How to identify type of paint?

I'm buying a steel boat that was originally primer painted grey under the waterline and primed and painted on the topsides (probably in 1990 or so). It has not been in the water and hasn't ever had antifouling paint. Is there a way to determine if it was epoxy primed, and how would I know if I should sandblast to metal and start over.

Ed

 

good question.
how to identify type of antifouling i like to ad.
info on antifouling primer welcome too.

 

If you have a selection of solvents available, you could try them on "known" paint types to observe the effect, and on the primer you want to identify (in an unobtrusive place) to compare. Probably using a clean cloth with a little test solvent on it, and rubbing a test area to see if the cloth picks up the paint surface would suffice for testing purposes. Epoxy based products are fairly resistant to most solvents.

 

Thanks for the ideas. Luckily I found all the original paint records since I posted the question.

Thanks again