strip and repaint?

[Mikrovio]

hey all, Jim here, ive been dipping in and out of the forums here for quite a while now reading and gaining knowledge,, you guys are great, but now its my turn to ask a few questions,

i own a 40 foot Post sport fisher, 1974 vintage, she's a cedar construction, its time to refinish her, paint is peeling, chipping, and has been subjected to small but noticable dock dings, the most damage just accured, while being transported,, a 7 foot section of her deck to hull joint was seperated by the travel lift and her port side bow flair was brushed up against the top side of a parked cargo box truck, putting a relatively large (length wise) indent/scrap into her side about 1/2 inch deep x 2 feet long x 10-14 inches high, in an egg pattern about 20 inches below the rubrail, NO wood cracking accured, no broken and fractured wood, the cedar absorbed 100% of the scrape.. ive stripped the other affected areas of paint more thoroughly and have found amazingly clean and strong wood wherever ive looked, her hull and structure are sound, but its time to make her pretty again, shes is now dry docked on my property,

where do i start? my intentions are to make her exterior look like new again

1)
anyone have a paint and material recommendation? any one process of application work better than another? keep in mind she's on blocks and stands outdoors, she will be covered ofcoarse for the winter, ill be running multiple boatsafe heaters in her 24/7 when the temp drops below 45-40 to maintain 60-65 interior spaces

2)
another thing i would like to do is the bow deck area and cockpit, the previous owner fiberglassed them and im assuming sealed in rotting sections that has infected the surrounding areas, she has a few weak spots here and there on her deck area mostly mid span centerline, and the cockpit also has the same small infections, ide like to catch them now instead of punching a hole in her as i walk to and fro, or having the dinghy collapse the deck into the galley below, how do i get to them? strip the fiberglassing away? i plan on wooding the cockpit again using 1 1/2" teak planking in a W pattern so stripping that glass is no problem, but the bow?

3)
in that section of damage, it has kicked the caulking out of the seams, what do i do to refill it? any specific process or materials?

4)
the hull below the waterline has been fiberglassed, has been for about a decade now, any comments on that? is it better now? or better as a wood bottom boat? theres always been some sort of water level in the bilges to maintain her swell, so any comments/suggestions would be appreciated..

[seven up]

Greetings,

I've read your post a couple of times. Very interesting project. There are a few things I could suggest from doing it the wrong way.
First is the blocking of the keel to maintain support and prevent hogging of the hull and damage to the keel. I've saw many woodies that are blocked the entire length of the keel as well as the bow.

If I may, Your idea to cover and heat the cabin does not sit well as you describe. NYC is a humid marine climate. When I decided to completely cover my project I built pushouts, like a door frame, up to the level of the hull/deck joint and then 90 degreed a pushout out of 2x4's to allow ventilation. Once all the sharp edges were carpeted, a couple of 30x50 tarps were secured. I use a couple of ratchet straps to secure the cover midship and peel back the tarps when Deck work is planned, either fore or aft. This is just my opinion of course.

Another lesson learned was to do final finishing from the top down.

There are many on this site that specialize in the work that you are planning. I hope all goes well. Your boat is a beauty.


Enjoy

[Mikrovio]

Seven Up..
thanks for your suggestions, ive reconsidered on the heating the whole cabin, im going to control the engine room to prevent freeze up of the components in there, engines, genset, AC units, and etc.etc..

ive thought about the keel supports as you mentioned, i blocked it at 4 foot intervals starting from the aft section to about 4 feet from the bow rise, this boat doesnt have a full keel, keel starts at about the end of the cockpit, 10 feet from aft and goes the remaining length, keel length is app. 28 feet to the bow rise, and being that shes a fiberglass bottom boat i figured that would suffice, and used stands to stabilize her

ive already started working on her, started to remove the decking on the bow, its in better shape than i thought, which is making its seperation more difficult than i thought it would be, but now im past the point of no return, better off this way, i noticed it has 3/8" ply under there, probably going to put 1/2" , sturdier and heavier but not too heavy,

ive also started peeling and removing paint from the hull sides, anyone have any suggestions on paint and prep materials i should use to get a good a dependable adhesion? i dont want to pull her out in a year to redo, a local mentioned i should use awlgrip for the hull? can that be right? isnt awlgrip that rough traction paint for top sides?

[alan white]

I think chemical stripping is the fastest and easiest method for removing paint from large surfaces--- from the top down, methodically, area by area.
That, followed by surface prep involving first sanding to bare wood (or down to an epoxy-sealed surface if that is the case), patching and filling using epoxy and microballoons in deep gouges and West 410 microlight to fill fine scratches and nicks, followed by an epoxy sealer coat overall (if already applied originally, this step is area-specific).
You mentioned a very deep (1/2") gouge. This is structural and not cosmetic. In such a case I would first determine the thickness of the hull there, method of build (cold-molded? Strip and glass?) and then replace the meat gouged out with new cedar epoxied in. This would require router work and careful fitting/adhering of a thin patch, screws through to clamp, possibly left in, possibly removed later--- all depending on the particular construction, framing, etc..
Which primer you use is keyed to which paint system you use. Awlgrip is expensive but long-lasting. Single-part urethane is shorter-lived but safer and easier and cheaper to apply. Once the surface is epoxy-sealed, a high-build primer will fill any imperfections and wet-sanding at that point should produce a very paintable surface.

Alan

[Mikrovio]

Alan..
thanks for your insight, but, i have a question about that chemical stripping your talking about, what do i use? i have some experiance stripping paint of materials and remember those strippers had a specific warning not to let it touch your hands or porous surfaces? isnt wood a porous surface? unless of coarse theirs a specific stripper for wood?

as far as the indentation, thats what the local was there to see, im going to strip the boat first and then see the bare wood to determine the actual damage, and then from there probably going to router it out and replace that whole section that was indented, as i mentioned above, ive already started removing the top deck for replacement, so the project is under way, so hopefully you guys here will be able to point me in the right direction instead fo being at the local suppliers mercy and recomendations..

[alan white]

There are gels like 5f5, zip-strip, etc., but I recently used a very good (strong) formulation from Sherwin Williams.
Not to be used on porous surfaces? I haven't heard of any problems with use on wood, even for varnish. The stripper suspends a strong solvent in a gel. The solvent evaporates, and what's left behind is pretty inert, and it usually gets sanded off completely.
Almost all stripping done with gallon cans from paint supplys is of wood these days. In all my years I've never seen it harm wood.
The value of using chemical stripper is the time factor. It is very fast to apply and remove.

Alan

[seven up]

:idea:

Greetings Mikovio,

Hows it going?

The decks on my project were covered with resin soaked canvas. More resin was applied at a later date. It was all removed in an afternoon with an ice melter and bbq tank of propane. Yours being fiberglassed I do not know the results you would have.

At the time, three years ago, Blue Water Paint out of Jersey offered marine paints at about half the price of the competitors with free shipping. Prices have gone up.

seven up