Removing Paint

[Guest]

I made the tragic error of painting the inside of my cabin with anti-condesation emulsion paint. It's now gone flaky and you are subjected to a snowing effect when sitting in the cabin. Does anybody know of a relatively painless way of removing this paint. The inside of the cabin is raw GRP, i.e. ther's no gel coat. Please advise. Alternatively, I've heard of a clear rubberised paint that could be used but I'm not sure if this exists or where to get it if it does. Does anyone know?

 

[Guest]

Probably the best rubberised paint to use would be the one made by tradmaster for re-doing their decking. It gives quite a nice finish to raw grp (several tasteful colours available). However, it'll be no use if the paint it sticks to falls of itself. I found the best way to sort out the "reverse" side of GRP like this is to brush it with a brass wire brush in one hand and the vacuum cleaner in the over. The brass brush is firm enough to get the loose stuff off but will not rip the surface up as a steel wire brush does.

 

[Guest]

Hi Andy

Thanks for this, I Know what I'm now going to be doing for the next couple of weekends.

regards

David L

 

[Guest]

....Couple of weekends, David? Ahem... Well good luck anyway!

You need to check out why this has happened before putting anything else on. What is certainly true is that anything you put OVER the existing coating will still just fall off, as it will not affect the bond (or lack of it) between the paint and the GRP. Most, if not all paints - unless SPECIFICALLY intended to go straight on to GRP, will not adhere properly, and will fall off again sooner or later.

The second problem is that the GRP may itself have some sort of coating - release agent for example may still be present on a gel coat - and its sole purpose in life is to prevent anything sticking to the moulding - which of course will include paint! Obviously release agent wll not be present on the 'rough'side of a GRP moulding, but there may well be other compounds present that the builder has used in the course of laying up the GRP.

You need to look at using a GRP specific 'etching' primer before overcoating - that is unless you go for GRP specific paints, which are generally epoxy based and therefore pricey!