Fettling up an 80's GRP boat

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peter2407

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My 1985 GRP boat could do with some TLC. Other than the usual wash and polish is there a way of 't-cutting' to try and improve the appearance? I specifically want to remove certain items that make her look dated, like:

Cheek plates ie on the port and stbd hull there are 'go faster' stripes painted on using International Marine paint - how do I remove them and then balance the colour to the other areas?
Name stickers - remove them with what, acetone?
Crazing around stanchions - may mean replacing backing plates etc

Any hints and tips gratefully received.
 
Stripes painted for a long time will leave a ‘mark’ which will be very difficult to remove, possibly you should consider re-painting them. mark could just be that rest of gell coat has ‘matured’ !
Stickers sometimes submit to a ( gentle) heat gun then solvent ( WD 40 may help and may be kinder than acetone) Stickers may also have left a mark.
Crazing does suggest that a better backing plate would help ( as would dissuding people from hauling themselves aboard/pushing off etc using the stantions!)
Repairing a crazed area so as to be invisable would be hard possibly you could ‘stick/paint on something which would diguise the cracks but still look like some clever design ‘thing of purpose’ ?
 
Not sure what you really mean by "cheek plates". There are GRP safe paint strippers such as Dilunette(sp?), but you've already touched on the basic problem, that the freshly revealed surface will not have weathered as much as the remaining topsides. Many boats were produced with a painted strip along the gunwhale. It's my belief that this was to disguise the increase in freeboard as new GRP designs replaced sleek, wooden, long keel types. The lower edge of the strip would be where the gunwhale of an older design would have been expected. If you really want to go this route, then there is a fair amount of work to do, some of which might have been avoidable for other options. Strip the paint and then cut back the whole topsides to see what will work. You can use T-Cut, though Farecla offers a finer cut for the final polish. If you cannot get the areas to match satisfactorily, you can either paint a new stripe or paint the whole topsides (heaven forbid).

Name stickers can have the same problem re fading/weathering. Office supplies have liquids which will remove the sticky residue. If you do use acetone, remember it can eat gelcoat so it needs to be wiped on and off pretty quick.

Crazing around stanchions or around any deck fitting indicates some localised flexing, so you're right to consider whether the backing pad is sufficient. Sorth that out first and then gouge out the cracks so you can fill with gelcoat. Plastic Padding do a tube of white, which will show until it gets dirty. You can always paint taround all the bases... could be the best option if you find the crazing goes deeper than the gelcoat and have to make good with epoxy.

Just my own take - other opinions will surely follow!

Rob.

P.S. well alright - he types faster than me. Pretty similar, though.
 
I am currently doing something very similar to my 1981 Westerly Fulmar. You can see what I have done in photos in the link in my details and you can read about what I have done here. http://westerly-owners.co.uk/woaforum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2748

You will see I had a red transom when I bought her and found there were 5 different colours of red applied when I mechanicallysanded it off. This was the wet sanded by hand, followed by 2 grades of cutting compound. The result was brilliant. The gel coat on my hull is about 2 to 3 mm thick, so very unlikely to reach the glassfibre. I used a Silverline polisher and a Fein multitool and suggest you use something similar.

A very useful article is http://www.cfsnet.co.uk/acatalog/Gelcoat_Polishing.html.

It is a lot of hard work, but worth every minute.
 
My experience is similar to Concerto's. When I bought my GK29 the previous owner had painted a broad black stripe all around the topsides. I don't know what he had used but no chemicals would touch it. We wet-and-dry sanded it all off, starting with 180 and finishing off with 1000, then T-cut. An advantage of this method is that it removes any stain in the gelcoat so it all ends up looking the same.
 
vyv_cox said:
My experience is similar to Concerto's. When I bought my GK29 the previous owner had painted a broad black stripe all around the topsides. I don't know what he had used but no chemicals would touch it. We wet-and-dry sanded it all off, starting with 180 and finishing off with 1000, then T-cut. An advantage of this method is that it removes any stain in the gelcoat so it all ends up looking the same.
Click to expand...

Really T-cut, does that do a good job.?
 
As an ex sign-maker, one of the most effective ways of removing vinyl graphics is pour boiling water straight from the kettle & peel. The heat softens not only the graphic but the glue too ....pour & peel, pour and peel ....repeat. Lighter fluid is good at removing any residue although of course flammable. Believe it or not Mr Muscle Green glass cleaner does it nearly as well. Agitate it as it soaks to break down the glue.

I toyed with trying to renovate my hull myself when I bought my (1985) beneteau 5 years ago ...I ended up paying a professional to wet and dry the entire hull, then two cutting compounds, polishing and waxing ... It quite literally took at least 10 years off her ... well worth the money. Same chap now waxes her every season just before launching to maintain the shine.

Will happily recommend him if required - Based at Rhu, Upper Clyde

JR

ps - Top tip don't watch while he does it .... seeing wet & dry being used on your white gelcoat will make you cry :)
 
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And go very easy on the wet&dry. I assume a previous owner (a car dealer!) did the same to our topsides. The gelcoat is now so thin that I can now see the glass beneath it and have to go very carefully with the polishing.
 
Regarding acetone - I always tried removing sticky stuff with rubbing alcohol first, and only if that failed would I switch to acetone. Acetone can be very hard on some surfaces - alcohol is much kinder.
 
Wet&dry means papers, so far as I know. My friend who was a quality car dealer had lads who would prepare all his sales cars by starting off with wet&dry papers, 2000 grit or maybe 1000 if the paint was really poor. Followed by polishing with cutting compound using machines. Another friend with a 50 ft boat had these lads give his topsides the same treatment - came up superbly well. It would have taken many of us days to do it but these lads had muscles all over and did it in an afternoon.
 
jonrarit said:
As an ex sign-maker, one of the most effective ways of removing vinyl graphics is pour boiling water straight from the kettle & peel. The heat softens not only the graphic but the glue too ....pour & peel, pour and peel ....repeat. Lighter fluid is good at removing any residue although of course flammable. Believe it or not Mr Muscle Green glass cleaner does it nearly as well. Agitate it as it soaks to break down the glue.

I toyed with trying to renovate my hull myself when I bought my (1985) beneteau 5 years ago ...I ended up paying a professional to wet and dry the entire hull, then two cutting compounds, polishing and waxing ... It quite literally took at least 10 years off her ... well worth the money. Same chap now waxes her every season just before launching to maintain the shine.

Will happily recommend him if required - Based at Rhu, Upper Clyde

JR

ps - Top tip don't watch while he does it .... seeing wet & dry being used on your white gelcoat will make you cry :)
Click to expand...

I can vouch for this job , This boat looks stunning and a few years now after said job , same fella did our hull too , though as not such an ole fine vessel didnt need sanding ,get him to polish every year to to keep up , the guys a genius :)
 
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