paint removal does and don'ts

I'm just looking for the best methods of removing a crappy paint job from the boat I just picked up. I know theres plenty of advice to be had. Any and all would be welcome. new guy

aircraft remover and a pressure washer! if you dont have a pressure washer you can coat a large area with the remover and then cover it in saran wrap. that will keep the fumes in and keep the remover from drying out too fast. start at one end of the wrap and start scraping or after a couple of minutes remove it all and use a pressure washer. it helps if you can do this on a warm sunny day.

This is the method i used and i cut thru about 7-9 coats of paint with two coats of remover.

Yep, use the aircraft coating remover, and a turbo (oscillating) tip on the pressure washer. Since this stuff basically uses its fumes to do the work, it goes without saying to do this in a well ventilated area, wear a respirator and gloves, and most importantly, wear safety glasses!

Also, have water on hand to rinse this stuff off your skin if you get any on you. And believe me, you will INSTANTLY know if you do, because it burns worse than pepper spray.

I wasn't aware of the saran wrap trick to hold in the fumes, but that makes sense. And again, as this stuff works by process of its fumes and evaporation, it is volatile, and rapidly evaporates. Once it dries out, it's more difficult to remove. So, for best results, do small areas at a time, don't try to cover the whole boat, it will waste material.

Once you have the paint removed, you need to make sure you have ALL the residue from the coating remover off the surface before you try to re-paint. You should follow up with a soapy wash and rinse.

Once you do that, if you plan to re-paint, you need to use phosphoric acid to etch the metal, followed by a wash with baking soda to neutralize the acid, then a rinse.

Once it's dry, you'll need to use zinc chromate or some type of self-etching primer specifically formulated for aluminum. Ordinary primers will flake off. With the zinc chromate, you're not trying to put on a thick coat as you would with other primers. Basically, just a fogging of the surface will be adequate. Then follow up with a good paint, either oil or epoxy based.

I used zipstrip, amazing stuff!

Temperature makes a big difference. The warmer the better. It's slow going in winter, unless you have a really well heated garage. (but still much faster than wire brush, etc)

what size boats did you use the stripper on? just curious as to the amount you used and about the cost. id like to clearcoat the aluminum after its stripped. one more question, id like to steel flex the bottom and up the sides just over the bumpers. do i do this first and then apply the clear coat, or clear coat then steel flex?

I stripped my 16 foot DuraCraft using this method, inside and outside. And it took me about 10-15 gallons of stripper to do it. Of course, that probably has to do with the fact that I removed about 3 or 4 five gallon buckets worth of paint chips from the boat when I stripped it. :shock:

That's from going haywire with the paint for a period of 5 years, painting, re-painting, and then painting some more any time the boat had a scratch or a blemish. Also, it didn't help that I had initially coated the boat with truck bed liner (aerosol can type, not the professional stuff, thank God) and then had all the paint layers on top of that. Lesson learned the hard way.

For a NORMAL paintjob, LOL, it should take about half the amount.

PitFishin' said:

what size boats did you use the stripper on? just curious as to the amount you used and about the cost. id like to clearcoat the aluminum after its stripped. one more question, id like to steel flex the bottom and up the sides just over the bumpers. do i do this first and then apply the clear coat, or clear coat then steel flex?

Click to expand...

Mine is 17' long, 68" wide, and pretty deep. I stripped the sides, rear, gunnels (topside, and inside), and that took about 1-3/4 gallons. Yep, less than two.

I do however still need to strip the bottom.



FWIW you can see little spots of paint in that picture, and those have long since been stripped as well. Even still I'm at about 1-3/4 gallon.

Probably less actually because I've used it to strip other painted parts that I haven't re-used.

i like the way that looks Lon, pretty much the look im goin for. i wanna clearcoat the aluminum without any paint and steel flex the bottom in black. I just about fell out of my chair when i read 10-15 gal :shock: i was thinkin 1-2 . the original paint is still on mine and its wearing thin so i dont think it will take much to get it off there, but i tried one of those paint and rust remover wheels and it didnt work very well for me and i couldnt get close around my rivets without chewing some of them away(not good) so i found some of this stripper for 30$ a gal wich i thought was a good deal. those wheels were 9$ a piece.... and it only got me about 12x12 section. so im goin with this stuff

I am going to paint it. But I am seriously considering leaving the bottom, and transom aluminum.

You want to "clear" it with Sharkhide. It's made just for applying on raw aluminum.

Here is a boat painted/sharkhide'd like I want to do.