bowtie89

Well as of tomorrow I should be the owner of a 89 formula 206!!! :-) I told myself I wasn't going to buy a boat with bottom paint but, this boat came along and I couldn't pass it up!! the hull is white. My question is what is the best way for me to go about getting this paint off??. The hull is white!! Can this be salvaged or am I stuck with bottom paint??? Thanks

JON242

I removed the bottom paint from my 24' Formula. I used a product called Peel Away. You can buy it at Home Depot. They also make a marine version but it's the same stuff and costs a lot more. It's a messy job but worth the effort.

bowtie89

Does it leave it smooth like the hull or will I have to polish??? Will I ever be able to make it look like the top???

puder

ifyou can remove it you will probably have to eventually sand hen wet sand then coumpound and wax to bring back that nice shiney smooth look

HyperBaja

Why are you removing it? I have not heard of a boat gaining speed when removing bottom paint.

mcollinstn

Be sure to test your stripping chemical on a small section of normally-unseen gelcoat to make sure the stripper doesn't soften the gelcoat. Most hardware store strippers DO soften the gelcoat, while some do not. Marine strippers do not.

Also protect your trailer or put the boat on chocks cause the stripper will play hell on your trailer also.

Get some flexible steel putty knives and hone the edges to a rounded point - thatr way you can get under the paint but not gouge the gel.

If your paint is giving you troubles or if it is hot outside, slather the stripper on, and then cover it with saran wrap, removing one piece at a time and working on that section. This allows the stripper to keep working on the other sections without evaporating off too fast.

If your bottom paint was properly applied, they scuffed the underlying gelcoat with 80 grit on a DA sander. You will have zillions of little round swirly marks on your gelcoat and the marks will have the color of bottom paint in them. You should expect to wetsand with 320 to get past the swirls if you require a perfect surface to look at.

Sorry for the not-so-good news...

If you plan to store your boat out of the water, you can IMRON the hull, but no paint will stay on properly under the waterline if you store it in the water.

HyperBaja

So if we do the stripper, then 320 sand it, it will look fine?

ForrestC

Peel Away if left on too long can and will damage gelcoat. Ask me how I know! Removal of bottom paint is a real pain and time consuming. If you value your time and pain factor, consider having a professional do it for you. Even after you get the bulk of it off with a stripping product, there remains a thin film of bottom paint that must be sanded off. Stripper won't touch it. Also, since the bottom was sanded prior to the appplication of the first coat of bottom paint, once you are finished stripping and sanding, the gelcoat may be fairly thin. To acheive a near perfect finish, you may need to have the bottom re-gelcoated or sprayed with something like VC Performance Epoxy which is a very tough coating that's only availabe in white.

Best of luck!

cuda

Two reasons:
1 Yes it is faster
2 It's butt ugly

There are several kinds of bottom paint.

I removed it off one of my boats by using a pressure washer with a sand blasting attachment. It came out a lot better than I thought, you just have to be careful on conves points not to get through the gel coat. Also, oven cleaner would remove this paint.

On the second boat, I got lazy and had it bead blasted off for $350. DON'T DO THIS! It was much rougher than the sand blast. In some spots it looked like it was shot with number 8 bird shot. I had to fair marine tex in and paint it. As a side note, the oven cleaner wouldn't touch this paint, it just made shiny bottom paint.

Luckily you are working on a Formula, and they have THICK gel coat, so you have something to work with.

Good luck and let us know what you try.

cuda

This hull should be very similar to yours. It's and 81 F20SC. This is with the bottom paint.