Stripping bottom paint with baking soda pressure wash?

[MLerner]

Hi all, I was put onto a guy who's prefected a baking soda pressure blasting to strip off bottom paint. Have any of you heard about this system? How does it leave the gel coat? Your thoughts would be much appreciated, thanks.

[MLerner]

Thanks Madpoodle! I think you're right, the guy is using it in "sand" blast application. It's pricey -- around $750 to do a Classic 18 -- but the alternatives are none too appetizing either.

[MLerner]

Will do, thanks.

[MOP]

Mike look into "NO KEM" they use plastic beads which doe minimul damage to the surface. Looking forward to seeing firstly the baby 2nd Elenore and yeah I guess you!!

Phil

[MLerner]

Hi Phil, the guy I was referred to was in Ronkonkoma. I'll look into NO KEM. Yeah, the little one's a beauty. I'll pass on the hello to Eleanor. Bestest, M

[LKSD]

I too belive that they blast the baking soda like a sand blaster, not thru a psi washer. I know you can get pressurized sandblasters.. ( Kind of Like a pressurized spray tank but with the blasting material inside instead of liquid.)

You can always do it the old fasioned way & sand by hand going thru several different paper grades & do it yourself.. You are probably going to end up wetsanding by hand & polishing it out any way.. That is unless you are going to repaint it.. It always seems to come down to time or money.. Unfortunatley boats usually cost everyone both...
Jamie :)

[LKSD]

I too belive that they blast the baking soda like a sand blaster, not thru a psi washer. I know you can get pressurized sandblasters.. ( Kind of Like a pressurized spray tank but with the blasting material inside instead of liquid.)

You can always do it the old fasioned way & sand by hand going thru several different paper grades & do it yourself.. You are probably going to end up wetsanding by hand & polishing it out any way.. That is unless you are going to repaint it.. It always seems to come down to time or money.. Unfortunatley boats usually cost everyone both...
Jamie :)

[onesubdrvr]

Another emerging technology is dry ice blasting (http://www.maintenanceresources.com/ReferenceLibrary/ezine/dry_ice_blasting.htm).. We did some aircraft parts with these units, and they are pretty amazing. I also actually drove our yard buggy over to our cleaning area, dry ice blasted the engine clean without removing the paint, and started it up and drove it back in the yard... Neat stuff.. They were bummed, I had already done my 22's bottom when they saw it, as they claim they could have done it in about 4 hours versus the 24 it took to do it with a DA...
I'd damn near buy a boat just to see that!! :D :D :D

Wayne

[Cuda]

Whatever you do, DO NOT bead blast it. I had it done to my 242, and it damn near ruined the hull. Some places it looked like it had been shot with bird shot. And this was after they guy assured me they do it to Corvettes all the time. Apparently, paint on Vettes comes off much easier than bottom paint.

[Lenny]

Mike, walnut shells, walnut shells.

Used everywhere all the time...

Found a Corsican yet :D

Take care, Lenny

[MOP]

Are walnut shells abrasive enough to remove paint? We use em here to blast salt off of the power wire inslulators on the telephone poles without damaging them....

I think they would work, I have read they use it for paint stipping of resto cars. Regular paint is harder then bottom paint. The dry ice thing looks really good I wonder how coatly that is.

Phil

[Rootsy]

speaking of dry ice blasting... i bought one of these for a plant in baltimore when i was with OI for cleaning blowmolds... HDPE actually gives off a carbowax that gets into the pores of the aluminum causing a bad surface finish on the mold because air gets trapped... but, that dry ice blaster worked wonders... freezes that stuff and blasts it right out of there with ease... i never did try it on anything else... but it does clean grease and oil off of stuff too, i do know that... it takes what looks like rabbit food pellet sized dry ice.. we used to buy it bulk in a big ole cooler and it'd last for a week or so til we got to using it...

[Bob]

Has anyone actually used walnut shells? What were the results like? I like the biodegradable aspect. In other words, just sweep up the big chunks.

[MLerner]

Thanks, folks, for all the great advice. I will look into walnut shells before I do anything. And no, Lenny, I still haven't found the Corsican of my dreams.