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Starting on the cabin build out and had 4 or 5 old glass patches in the hull. I decided to grind out one before I installed a layer of glass in my fish box, just to check. The first one had a minimal layer of glass and was just filled with poly putty. No layers of glass nor was it ground back. That prompted me to grind out the others. Found two more just like the first then for the big finale, I found one with a wooden dowel used as a filler then glassed over with one layer of glass.

BTW, I just had my my 53 year old hull sandblasted. We took it back to the gel coat. The sight of 53 year old gel coat is not for faint of heart. I may need another 5 gallon bucket of Sea Guard 5000!

Sand blasted?
Or soda blasted?
I've been told not to use sand or it will pit the gel coat.
Im not wanting to hand sand mine or use the goop to remove it.
I was hoping soda blasting would be the easiest, but i don't want to cause damage that isn't already done

Actually my guy was using the glass beads. Years of bottom paint, some epoxy painted over bottom paint. Bottom paint painted over barnacles! Best to get it down to the gel coat and start over with a good epoxy barrier coat. BTW, I wanted mine pitted so the epoxy will have something to bite.

Sand blasting opens up every void in the gel coat. Which is what you probably want, but it is something I would never do again. Spent days filling a million pin holes. Well it seemed like a million.

Then put 5 coats of interprotect on her. That was done in 1986, still holding up.

It saves the issue of trying to sand it down. Soda Blasting is not as aggressive. I have also heard of a process that uses dry ice. Have no idea how that works.

Or blast it yourself in your driveway just to piss off the wife...

Mine is in the driveway. She's pretty pissed.

I just had mine done on Wednesday. It definitely opens up lots of little checks in the gel coat I will be sanding and filling for a couple days for sure. I will at least be starting with a clean slate.

For you guys who have upset the spouses, a word from someone who has been there, about 20 years from now, you will do something that will really twerk her, I guarantee it will cost you, because she is going to let you know about the time you had the boat in the driveway. Be prepared to splurge on something nice for her.

Tony Meola wrote: ↑Jul 8th, '22, 20:25 For you guys who have upset the spouses, a word from someone who has been there, about 20 years from now, you will do something that will really twerk her, I guarantee it will cost you, because she is going to let you know about the time you had the boat in the driveway. Be prepared to splurge on something nice for her.

Lol… you think if you didn’t do the boat project something else would be the reason for the splurge.



In anycase it has to be better to blast then scrape and sand to a bare hull like I did…funny part is that was the year I decided to listen to my friends and hire Mexicans to sand for me. I think it was $150 plus lunch. They did such an awefull job I started to scrape a few loose bits…but was pissed so scraped so hard I went down to glass in spots…which pissed me off as it made the layers of paint next to it look worse, so scrapped more. Hours later I was too far into it to stop, becoming a several-week project of removing, filling, and fairing bottom. With no blisters, I decided not to barrier coat the bottom. I’m not sure that was the right decision, but the boat was 40 years old and the bottom looked great…aside from a few dings.

Carl

We only sand blasted because my father wanted to get the old paint off. That was 1986, the year I got married. My wife who was my fiance at the time helped put the barrier coat on.

She no longer paints the bottom, but she still helps clean and wash the boat as well as help prep for winter lay up.

Just so you don't get stuck in the coffin box permanently!!

I don't remember the pain of being under the boat, but it took me a while to sand and fill and I only have a 25'
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4uPGLV27oyBDmykX8

My Sandblaster took a total of 2 1/2 days.

I'm correcting some patching and fairing the entire bottom. It will be slick and fast when we are finished.