Re: Need advice repainting nonskid
Following up on cleaning off the painted gel coat nonskid. I did not repaint as the original grey gel coat looked good enough after stripping.
1. Used Citrus Strip (CS) to get the bulk of the paint off. Worked well for 95% of the paint. It softened the paint in under about an hour, outside temp ranged from 65 to 80F, sunny day (not ideal). Scrubbed with a plastic brush periodically.
2. Next, scraped off 90% of goo mixture of CS and paint, scrubbed the remaining CS first with a plastic scrub brush then lightly with a small brass brush on tough spots. Retouched and scrubbed tough spots with CS. Then washed off the residue with water and a rag. Let it all dry out a day after washing real well on final time. Be sure to get Citrus Strip ONLY on the gel coat, it'll soften PV-type plastics real quick.
3. Next coated the area with Aqua Strip (AS) because I wanted to leave it overnight and it seems much less aggressive than CS. Came back next morning and scrubbed again with both plastic and brass brushes. Keep it wet with a spray bottle, it seems to work better, the goo seems to reduce the effectiveness of brushing. AS seems safe for PV-type plastics.
4. Cleaned real well with water and a rag, a pain because AS is more gooey than CS.
5. Finally painted the area with FSR to get off little specks of paint which remained and even out the color (grey gel coat nonskid). Then scrubbed with water. Did the job but not perfectly. Only did one application as I ran out of FSR.
That's it. There are still a few areas where pain specks are visible but I'll revisit them throughout the season. End result - much better looking than the cracked painted mess.
And now I have a nice new powder coated windshield frame to attract the eye away from the imperfections in the gel coat.
Hope this helps. Prepare for a mess...
Happy Boating
Keith
