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(mike worrall) wrote in message . com...
Practical Sailor has done several articles on this topic, the last of
which was September, 2000. Their recommendation: Peel Away. My
recommendation: Purchase the article from them at
Practical-Sailor.com

MW

Tailgunner wrote in message ...
Quick question. What is a safe paint stripper for fiberglass? I need to
remove 30 years of bottom paint and sanding it off is not an option.

Thanx.

Off Topic but related. I needed to strip polyimide from optical
surfaces. Nothing would touch the stuff, not the best paint and epoxy
remover I could find and sitting for a week. I even bought full
strength methyl chloride and it wouldnt work. I heated it to 1000
degrees F and that destroyed the optic but didnt destroy all the
polyimide! FINALLY, I immersed the optics in Liquid Nitrogen and that
froze and cracked the polyimide so after repeated immersions it came
off.
So..........maybe either a combination of differential thermal
contraction/expansion might work on a boat hull. If there was a way
to apply the LN2 to the paint...... Have you tried a heat gun to
soften the old paint so you can scrape it?
Even better, most bottom paint contains enough copper to be sorta
conductive so...MICROWAVES. Aim the magnetron from a microwave oven
at the paint and it heats the paint only. I gotta try this.