YEs,

I did my 1991 48' Ocean last year. It was about $2500 ($50/ft) and
only needed a heavy wash before painting. It was scuffed up enough
from the original paint. It took them 1.5 days to seal off the area
and take off the 16 years of paint. No issues. I had a boat sand
blasted about 10 years ago and it ruined the gel coat and started to
blister shortly after.

BTW... if you do decide to do this and you want to barrier coat the
boat, MAKE SURE THE HULL IS DRY (This can take 2-6 mos ++) before you
barrier coat. Barrier coat can seal in the moisture and CAUSE
blistering as well as it can seal out the moisture and prevent
blistering. Have the yard check the boat's moisture content after you
wash it and the surface water drys (24 hours) before you decide to
barrier coat.

What part of the country are you in?

Ed


Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
Anybody here ever have their hulls soda blasted?

I want to remove the bottom paint on my Ranger and it seems chemical
stripping is going to be really expensive - like $3,000...

According to somebody I just talked to, I can have the Ranger done for
less than a 1/4 of that price if it's soda blasted and you don't have
to worry about the gel coat getting screwed up.

Any thoughts?

Ed wrote:
YEs,

I did my 1991 48' Ocean last year. It was about $2500 ($50/ft) and
only needed a heavy wash before painting. It was scuffed up enough
from the original paint. It took them 1.5 days to seal off the area
and take off the 16 years of paint. No issues. I had a boat sand
blasted about 10 years ago and it ruined the gel coat and started to
blister shortly after.

BTW... if you do decide to do this and you want to barrier coat the
boat, MAKE SURE THE HULL IS DRY (This can take 2-6 mos ++) before you
barrier coat. Barrier coat can seal in the moisture and CAUSE
blistering as well as it can seal out the moisture and prevent
blistering. Have the yard check the boat's moisture content after you
wash it and the surface water drys (24 hours) before you decide to
barrier coat.

What part of the country are you in?

Ed


Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
Anybody here ever have their hulls soda blasted?

I want to remove the bottom paint on my Ranger and it seems chemical
stripping is going to be really expensive - like $3,000...

According to somebody I just talked to, I can have the Ranger done for
less than a 1/4 of that price if it's soda blasted and you don't have
to worry about the gel coat getting screwed up.

Any thoughts?


Tom,
Since you are doing this for aesthetic reasons, they do make a white
glossy hard bottom paint used for boats that are no longer kept in the
water. It would give you the appearance of gel coat and the protection
of an epoxy barrier at substantially lower cost. I think it is called
VC Teflon, but most marine stores would have it in stock.