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I for one hate it...

So Monday I was finally able to get the boat off the trailer and begin the process of stripping off some 20+ years of rolled on crappy bottom paint.

The guy who own the boat before me would just roll a new coat on every before the boat went into the water. Needless to say this has added up over the years. Also without proper prepping it had begun to start coming off in big chunks.

Wanting to do it he right way I knew I had to get it off the trailer. So last weekend while I was out of town my dad took it upon himself to build a gallows frame to help support the boat while it was off the trailer. So when I returned home on Sunday the frame was build and in 3 sections ready to go.

Come Monday afternoon we set up the frame and began to dolly the hull off the trailer. To start be lowered the tongue of the trailer all the way down. Then we placed 2 cinder blocks with a 2x6 and a 4x4 on top at the stern. Once those were in place we cranked the tongue back up as high as it could go thus lifting the stern off the trailer. With the stern off the trailer we used blocks of wood between the bunks and the hull to level it and used ratchet straps and ropes to go from the cleats through the hawse pipes to the over head frame. Once those where up tight we lowered the tongue a bit and used a jack and a block of wood to lift the bow and set it on a set of cinder blocks and wood.

With the hull free of the trailer now set began to slide the trailer out. Once we got to a cross beam on the trailer would use the jack again to lift the hull up to set up an other cinder block support behind the cross beam and removed the one in front of the beam and set the boat back down. We did the same thing for the axles and the last cross beam and finally the trailer was out. It was actually not that bad at all.

Now with the trailer out of the way I started using peel away to strip the bright blue bottom paint off the hull. I found the peel away to work well however, you need to let it sit of about 8 hours before you remove it but, you need to have it off by at least 16 hours or else it begins to dry back up. The peel away also has not burned my skin nor harmed the gel coat in the areas where it was gotten on it unlike other strippers. So now I have gotten one side of the hull done and am staring on the other side. I have been working in shifts where I will coat half of one side and then strip it. Typically the stripper has gone on at night and then I have been stripping it at 6 in the morning before I head to work (I do not have to be at work till 9). Once that is stripped I will coat the next half and strip that when I get home and recoat the next area for the following 6 am wake up call. With the paint off I have found that there is an epoxy barrier coat under all the blue paint. It really is white however, the blue paint has stained it dark blue and cooper. With a little sanding though it turns back to white. This will be a plus as the new bottom paint I will be putting on is my Desert Tan I have had made up so the white will be a great base.

Here are some pictures of the process so far. I will keep posting them I get through the process.