best method for stripping

[Yellowjacket]

Did a search on refinishing and couldn't find much on stripping of the old finish. A couple of people recommended using the "orange" based stripper, others recommeded just sanding. Lots of experience with putting on the new finish, but not a lot on the best way to get the old crap off.

I'm refinishing an old Dale Hull built runabout and am getting ready to strip the old finish. I'd like to restore some of the areas in the natural wood finish, so I want to be careful how I take it down. There is polyester or epoxy on the bottom, and I'm not going to mess with that, it looks fine. I'm mostly concerned with the upper deck surfaces. Most all of the decking is sound, but there is a bit of checking in a few places.

The boat was refinished twice after the original finish. they took it down to bare wood and primed it with a gray primer, then there is a layer of red and lastly a layer of more recent enamel or polyureathane that is pretty thick.

I can sand it back (carefully) but that is going to be a lot of work. Also concered I will sand too much and go thru the first layer of ply. I don't know how much sanding was done when the boat went from a natural finish to the painted red version.

I'm nervous about using a chemical stripper, mostly because of the residue that they tend to leave behind. If I stain it after using a chem stripper is there a problem with it being blochy, or is it easy to clean up and get a good looking surface afterwards?

I have a heat gun, but is that a dangerous thing to use or is it ok? I though I would try that on some of the areas near the nose that have a thick layer of sealant and see how that works.

[26V]

Strippers

The Orange based strippers work good, I have had some luck using the soy based stuff, it just takes longer. Both of the orange and soy based strippers you can clean up with water. So after you have ALL the finish off wipe down with a wet/damp cloth to nutralize the stripper. You will then have to sand the plywood as the water will raise the grain of the wood. Let dry completely and refinish as desired.
When you get all the finish off you will be able to tell if the first ply has been sanded through or not. No way to tell ahead of time that I know of.

If you decide just to sand the old finish off, use a fairly fine sandpaper. you can go to far to quick in spots with courser paper. I'd say 120 grit to start untill the wood starts to show through. finer sandpaper will give you more control on how deep you sand and leave fewer/finer sanding marks.

PS used both methods on the runabout last winter. strippers are less work, but not much quicker as you have to give the stripper time to work.

[ZUL8TR]

Refinish

Try the heat gun in a small area to test it might do the trick to remove most or all of the finish. Sanding will work but very time and labor intensive. IMO a stripper is the easiest way to go.

Use Aircraft brand stripper available at auto parts stores like Auto Zone, Advance Auto and Prp Boys and others it works very well. Can also look into Star10 stripper(www.starten.com) but rather costly. Use a sharp scraper and only pull back on it, round the edges of the scraper to prevent trac gouges. After the finish is removed (it most likely will take several applications) the stripper is neutralized per instructions then sand prime and paint.

If you want natural finish I brought my stripped Okume plywood that had bad condition peeling and checked varnish back to pretty good for natural finish with Oxylic Acid (avail at Ace Hardware as Savogran Wood Bleach) wash that mostly removed the black stains in the grain and made the wood more uniform for a clear finish, it also took several applications. Neutralize the acid using several washings with water and wipe down between washings.

I applied 2 coats of epoxy over the dried wood as a build sealer then sanded up to 400 grit paper and wiped down with laquer thinner then several coats of varnish to UV protect the epoxy. The coats werer sanded with 300 wet last coat prep was wet 400 grit.

If you want to stain be very careful with the type used if apoxy is being applied. Some types will prevent epoxy from a good bond. I have never stained wood under epoxy so can't help you there.

[Yellowjacket]

Guys,

Thanks for the input.

The bleach is something that I hadn't thought of. The interior sides of the cockpit were done with polyester resin when the boat was new, but there are some gouges and areas where they have been scraped clean and the wood has weathered and is dark. I was thinking it would be a really nasty task to sand all of the old resin off and that by the time I did there wouldn't be any wood in the areas that were damaged. I'm thinking I might be able to smooth up the old surfaces and bleach them back to a decent color and go from there without totally removing all of the old polyester. I don't think the heat gun is going to do much other than burn the old polyester, and I have never heard of a solvent for it.

[Bill Huson]

Use WATER based stains under epoxy - NEVER use oil based stains.

[Syd Marsden]

I have used the heat gun and it does work great, but you do have to keep it moving so that you do not burn the wood. I have also used a lot of different chemical strippers over the years. I have learned that what works good on one product may not work as good on the next. Good luck with the project.

[ZUL8TR]

Bleach

Guys,

Thanks for the input.

The bleach is something that I hadn't thought of. The interior sides of the cockpit were done with polyester resin when the boat was new, but there are some gouges and areas where they have been scraped clean and the wood has weathered and is dark. I was thinking it would be a really nasty task to sand all of the old resin off and that by the time I did there wouldn't be any wood in the areas that were damaged. I'm thinking I might be able to smooth up the old surfaces and bleach them back to a decent color and go from there without totally removing all of the old polyester. I don't think the heat gun is going to do much other than burn the old polyester, and I have never heard of a solvent for it.

Cured Polyester resin can be removed with sanding but quite a task I do not know of a chemical that will take it off once cured.

On a recent restore of a 1981 Karelsen 25ss hydro the interior and exterior coaming sides of Birch plywood were not in great shape and the bleach did not bring it back so I used paint for those areas. You might consider this for your restore. The bleach did work on the Okume deck.

[Mark Monkres]

Go to Anchor Paint and get SKIM, it will remove almost anything, and would be neutralized by water, unlike STRIP-EEZ, that has to be done with Denatured Alcohol.
Good luck, Mark

[Aussie Steve]

You can cover the stripper with plastic to keep it active and wet for hrs , I have done this at work for 10 yrs on front doors and such and just did it on my boat last year , I spread stripper on one side cover it with painters plastic can back 1hr latter and stripped as I peeled the plastic back it was still wet and worked very well on the decks .