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I am preparing to remove all of the bottom paint and topside paint from the hull of a 1962 16ft Penn Yan lapstrake boat. I was wondering if anyone has advice on the best way to accomplish this. If it is chemicals, any advice on the best product to buy would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Rich

I have used several strippers, Lowes/Home Depot work great. Use disposable brushes. Apply and cover with newspaper to hold in heat/fumes that make it work. Let set then scrape while still soft, don't let it dry up. May take several applications. Ventilate area well! Use gloves and masks and old clothes. power washing afterwards does wonders too.

I have found that the stripper you can buy at the discount houses are OK but will require several applications to achieve the desired results. Mobile Paint makes a commercial stripper (I think they call it XL, I will find out tomorrow as I need another gallon) that makes the discount stripper look like you applied water. Hopefully the link to some pics are attached. If they dont pop up copy and paste the link into your browser. The picture labeled Stripper shows the front half of the boat with Lowes best stripper ($25/gal) and the back half with Mobile Paint stripper ($40/gal). This pic shows that the old saying is true: you get what you pay for. Using a pressure washer will also speed up the process and provide a great surface to sand and prime. You have to be careful though because if you get to aggressive you can remove the softer parts of the wood. Adjust the nozzle to a fan spray rather than a needle spray. Then just take it easy and let the stripper do the work.

Rich,

I have used Bix "Spray Stripper" which worked great. It is a product that comes with a spray bottle, you fill from the gallon can, to apply the stripper. I stripped a 12 foot cedar strip Thompson both inside and outside with the product with excellent results. You apply the product with the spray bottle and keep the surface wet with the stripper and it will soften the paint and varnish to the point where it will actually slip off the wood with very little left to scrap or wash off with a power washer. The product needs to be used outside or within a very well ventilated area. I used a poly trap to make a awning off the front of my shed to act as a cover to keep the sun and rain off the boat while working on stripping it. This allowed me to be out of the sun and I had very good ventilation.

Good Luck,

Phill

Rich,
In case you don't want to go with a chemical stripper, I can recommend that a heat gun/scraper technique works well. I have curious dogs and I was concerned with chemicals dripping and the pooches getting into it. I use a Wagner 2 speed heat gun and an assortment of quality scrapers. Both the putty knife style and the replaceable blade on a handle style. A stiff wire brush comes in handy also. It will require a little elbow grease and unless the boat is upside down, there will be some awkward moments. This works well on the outside of the boat. Paint stripper is probably the easier choice for the inside.
Good Luck.
Ray

Trying the pics again.

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I finally figured out how to upload pics. Now I just need to resize them. Anyway, the Lowes brand stripper is on the left and the Mobile Paint stripper is on the left. I ran out of the mobile paint stripper and lowes was closer so I tried theirs. Never again. Both were applied the same way. brush it on, power wash it off, and then finish sand. Why bother with scraping? Call Justin at BLP Mobile Paint sales desk (800) 621-6952. I just bought another gallon yesterday, cost $34.60 plus tax

Thank you all for the advise. I am working inside in a shop where others are present, so I decided to avoid any of the strippers with strong vapors. I tested the Interlux 299 and Citrisrip and to my surprise, the Citristrip worked much better than the Interlux. I left both strippers on sections of the bottom paint and topside paint over night. The Citristrip completely lifted the topside paint and lifted most of the many layers of the bottom paint. The Citristrip was also very benign smelling. I figure I'll need to do 2 sessions to get all of the bottom paint off, but the white paint will likely only need one application. The hull is upside down so the job is not too bad. Thanks again.

Rich