Next step after bottomkote removal??

[cyber]

I'm having my Four Winns (fibreglass) bottom soda blasted to remove
a nasty looking mess of peeling antifouling paint that looks like hell!

Previous owner left boat sitting in the Connecticut River all summer
so he had the bottom done with some type of bottom paint,
but I keep it on a trailer so I want that nasty crap gone and will NOT
be putting any back on. :mad-new:

So my question is: after that stuff is blasted off, is there something I
should do to the bottom of the hull as far as protecting it?? For example,
should I apply some type of sealer?? wax?? or am I good to go just as
it comes out after the blasting?? I don't want to risk any damage to the
bottom, and I certainly don't want to reapply any type of bottom paint!!:facepalm:

Thanx in advance for any feedback!!:happy:

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Next step after bottomkote removal??

Even though Soda Blasting is a fairly safe method of removing Bottom paint, if the operator isn't careful they can do damage to the underlying gelcoat. You should carefully and thoroughly inspect the gelcoat hull surface to ensure it's still in good shape and has not been blasted off and exposed the underlying fiberglass. Any areas of exposed glass should be prepped and recoated with gelcoat.

 

[keepyatipup]

Re: Next step after bottomkote removal??

Cyber could you let me know how the soda-blast goes, after a few tries with the marine strip it and sanding my *** off I am ready to just have my 20' cuddy blasted. Boat will be on the tailor so really do not want to repaint. I have read a few positives as far as the soda blasting goes, but not much on what can be applied after.....keep me posted

 

[cyber]

Re: Next step after bottomkote removal??

Even though Soda Blasting is a fairly safe method of removing Bottom paint, if the operator isn't careful they can do damage to the underlying gelcoat. You should carefully and thoroughly inspect the gelcoat hull surface to ensure it's still in good shape and has not been blasted off and exposed the underlying fiberglass. Any areas of exposed glass should be prepped and recoated with gelcoat.

Thanx WOG!!:joyous: I will definitely give her a thorough look-see before I
put 'er back in the water. Is there anything I should coat the bottom
with before using her again?? One guy at work suggested Teflon, does
that make sense or was he just yankin' my chain?:wacko: I just want to ensure
I don't do any harm, but I definitely don't want to reapply bottomkote.:fish2:

 

[cyber]

Re: Next step after bottomkote removal??

Cyber could you let me know how the soda-blast goes, after a few tries with the marine strip it and sanding my *** off I am ready to just have my 20' cuddy blasted. Boat will be on the tailor so really do not want to repaint. I have read a few positives as far as the soda blasting goes, but not much on what can be applied after.....keep me posted

I'm getting it done Tues. or Wed. next week. I'll try to
post some before & after pictures and let you know how
it went and my overall opinion of the process.
I paid $65 for a gallon of 'Interstrip' and just did a 2'
strip on the transom where my outboard sits.
That small job was quite enough for me using that
nasty crap!!:facepalm: I estimated I'd need at least
5 gallons of that goop, plus countless hours of labour,
not to mention I wouldn't want that slimy mess on my
driveway, so that's when I decided to look into alternative
methods. :help: I just happened across an ad for the
'soda-blasting' on Kijiji and decided to check it out!:yield:

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Next step after bottomkote removal??

Do you leave your boat in the Marina or is she a "Trailer Queen"?

 

[cyber]

Re: Next step after bottomkote removal??

Do you leave your boat in the Marina or is she a "Trailer Queen"?

Great to be finally able to comment again as I've been itching to follow up
on this thread!!

WOG: To answer your question, she is definitely a "Trailer Queen":lol:
I wouldn't be able to stand being 'trapped' on a single lake or river, I
love to travel around and am always checking out different locations!

So what do you suggest I do with the bottom now that the 'blasting'
has been completed? There are a few spots that will require some
attention, but overall not nearly as bad as I had expected! Some scratches,
nicks, and even a few small chunks along the keel, but I think I can fix all
that with the 2 part 'water tight epoxy filler' I've been using all along (you'll
see some of that light blue stuff where I filled the holes left by the removed
transducer & speedo pitot).

As for 'finishing' the bottom, I saw one (or more) threads where they have
simply painted the bottom with "Rustoleum enamel", (from Bondo I think?),
and I'm strongly leaning towards this route. Simply for the reason of being
a very low-cost option coupled with the fact that the bottom takes a beating
and nothing I put on is going to last all that long anyways!:mad-new:

So is that an acceptable solution as to how to protect my newly 'blasted' bottom??

