Bottom refurbishing

[RCAN]

My 1976 Compaq 16 was purchased by me 2 years ago. I keep it dry on my trailer. At the time, it had a decent coat of anti fouling blue paint, although a sloppy job was done and it had drip markings all over. As I have sailed it in salt water, the paint has begun to thin out in some areas and crack and peel in others. Now I can see pitted white spots and what could be blistering under the paint.

As I am not able to do any of this body work myself, I'm afraid it must be hired out.

Since many of you have, at least, had your boats hauled out and had your bottoms cleaned for the winter, and some may have had this same kind of work done, I wondered what advice or cautions you might offer.

Should I use a boat yard or are there other places that do this kind of work?

What kind of money might I be planning to spend and is there any negotiating advice I can get. I would like to be informed about some things before I contact anyone so that I don't get taken, or have someone who does not know what they are doing take on the job.

I think I've described my situation. Any help will be welcome.

Robert

[skip1930]

Ahhhhhhhh the dreaded job. Depainting her bottom is....well work!

But wait! Depainting an anti foul bottom paint from fiberglass can be done by sanding down to the fiberglass....

Or scraping the loose off and leave any that wants to hold on.
Reminds me of a joke., " Did you hear about the baby born with a broken arm? Trying to hold on till after the wedding....! "

For me I trailer over to the coin car wash at the end of the season and pressure blast her down to clean. [ $10 in quarters ] Any missing paint I will eventually recover. So I say but so far have not bought the paint. And at $130 a quart who can blame me?

Depainting on fiberglass [ automotive plastic bumpers that have been mispainted and needed to be depainted ] without profiling the fiberglass curves by sanding can be accomplished by having the waterline down and down, blasted with a baking soda blast media. Church and Dwight makes the blast media, and Schmidt makes the pressurized blast pot. It needs a 250~500 scfm diesel Solaire compressor and a trickle of water to keep the dust down. This all can be rented. Works well. I have used this on bake batch oven refurbishing. The baking soda on the ground makes the soil a bit on the base side and will kill the wife's garden...so pick a large black top parking lot. The baking soda blast media can be washed away with water.

Time and Material. About 1-1/2 sq ft per minute is as fast as blasting can occur. About $45 to $60 per hour? How-a-bout hiring some high school kid for the job of hand sanding....$30 worth of sand paper and $15 for a face mask, one quart of paint for two coats, I use a cheap 3" plastic roller from ACE, and a flat fee for the job [ providing the yard lets you do this ], it's a small 16 foot boat say $130 for the whole job. Should take the kid a day to do the job. Look around for a close out sale price on the paint.

Can do it in a driveway. The first time I painted over the factory bottom paint, I used some brown water base outdoor house paint. The same paint as on my shed's trim in the back yard from ACE Hardware. It worked in fresh water and not too much growth for a season in the water. A couple of years later I painted my CP-19 with actual bottom paint [ after I glued on my KEEL BOTTOM plate ] that I found in the marina for $20 a quart. Last blue one on the shelf.

skip.

[RCAN]

Skip,  I really appreciate your response.

I know it has to be hard work, but you make it seem less complicated than I envisioned it.

Nonetheless, I may need to have some yard look at it, as I fear there might be blistering or some other problem that may have been hidden by the poor paint job previously done. I guess as I get rid of the old paint I'll know better what's under it.

Many thanks.

I will post any findings as I proceed.

Robert

[skip1930]

Remember: The paint job is no better then what's under it.

Grew up in the paint business, paint doesn't stick to steel. Phosphate sticks to steel and paint sticks to phosphate. Iron or zinc phosphate. The difference between a point-of-purchase paint job [ iron ] and a warranted paint job [ zinc ]. A paint job on a after market shock vs. a paint job on a factory shock. How good is good?

skip.

[Salty19]

RCAN, since you keep your boat on a trailer, you do not really need the bottom paint.  Bottom paint's only purpose is to reduce plant and animal fouling when the boat is kept in the water for long periods.  In cold salt water, you could probably leave it in for a few weeks without much buildup, or least a small amount that can be power washed off.

Now if you do have blisters, they will need to be removed (sounds like professionally if you're not able to).  The cost could vary wildly depending on how many blisters are there, the shop, season, and maybe your negotiation skills.  Most places will charge x dollars per foot to paint but would custom quote based on blisters.  As a guess, just painting it might cost you $400 in labor.  However, the prep work will probably cost more.  Then the cost of the paint.  You're probably looking at 800-900 for a pro to "take it from here".  

Be sure you actually have blisters though.  Pictures would help determine that.  Compacs are not known for blisters unless they are left in the water for extended periods neglected. They may very well be "orange peel" like texture caused by not thinning the barrier coat enough (easy to do!).  That's nothing to be concerned about.

I'm thinking the best approach here is to simply power wash off what you can and sand off the rest.  If looks aren't too important, just sand off what you can, at your pace and stop when you see grey or white.  Take all season if you need to.  80 grit on a rubber sanding block would work.  Do not use a flat sander!  Skip's blasting method would work a lot better and faster.  Also be aware of proper masks for the job, you don't want to breath the dust.The white or grey is probably the epoxy barrier coat. Leave it on there.   If looks are important, then paint with a bottom paint that allows drying.  Not all bottom paints will perform correctly if they are allowed to dry out.

When I painted my bottom which was fresh gelcoat, the majority of the work was cleaning, sanding, recleaning and cleaning again (prep) before the bottom barrier coat.  That took 4 or 5 evenings while one coat of epoxy or paint took maybe 2 hours including mixing the epoxy and paint, cleanup, masking, etc.  That was on a 19 so more surface, more time.

I guess I'm trying to talk you out of paying a bunch of money for a paint job you don't really need.  Maybe have a pro blast off the paint, sand it a bit until baby-bottom smooth and move on to the next project?  

[HideAway]

Salty19 touched on the subject -- Just remember the bottom paints are pretty toxic.  I would not want that stuff on my driveway or home.  If you are not leaving the boat in the water for extended periods of time I would not bother with bottom paint.  It is heavy and not very smooth for you speed freaks.  Wait -- I guess that does not really apply here.   

HideAway still has her ancient bottom paint- it is not pretty but since she sits on a trailer most of the time now I don t see the point in repainting.  I can leave her in the hot salt water for a week easily brush off the creatures. 

Besides I have other worries -- Just replaced the wiring for one of my running lights - the copper was corroded black on the inside of the sealed wire- Salt water is toxic too I guess-- Matt