a goal to do the least damage to the gelcoat that is possible, it may not be realistic to expect to restore it without recoating. Besides, if it were in good condition, it would not have been painted over.

Your choices are: chemical stripper, scrapers, and sanding.

Which bottom paint to use depends on the waters you'll be in, whether you'll haul out seasonally, whether the boat will be scrubbed by a diver, your budget, how long you'll keep the boat, and what sort of products are available locally. There is no one best product.

Above the waterline, there are some tradeoffs between cost, ease of application, product safety during the application process, appearance, and longevity. The best looking and longest lasting paints are linear polyurethanes, but they are difficult to apply, hazardous to work with, and extremely expensive ($400/gallon). Interlux Perfection would be an example. I've used it and if you get it right the results are fantastic. Lots of things to go wrong through. I will be using it on a couple of canoe refinishing projects I have going this winter.

You may find this article helpful - Boat Bottom Paint - BoatTECH - BoatUS

I am currently using the Jamesdown Distributor house brand of epoxy and paint, "Total Boat," which is somewhat cheaper than the better known brands. They have an excellent catalog which they will send you for free, and a good web site.

Interlux is one of several high-end marine paint distributors. You could check their website also.

Best wishes.

[valhalla360]

Reality is unless you just like projects, touch it up and live with the house paint. It will likely cost more than the boat is worth to get her repainted.

If you do want a project, get some paint stripper and plan on repainting. We did a boat several years back with Interlux Brightsides Enamel and really liked the results. It looked good and as a single part paint was very easy to touch up.

Bottom paint is a different question. First you need to determine the type of paint (paints) used.
- It's quite common with Ablative paints to put on a bottom coat in one color and then top with another color. Ablative paints are designed to slowly wear away. Once the 2nd color shows thru, it's a good sign it's time for a new coat. You do not want to strip ablative as it just wastes perfectly good paint. The whole idea is to have a thick coating, so you get a long time wearing it down.
- If it's a hard paint, you can do a couple coats or overcoat with Ablitive but after 2-3 coats of hard paint, you are getting the stripper out.

[Suijin]

For latex paint I would consider experimenting with a 3M "surface conditioning disk" on an 8" soft pad polisher/grinder to take the paint off. The medium discs generally will take material off gelcoat without injuring the gelcoat itself if you're careful with the machine. But it depends on what sort of condition the gelcoat itself is in.

Chemical stripping is one of those things where when the job is 1/4 of the way done you wish you'd taken a different route. It's messy and the cost of the stripper can quickly mount if you have to do a large area and it takes several applications. But if you can find a cost-effective latex stripper that is environmentally friendly, that you can rinse off with water it's probably worth a try.

I agree that if someone painted it there was likely a reason. You will probably find cracked, chalked gelcoat under the paint and you'll want to repaint after stripping, which will probably require a lot of repairs and cleaning to get a good result.

I recently used Rustoleum "Topsides" paint to refinish a helm pedestal with a brush. I was absolutely flabbergasted at how well the paint flowed out; the surface is like a mirror. That said, I have no experience with it's durability although reviews appear positive in this respect. It might be a good compromise between cost and service life.

[Dave Lochner]

I have a Flying Scot that seems to have suffered the same fate, a coat of blue house paint. It seems to be doing a nice job of removing itself. Come spring my first attempt at assisting the self-removal is wash it with a pressure washer. With a little luck, a lot of the paint will come off.

There are good safe paint removers. I've used a Franmar Soy based product with good results. https://products.franmar.com/collect...ripper-soy-gel

[Cheechako]

Depends on what you mean by house paint. You mean it's latex? UGhhh

[anacapaisland42]

Sorry Leggless,
I've used "Rustoleum" on the hull, deck, spars for 25 years...works great, paint over any scuffs, stays bright and not expensive...AND easy to match.
Bill



Or. Will I have to repaint the hull again and if so, what paint should I use? PLEASE don't say house paint or that she is now a house boat.
[/QUOTE]

[Mithril Bham]

Is she in or out of the water? If out, work on everything else first, use paint remover and see how much flakes off. Removing paint is a horrible job. Know it too well.

[boatman12]

Originally Posted by anacapaisland42

Sorry Leggless,
I've used "Rustoleum" on the hull, deck, spars for 25 years...works great, paint over any scuffs, stays bright and not expensive...AND easy to match.

There's a lady with a pretty crappy (and one engine doesn't run) boat at my marina. She painted it with Rustoleum" boat paint using a roller. Now it looks a little less crappy.

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Suijin

Chemical stripping is one of those things where when the job is 1/4 of the way done you wish you'd taken a different route. It's messy and the cost of the stripper can quickly mount if you have to do a large area and it takes several applications. .

The tarmac drive way at home recovered after about a year, the scars and hair loss a little longer

Pete

[thruska]

Hello welcome to boat life lol.
All replies are well spoken.
Because we done know all of your circumstances , I wanted to make some suggestions.
How you go about the task depends on your views environmentally. And its easier to clean up even after pressure washin if you put a cheap tarp under your boat or even big free cardboards .
Any paint can be stripped one way or another. Non is particularly cheap . The labor is costly even yours hehe.
I suggest first pressure wash the whole boat.ceiling to bilge,deck to hull and keel, it will save the cost of stripper or abrasives. If you use either, you still need to tool up for the job,
If it is house paint, you still dont know what kind. Some may not strip well and require aggressive abrasion initiatives. Expect sore shoulders and arms and back at nearly any age ,haha.
A good pressure wash of all external moving parts as keel and rudder is prudent at this time. Inspect and repair those things b4 painting of course.
Do a test area with any strippers you may have. Both on deck and hull above and below waterline. No use buying strippers you cant use..
Use the pressure washer to do removal. You should be able to tell by then wish route you care to take.
Takes a lot to kill a good gelcoat job. Unlees your boat got a cheapy job.
Id worry about prepping before even consider your paint purchase . You have plenty on your plate with phase one of your task.
You can apply a two part barriercoat yourself ,and deck and and hull and roll it all on . No need to buy spray equipment or contact insurance company to deal with overspray on neighbors car and house.
Its a big job but not daunting.. if you like your lungs get a good respirator, and vinyl gloves.,knee pads are fun.
Good luck

[captlloyd]

Actually one of the finest steel boatbuilders on the east coast and the man who designed my boat recommended that I finish coat my boat with acrylic latex paint. Why? Latex paint is one of the most waterproof paints that there is. Water can penetrate a number of different types of paint. I had very good results with it and it looked good.

[Reefmagnet]

This might sound crazy, but use a high pressure water cleaner to blow off loose paint. Sand and prep whats left and repaint. An industrial 2 pack polyurethane paint over an epoxy primer would be my choice if single pack paints don't appeal.

[thruska]

I agree that industral acrylic latex paints are robust. I wish i knew who made the drum of allis chalmers indudtrual yellow that was declared ' hazardous waste' which i got paid to take off a vendors hands. Funny how paint becomesvery hazardous when unwanted haha. Once its dried is no longer considered hazardous untill its removed again lol.
Ive got some 'hazardous marinetravelift blue' with hardener thats going to adorn my steel flatbed trailer very soon.
I do ezpect that a latex recommended by a steel boatbuilder will be a timetested product of superb results
A 400$ a gallon boat paint is particularly for a retail market and overpriced as a luxury as a marine product . And overpriced because of advertising and marketing and multicolored packaging.. The science is not that complicated.. i used to strip paint with fish oil . Had to actually read the paint label ! Haha