Chemical Anti-fouling strippers - any experience?

TonyMills

TonyMills

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I need to strip antifouling back to the initial primer/barrier coat. Three years ago the hull was stripped (blasted I think)and a two pot epoxy barrier coat was put on. I bought the boat last year and am now plagued with hundreds of pimples (these were not obvious on survey six months ago). I am being told that the most probable cause is that the epoxy layer was poorly done and may be reacting with previous paint residue?
Anyway my view is that I need to get the antifouling off without excessive scraping and sanding and then, depending on what I find either sand off the epoxy and apply another barrier coat such as International Primacon or get professional help and delay retirement a few years (again!).

Does anyone have any experience with chemical strippers? Are they effective? Can they produce a more damaging chemical cocktail on the hull?

Regards
TonyM
'Bunyip Dreaming'
 
I have used "Dilunet" before - seemed to work but was messy and needed several applications (and lots of scraping) to get back to the base.

I also have it on dubious authority that steam cleaning works (using a high pressure steam genny) but have never tried it myself.
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"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity"
 
I used Removall on TCMs boat and was very impressed by its results. Spray it on thick, leave overnight, power wash off, removed 90% of the paint. a sandvik scraper removed the rest down to pure gelcoat in just over 2 days on a 23m boat.
 
I also used Removall 610, as Talbot says spray it on as thick as you can and leave overnight.
I did my Targa 27 single handed in 3 days and only used about 15Lts in total. Highly reccomended product and is produced by Napier of Canada.
 
I tried Strippit and International Paint Stripper. Both worked up to a point, but it was hard labour partic applying and removing the stripper under the belly of my bilge keeler. I decided that blasting was a better use of my energy / time.

If you have an epoxy problem I wouldnt consider paint strippers - when eventually you get to the epoxy you will likely have to blast to remove anyway - epoxy is very hard to sand and not at all good for the tubes.. So why not do the lot at once

If you have blisters check any fluid with litmus paper. Intercoat blisters in epoxy ( I had them from amine blush) usually produce an alkaline fluid which is how you will know its an epoxy fault rather than the previous owner coating a wet hull and you have osmosis. In the latter case, blister fluid will be acid.
 
Interesting. I'll certainly try this test. Do you know if epoxy problems are common? and are the symptoms I'm getting representative? I am told that the sudden arrival of pimples such as mine is more symptomatic of a paint/epoxy issue rather than the more slow acting osmotic (not the right word) action between the gelcoat and hull core?

Regards
TonyM
 
[ QUOTE ]
If you have blisters check any fluid with litmus paper

[/ QUOTE ] Some / most / all of the chemical strippers are caustic soda based so wash that away thoroughly or test the blisters before applying it or your litmus will go blue!.

Litmus, although well known, is a pretty poor indicator anyway. Apart from in year 7 science lessons it has few uses. It would be better to get old of some "Universal pH papers". Try scrounging from the kids school Chemistry department. You'll need the covers of the book as well for the pH vs colour charts. A packet of washing soda. or some other common substance they use would make an acceptable swap.
 
I used some International stuff, I forget the name, but it wasn't much use at all... A chandler I know then offered me some prototype International stuff, free of charge, which was a little better, but still not much help. I resorted to the old scraper and wet sanding method...
 
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