Bottom paint removal

[Richy B]

I picked up an 18 foot project boat. It has bottom paint on it already, but a few small spots is showing a shiny gel coat.
Was wondering what is the best bottom paint remover? Planning on keeping boat on trailer so hoping to get bottom paint off and just buffing and waxing the bottom.
Thanks for all input ahead of time!

[dfish28]

thats a tough one... if painting was done properly it should have been heavily scuffed before painting so your hopes of a shiny hull can be hindered...other than that best remover ... soda blasting or dry ice,costly... dewalt orbital sander cheaper...get a good mask...

[Gerry Zagorski]

I found this online Rich http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9w1GHVzqC0 a stripper from Petit...

Getting all the paint off is a huge commitment of time and money... As D mentioned above, the bottom may have been sanded and if so restoring the gel coat to a luster could be and issue... If the boat was barrior coated before being painted, it's my undestanding that paint stippers wil not remove the barrior coating , only soda blasting will do this and that's not a cheap option either.

Hope this helps you.

[Richy B]

I started with the orbital sander on the waterline area. One side of boat and I looked like a smurf!
Looks like I will be trying chemical remover from West Marine, then lightly sanding.
Boat was never etched for first coat and has several layers of paint. Top layer I can almost do with a scraper.
Looks like I will be repainting either way.
Any suggestions for a good hard paint for trailered boat?

[Gerry Zagorski]

As for boat paint, Check out Mikey Topaz's post in this forum. Looks like he got some great results and I'm sure if you PM'd him he'd give you some details.