New boot stripe?

Submitted by Kurt Steinbock on Sat, 01/12/2008 - 09:38
I'm refubishing the gelcoat on Scot 3879. Deck is coming along great, but I'll want to deal with the boot stripe in the process of doing the hull. Mine is badly chipped, and appears to have been redone at least once, since there's a faded blue under brighter blue. Any tips on removing the old paint? Wet sanding, maybe? I tried a chemical paint remover made specifically for fiberglass ... it removed the old boat name on the transom easily, but wouldn't budge the boot stripe. And after it's removed, should I have a new stripe professionally applied, or is this something a patient amateur can do? Thanks! Kurt
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Comments

I just repainted the hull of my FS.

Submitted by flyingscotsa on Tue, 01/29/2008 - 21:01.
I just repainted the hull of my FS. In the process we also redid the boot stripe. The easiest way to get the old paint off seemed to be sanding with 220 grit paper (orbital sander to avoid sand marks). It is a little bit tricky due to the fact that the edges of the boot stripe are somewhat recessed. To finish I would recommend a high quality paint (e.g. Awlgrip). I decided to spray to achieve a better finish. During application I would also recommend a high quality masking tape to get a clean edge.

Since I raised this question, and eventually got to a satisfacto

Submitted by Kurt Steinbock on Sun, 03/16/2008 - 09:24.
Since I raised this question, and eventually got to a satisfactory conclusion, I thought I'd follow up. I tried a marine paint remover I found at Benjamin Moore. Applied it with a brush and was immediately impressed with how quickly it went to work. Unfortunately, I left the product on too long (and NOT longer than the instructions recommended), the active chemicals evaporated, and I was left with alligatored hard paint and gel residue. Curses. Also, in small spots where I got the remover on unpainted gelcoat, it appeared to attack the gelcoat somewhat. That left me little choice but to get out the sander. I used my handheld Makita orbital that I use on funiture finishing, with 220 and 120 grit paper. Although tedious, dusty and awkward, that did the trick. I was able to remove the results of my prior mistake, and sufficiently rough up the surface of the previous stripe so it would take paint. I wiped it all down afterward with mineral spirits, and then a painter's tack cloth. Then I masked off the hull with 3M 14-day two-inch wide blue painters tape. Talk about laborious! Following the curved contours, laying under the stern on the garage floor was a pain, but as with most such projects, prep paid off. I bought a half pint of Interlux Brightsides polyurethane specifically for striping, and yesterday applied the first coat with a small, short-napped roller. I was surprised (never having worked with a material like this) that it was about the consistency of syrup, and the roller left stippling in finish. I tried "tipping" with a small brush, but that did little to smooth it out. Happy ending, though. I finished applying the paint, had a couple of beers, and returned to find that the paint had leveled BEAUTIFULLY. Hard, highly reflective and very smooth. Today, I'll sand lightly with 320 grit per the manufacturer, and apply the second coat. The half-pint should be the perfect amount for a Scot. I am VERY pleased with the Interlux paint, and I'm convinced that the sanding process that flyingsctosa recommended was overall the best way to go. Kurt

Thanks for the update.

Submitted by Andy Carrier on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 13:18.
Thanks for the update. Glad everything turned out well. Now I know the path to take when my boot stripe needs refreshed. How long did you leave the painter's tape on before removing it? [?] Andy FS 4957

I took off the masking tape maybe four hours after applying the

Submitted by Kurt Steinbock on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 08:15.
I took off the masking tape maybe four hours after applying the second coat. My thinking was, I would want to deal with any errors while the paint was still somewhat soft. I touch tested the paint (some that was on the masking tape, not the hull) to see that it was still a bit tacky to the touch, and then peeled off the masking tape. I did find one very small spot where the paint had "crept" under the tape, and was able to easily scrape it off with a razor blade before it set. That said, I think you'd be safe leaving the tape on much longer than that, if you were inclined. I had just recently finished compounding and polishing the hull, so there was a clean un-painted gelgoat surface to apply the tape to. It released very cleanly. One final caveat: Spraying would clearly have given me a showroom-quality finish, but there was no good way I could spray, and the dust in my garage probably would have messed up a spray job anyway. The fact that I used a roller is obvious on close inspection ... but from four feet away, it looks SO much better than it did before I'm very happy with the result. Kurt

Thanks for the insight and the update, Kurt.

Submitted by Andy Carrier on Wed, 03/19/2008 - 13:07.
Thanks for the insight and the update, Kurt.

In case you are not as energetic as the others who have replied

Submitted by karafiath on Sun, 03/23/2008 - 22:23.
In case you are not as energetic as the others who have replied I want to tell you that I redid the waterline with a $3.95 pint can of navy blue rustoleum paint about 10 years ago. I just used masking tape and painted right over the faded blue epoxy that the factory used. I did use a wax remover on the epoxy to get off any wax residue from previous cleaning and waxing of the hull. I wish that I had invested in a high quality brush since a few brush hairs got trapped in the paint. there are no runs or sags in the finish.The price and the effort were right.