---

I recently picked up a 1971 Nauset with a 88hp 2 stroke Evinrude & the hull in good shape except the previous
owner painted the inside hull with nonskid paint. I want to bring the boat back to show condition & my question
is how to remove the nonskid paint ? I tried testing a small area in the forward storage area & it works very slowly
using a Home Depot paint removal. My next thought is trying a heavy duty aircraft paint remover tomorrow.
If that product wks better then i will go that route. If that fails then it's on to a sandblaster (testing a small area 1st)

I've gotten three coats of varnish on seat & it's coming back to Bristol Condition. This is my 3rd Whaler but the
1st restoration on a BW...

Thank You in advance for your input

Bob

Dana Point Ca

---

Be careful with sand, might want to try walnut or something else.

---

Will be curious what you find once you remove the non-skid paint. Wouldn’t be surprised if you find the original factory non-skid surfaces were damaged or patched. Good luck and looking forward to seeing some pictures!

---

I think if you search the site, there are several articles about paint removal. A sandblaster will not know the difference between paint and gelcoat and remove both leaving a real mess.

---

I had to become a member just to answer this.

I have in the past weeks done exactly what you are planning on doing.
my 17 Montauk from 1977, has had several owners the past years and now I am doing a full refurb of the boat.

My inner liner was painted with Interdeck, this paint is one of the best paints I have come across. it will not budge against paint removals. it will become a little less hard, but you cant sand it of, you have to scrape it off.
Because if you go over with a sander, the sander becomes dull in 10 seconds because of the paint. After you have scraped it, you can sand it with 40 or 60 grit paper.

it took me around 40hours to remove the paint. and that is not including 20hours of paint removal process. and I still have the original antiskid decking to go.
I am thinking of sanding the original antiskid down to a smooth surface and adding a Seadek type of system to it. just because I have so many cracks to repair.

my tip. sandblast it, and do a complete repaint of it from glass fiber and up with epoxy primer or polyurethane. That is what I am doing with the Hull at least.

---

Well I decided to go old school & sanded the inner hull it took abt two weeks to get it ready for a new gel coat application.
I didn't find any stress cracks which is a good thing. I thought long & hard about sandblasting the non skid off but
decided it was too extreme. The industrial paint remover i tried in a small area took forever so i went the traditional
sanding route.
I'm going to update the color scheme to a modern look & will upload some pic's when i figure out how ......

Bob
Dana Point Ca