 

[cyber]

Re: Next step after bottomkote removal??

Cyber could you let me know how the soda-blast goes, after a few tries with the marine strip it and sanding my *** off I am ready to just have my 20' cuddy blasted. Boat will be on the tailor so really do not want to repaint. I have read a few positives as far as the soda blasting goes, but not much on what can be applied after.....keep me posted

AWESOME!!!!

Best $500 I've spent in a long time!! No muss, no fuss (for me, anyways!), I watched from
afar as the poor guy spent 3 hours blasting away at that nasty crap, what an ordeal!! Spent
a lot of time on his back under the trailer (I could envision my tired old bones under there)
He ended up using 'recycled glass beads' as opposed to baking soda at a significant cost reduction
of $250, so I was OK with that and the end result was basically the same. I took lots of 'before &
after' shots and I will attempt to post a few here.

I highly recommend this procedure to anyone wishing to remove antifouling and wanting to avoid
the nasty chemicals or countless hours of health risking sanding. This is certainly not a 'cheap'
alternative, but in regards to avoiding a really nasty DIY job, it's "priceless"!!!!!

OK, that tears it!!!!!:mad-new: I've tried for 1/2 an hour to upload varying amounts of pictures and I keep
getting the message "your file of 3,696,708 bytes exceeds the limit of 200,000" so I'll have to
give up before I do any damage to the monitor!!:grumpy: You'll hafta take my word for it, the results
were awesome and I'm certainly ecstatic I came across this technique!

 

[Georgesalmon]

Twas me, I would buff it back to shiny and then couple of coats of good wax, automotive wax is fine but if you want to waste money you can buy "marine" wax.

 

[Woodonglass]

Glad the Soda Blasting went well. I'd Highly recommend using a Free Photobucket account to post your pics here. Once you have them loaded into PB, copy and paste the IMG Code into your iBoats post. Simple as that. I'd recommend filling all the big scratches and gouges with 3M Premium Marine filler and then sand and fair. This link has some good info for painting with Rustoleum and the added hardener.

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat-...page16

Post #238

 

[Chris1956]

As long as the gel coat is sound, and she stays on a trailer, you do not need to do anything.

 

[Chris1956]

To clarify, as long as she is trailered everyday, you do not need to do anything to the hull to protect her.

 

[Woodonglass]

This ^^^ is true as long as the Gouges and scratches are NOT deep enuf to expose the glass. If so, you could use the filler and then just use some Gelcoat to touch up the repairs and call it good.

 

[Axkiker]

So did the glass beads dull the finish of the gel. Im just trying to figure out how it would not give the gel an almost eggshell finish. just curious how the process works.

 

[cyber]

So did the glass beads dull the finish of the gel. Im just trying to figure out how it would not give the gel an almost eggshell finish. just curious how the process works.

That is exactly what happened! But to me it still looks 110% better than that nasty
old black bottom paint that was on it.:mad-new:
I intend to fix any of the deeper nicks & scratches w/ interlux watertite epoxy filler
and then I'm going to take the easier/cheaper route and just roll & tip the entire
bottom with white gloss rustoleum.:joyous:

 

[cyber]

OK, trying WOG's idea of the Photobucket route. Here are 5 BEFORE pictures.

 

[cyber]

And here are 5 'as close as possible' corresponding AFTER pictures.:hail:

 

[cyber]

And lastly, here are a couple of spots where it went right down to the bare fibreglass that I will obviously have to repair with gelcoat before I paint the entire bottom.
I'm not sure if this was damage caused by hitting something or perhaps the "blaster" honed a little too long on these ridges, but no matter the reason, I'm VERY happy with the outcome, especially the fact that I didn't have to do any of the nasty parts!! (like using chemical strippers and/or countless hours of sanding!!)

 

[Woodonglass]

I'd highly recommend that you add the Acrylic Enamel Hardener to the Rustoleum. It really enhances the hardness and durability of the paint. Tractor Supply sells it and some WalMarts do too!!!

Lot's of different BRAND names. They ALL will work with Rustoleum. All work with Oil Based Acrylic Enamel Paints

 

[Chris1956]

If you are going to paint it, use a one part polyurethane paint. Use a good one like Brightside. I would repair the bald spots with some colored gelcoat and see what she looks like before painting it. In your photos, she looks pretty good to me.