As I showed in PART ONE, the boat’s bottom is covered in years of old, gnarly, built up bottom paint. Having stripped a boat bottom by sanding, scraping and through the use of chemicals in the past, I know what a nasty job it is.
Old Bottom Paint Buildup
That’s why this time, we called in the pros from All About Blasting to use soft ( glass) media to strip the bottom. All About Blasting uses the soft media, whereas other contractors use,” dustless” methods. There are drawbacks and plusses to both which we will explore in another article. Talk to your local blaster to see what choice makes sense for you.
Step one is to lay a drop cloth of 6 mil poly sheet on the ground under the boat, as we showed in Part One.
Next, the ” skirt” or “tent” of clear poly is taped to the boat and to the drop cloth. Then, air from a carpet fan or shop-vac run in reverse is introduced to the tent in order to inflate it.
Then, a completely suited up blaster enters the tent and begins the stripping process.
Prior to blasting, I measured my boat’s waterline at several key places in order to replicate it.I also took several pictures of the waterline. I wanted all traces of the old paint gone. However, your blaster can leave a 1/-inch strip of paint at the waterline for reference and more convenience if you choose.
A clean bottom, after blasting.
In part three we’ll fill imperfections before priming.