Soda Blast

[eegs2k]

Thinking of having my 18 soda blasted to remove years and years of bottom paint. Since the boat is trailered and used 95% in freshwater I have no need for antifouling.

The place recommends blasting it, filling any rough spots that the bottom paint is currently hiding, and then painting the bottom with white interlux 2000. They say this will give me the look of gelcoat and will last for a long time...like forever. :)

Does this sound right? Anyone been through this process or have comments?

[Destroyer]

That sounds about right... Your most feared problem will be hull blisters under the paint. They can be repaired though. Then a nice coat of paint and you should be good to go. Personally, I like Plasti-Cote paint for bottom painting, but that's just me and opinions on what paint to use are like fleas on a dog.. there will be tons of them. Certainly Interlux is a great choice for a paint. They have a well deserved rep.

[reelapeelin]

Somebody named an Interlux bottom paint w/TEFLON in it...sounds pretty SLICK to me...:sun:

[Curapa]

That was probably me.

I have the same situation with my 18'. I have no idea why people paint the bottoms of boats that aren't kept in the water.

Here is the paint I will use.

http://www.riversupply.com/product/Interlux-VC-Performance-Epoxy,2272.aspx

[aussie]

i want to blast the bottom of my boat but dont want to apply paint can it be done or is blasting to harsh ?????????????????????

[eegs2k]

Aussie - The guy told me it would be too rough to not paint. Said it would be the equivalent to sanding it with 100 grit paper. He recommends it get filled and painted.

Maybe others have different opinions, but that is what I was told.

[aussie]

is he blasting it with rocks lol

[spareparts]

alot depends on how the bottom was preped when it was initiailly painted. I saw one guy use chemical stripper to get all the paint off, then wet sanded and buffed the gel, it wasn't liek the top side, but it looked better than it did before. If the bottom was properlly prepaed, odds are you will need to recoat or paint. One of the local paint shops around here is using hte hard epoxy teflon paint for sailboats with good sucess.

[garagenc]

Aussie - The guy told me it would be too rough to not paint. Said it would be the equivalent to sanding it with 100 grit paper. He recommends it get filled and painted.

Maybe others have different opinions, but that is what I was told.

Have you tried soda blasting or commercial hydro blasting?

We soaked the bottom of a Renkin with paint striper and then used a power washer with 5,000 psi and 90% of it came off and then we hand sanded the rest.

Also toilet bowl cleaner has muriatic acid in it and it will remove paint / galvanize if it gets on it and is only a $1 a container. I have been using it on my fiberglass for over 10 yrs to get rid of the brown water stain we get here.

I even use toilet bowl cleaner on my aluminum john boat to clean the bottom after letting it sit in the water all season long, it loosen up the barnacles and then I power wash.