gel/clear coat peeling off

[b3llo38]

not sure if its clear or gel coat.. my dad painted the boat and has since then passed away. The boat is now mine and i have been working on it for some time, the interior and downstairs are completely redone and brand new.. its a 1987 25.5ft Century Mirada. The botton and paint below the rubber rail all look brand new. the only thing is that on the top deck of the boat the clearcoat is peeling/flaking off. I want to be able to remove all the flaking material some how but some is still stuck down pretty good, i tried all kinds of things to get it off but nothing is working. Can i use a really high grit sandpaper and splash some water on it and sand it off?

also there are brownish stains on the top of the boat too.. where the coat peeled up and water sat under it i guess. i tried everything to remove the stains but nothing is working. acetone and other chemicals. the blue fiberglass stain removing gels for the local marine store and all as well.. even powerwashing it. nothing takes the faint brownish stains off, can i sand these off as well?

 

[archbuilder]

Re: gel/clear coat peeling off

sounds like a clear coat, can you post pictures?

 

[b3llo38]

Re: gel/clear coat peeling off

yea its definatly the clear coat, its gonna rain tomorrow so im not sure if i can snag some good pictures or not. its on the top of the bow where people stand and lay in the sun and stuff, the brown stains an peeling clear coat is annoying me so much. id love to sand it off? and repaint it at the end/begining of next season.

 

[Bondo]

Re: gel/clear coat peeling off

Ayuh,... Sounds like the Whole thing needs a Wet Sandin'.... Then a Power polishin' of course..

 

[b3llo38]

Re: gel/clear coat peeling off

yea my dad has multible sanders i can make use of, those block orbital sanders and such, and i found a lot of 1000grit paper.. is this to low of a grit to use to remove the remaining clearcot and not scuff the base white? I want to remove the rest of the clear coat off of the deck, as well as the stains hopefully, then use 3m rubbing compound? and then polish/wax it?

can anyone chime in on this

 

[archbuilder]

Re: gel/clear coat peeling off

You might see if rubbing it with lacquer thinner will remove it. Sanding the gel coat and not burning through it could be tricky. You could also try acetone. With either one be CAREFUL they are extremely flammable, gloves and a respirator are also necessities. I think there are also some fiberglass safe sippers out there that might work, but I don't know much about them. Wet sanding will work and I would do it by hand.....the power sanders will eat through the gel coat in a hurry. One other thought, have you tried blasting it off with a pressure washer?

 

[b3llo38]

Re: gel/clear coat peeling off

i have tried acetone, lacqur thinner, etc... nothing happens, also tried to powerwash it off, most of it flaked off and what not, but i still have some clearcoat still stuck down pretty good, i tried sanding it with 320 grit wetsand and nothing happened either.. i only tried it for a minute or two cause i didnt want to eat through the fiberglass but i still couldnt get the rest of the clear coat off. its really making the top of the boat look crappy

 

[b3llo38]

Re: gel/clear coat peeling off

You might see if rubbing it with lacquer thinner will remove it. Sanding the gel coat and not burning through it could be tricky. You could also try acetone. With either one be CAREFUL they are extremely flammable, gloves and a respirator are also necessities. I think there are also some fiberglass safe sippers out there that might work, but I don't know much about them. Wet sanding will work and I would do it by hand.....the power sanders will eat through the gel coat in a hurry. One other thought, have you tried blasting it off with a pressure washer?

i already tried lacquer thinner, acetone, power washing it(took off the loose flakey pieces) but nothing seems to work, the clearcoat that is still on there nice an smooth doesnt want to come off.. i tried wet sanding it with 320grit paper and it didnt sand though it.. maybe i wasnt pressing hard enough or doing it long enough? im not sure... maybe i should a clearcoat stripper and let that sit on there?

 

[proshadetree]

Re: gel/clear coat peeling off

I looked at the same type boat it was not gel coated on top it was painted. It appeared to be base clear. If you are going to repaint start with a 150 to 200 and sand smooth.Use a good epoxy primer and then rebase and clear

 

[b3llo38]

Re: gel/clear coat peeling off

I looked at the same type boat it was not gel coated on top it was painted. It appeared to be base clear. If you are going to repaint start with a 150 to 200 and sand smooth.Use a good epoxy primer and then rebase and clear

do you mind me asking where you are from? im in south jersey area... my dad had this boat up for sale for awhile, maybe you looked at this exact boat haha? i didnt want to repaint it, i just want to get rid of the packs of clear that is still left, then i will just buff and wax the plain fiberglass toget a decent shine, worry about painting it next season, but i would like to really get these clear patches up, they making the boat look terrible.

I was also using a square sander(for wood) but i did find my dads DA orbital sander... what grit should i start with to rub off the clear? and what grit should i move up and up to. also how long does it usually take to sand the clear off cause i rubbed the 320grit on there for about 2 minutes and the clear was still on there. very annoying

 

[proshadetree]

Re: gel/clear coat peeling off

Try a small spot use a product called aircraft remover. If you cant find that most any paint remover is about the same. I have also used oven cleaner and a pressure washer. I am in Tennessee, I looked at one on a dealer lot. He was priced out of this word, out drive was oxidized badly, no lube in the container under the hood he didn't even want to start it . It was priced at 1500 over blue book. I dont mind a higher price if the boat is worth it but? Sorry for the rant. Try a small spot first then if you have good results do about 2 to 3 sq feet at a time.