how to prep a boat for paint

[brianwhiteboy]

what's the best way to sand down a boat to prepare it for paint? Is an electric sander to harsh or should it be done by hand? Any info. on grit# would help. Can you use any type of paint stripper?
Brian

[TripleThreat]

I sanded my gel coat down with 120, 180 then to 220 using an air powered orbital sander. I then shot the hull with a Evercoat Slicksand, a polyester filling primer. from there I sand with 240, 320 and 400 dry. And then block sanded with 400 wet. I then sealed it, and layed my basecoat, graphics and then cleared the whole shebang. That is obviously a VERY condensed version of what it took to prep the boat. While I used an orbital sander for the majority of the sanding, there was also A LOT of hand sanding for getting nooks and cranny's and fine tuning some areas. While the scheme is fairly simple I have upwards of 40 hours of prepping and 20 hours paint time in the boat. Email me at sivadnosaj@charter.net if you have any questions. Here is a pic of the boat. Finished the paint job 3 weeks ago. Take care.
http://webpages.charter.net/triplethreat/boat_primer_04_2.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/triplethreat/images/rt_frt.jpg
[ April 21, 2003, 04:16 PM: Message edited by: TripleThreat ]

[TripleThreat]

Oh and about paint strippers. They are more of a pain in the ass than they are worth. That stuff is HARSH. Plus I don't think they work well if at all with Gelcoat. You will have a better finish sanding than chemical stripping in my opinion.

[brianwhiteboy]

the boat looks great! I'm looking for the same type of design, white with a blue stripe down the deck and along the edge. Nice job!
[ April 21, 2003, 04:57 PM: Message edited by: brianwhiteboy ]

[BrendellaJet]

paint can be stripped with a razor blade. Paint shops do it to cars all the time, and it works better and baster than any sander. I stripped all of the paint off my deck in about 2 hours. A 4 inch blade works well. Just go to home depot and buy the blades and the holder. If its not paint (gel instead) it wont work.

[brianwhiteboy]

I'm pretty sure it's all gel. What would be a good size orbital sander to use?

[DUCKY]

Just curious, why do you want to paint your boat? Use gel-coat! It's tougher, and repairable. Plus the materials are cheaper, although it is much more labor intensive.
email me if you have any questions...

[ChetCapoli]

a six inch DA sander with 80 grit to start, then 180 grit. Then use a good eurothane primer(PPG) K36($200 bucks) or a cheaper alternative is OMNI 2 part eurothane primer($80 bucks) works just as well. 2 to 3 HEAVY coats should do. Then it's wetsanding time! Good Luck
CHET

[1Bahnerjet]

Hey Ducky I'm Curious too, If you Click on my screen name & see pic of my boat its Black & orange, But what I would Really Like is all BLACK, How much $ would it run to re-gel it , I know you can't give me exact amount but would it be over or under $1,000.00 :confused:
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Drive What You Own And like what you Drive

[brianwhiteboy]

I'm going for paint because it's cheaper.......at least from what I'm hearing. I know gel is the best...but I'm on a nickel and dime budget so I'm trying to do what I can as far as prep work goes.
I don't know shit about painting or body repair...I'm just trying to find the cheapest way to get my boat looking decent!