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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

bottom paint stripping-what's that brown stuff?

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Aceguy
1st Mate

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USA
77 Posts

Initially Posted - 02/09/2007 : 15:26:59

So, as I have mentioned before, I've got ablative paint on my boat that is now coming off on anything it touches since it has been out of the water for a couple years. It needs to go away.

I bought two types of fiberglass-safe stripper at west marine yesterday. One was just the "pro" version of the other. Both west marine's store brand. On the regular product, it said it had a 4-8 hour work time. On the pro product, it listed a 4-24 hour work time. Yesterday I applied both to a one foot square(ish) area on the bottom of the boat side-by-side. I came back in five hours and the paint hadn't budged on either of them. OK, so I came back in eight hours. Paint hadn't budged. OK, so I left them both overnight. Came back today right around the 24 hour mark. The regular stuff was kind of like a film at this point, and when I scraped it off it brought some color with it but that's about it. Verdict: that stuff's worthless. The "pro" product, however, had softened the paint up great. It scraped off with not too much effort. Pretty impressive!

Now the questions: It seemed to take off all the layers of paint down to a ugly, midtone brown surface. I was kinda hoping to see pretty blue gelcoat under all that paint. No such luck. So, what's the brown stuff? Is that a primer or barrier coat that was applied first? Should I try another coat of stripper to see if it comes off as well? Or, do you think that was factory applied and the brown stuff is as far as I want to strip down to?

The kinda funny part of all this was, when I went to West Marine, they had both products on clearance. I asked one of the guys why it was on clearance, and he said because they didn't work well at all. Well, he was 50% right. The regular stuff is junk, but the "pro" product really did the job, it just had a long working time. Part of that slowness could also be the cool weather (it's been between the 40's and 60's here lately).

Eric Freedman
1984 SR/WK #4671
Folsom, CA

Edited by - Aceguy on 02/09/2007 15:29:21

DaveR
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
2015 Posts

Response Posted - 02/09/2007 : 15:47:38

Hi Aceguy,
I haven't been where you are but from reading the forum on this topic it sounds like barrier coat to me. Oh, and thanks for the stripper info!

Edited by - DaveR on 02/09/2007 15:48:36

Steve Milby
Past Commodore

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USA
5895 Posts

Response Posted - 02/09/2007 : 18:10:02

Only God knows what that brown stuff is. It wasn't applied by the factory. More stripper will probably soften it.

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Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 02/10/2007 : 10:38:03

FWIW, I was warned by a guy at Defender not to waste my money using chemical stripper below about 60 degrees--the hull temperature (which might be cooler than the air early in the day). Warmer is better. Good to know about the two different ones from West, tho...

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tinob
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1883 Posts

Response Posted - 02/10/2007 : 12:56:18

Under my ablative paint there is a brown signal coat that notifies me when the ablative paint has worn off and it is time to repaint. The ablative paint that you spoke of was merely doing what it is designed to do, wash away taking all manner of gunk with it. And it is a godsend to those of us who inherited older boats that had been given annual coats of pain until the boat's bottom look like a lunar surface. The bottom of the boat that I bought had the texture of a pineapple. Since using ablatives over the past ten years it has had to be repainted just twice. This last painting is in its sixth year come this season. One learns not to rub against it because it will do as you said.

Val on the hard DAGNABIT #3936, Patchogue, N.Y.

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Aceguy
1st Mate

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USA
77 Posts

Response Posted - 02/10/2007 : 23:05:21

Well, I put stripper on the brown coat for another 24 hours. It didn't budge. It seems as impervious to the stripper as the gelcoat. I guess I'll be stripping down to the brown layer and then repainting.

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Leon Sisson
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1893 Posts

Response Posted - 02/11/2007 : 12:13:37

If the brown layer ignores fiberglass-safe chemical stripper and is much harder to sand than bottom paint, then it's likely barrier coat. Barrier coatings come in a variety of odd colors (they're not intended to look good, or even be seen). In the case of WEST-based barrier coating, the user gets to mix their own recipe or formula. So it could be difficult to identify barrier coating by color alone. I'd say if it's hard and stuck tight, leave it there.

Thanks for the paint stripper info, and good on the West Marine sales help for telling it like they see it about product effectiveness.

-- Leon Sisson

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Aceguy
1st Mate

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USA
77 Posts

Response Posted - 02/13/2007 : 00:07:50

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Leon Sisson
 I'd say if it's hard and stuck tight, leave it there.
-- Leon Sisson
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I agree. I am going to pull the boat into my shop this week, turn up the heat, and see how the stripper works in there. I expect it will be faster if nothing else. Once I get 95% of the bottom coat off, I am going to do a light sanding on the brown coat just for consistency, and then tape it and paint it.

Edited by - on

Bruce Baker
Captain

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USA
402 Posts

Response Posted - 02/15/2007 : 08:02:59

Last year, I used West Marine paint stripper (it came in a white bucket, I think it was the regular non-pro stuff). It worked great in 75 degree temperatures. I stripped off many (maybe five?) layers of paint, down to white hull in no time. The brown stuff sounds like it's a barrier coat.

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The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.