From what I could see under the flaking paint the original gelcoat was a brown with a white boot stripe. You can see the brown gelcoat under the flaked paint a the bow in the picture below.
Because of the scrapes in the fiberglass in places, wanting to plug the old thru hull and the general poor condition of the paint I decided that a repaint was necessary. The need for repairs and the condition of the exposed gellcoat meant that restoration of the gellcoat was not possible.
The previous owner had kept her on a mooring and there was what appeared to be minor blisters along the waterline above the antifouling.
As I don't plan on keeping her in the water for long periods and I want to fully repaint, all the old bottom paint had to go.
We began by trying to take the paint back by hand. Sealing up the area to catch any waste we tried a combination of water blasting, wet sanding, grinding and scraping, but didn't progress too far.
The photo below is post water blasting, pre wet sanding and scraping...
Below is after days of wet sanding ... not much progress!
After not much progress we decided that a more efficient method of paint removal was necessary, so we sought professional help...
Soda Blasting...
The entire boat was sealed into a tent with positive air flow to prevent any nasties escaping.
And all the used soda and removed paint was collected in this sock at the other end.
This progressed much faster than trying to do it ourselves, and the big plus is that someone else was doing the dirty work for us!
The finish after soda blasting was excellent. There was very little need for extra filling and sanding beyond filling the scratches and blisters that were already there.
Another plus. As this was done far away from any salt water by a person who normally works on car bodies and other bits of metal the price was measured in real dollars not boat bucks.
