Favorite/best scrapers for bottom paint removal

[1956olds]

Its heavy on my mind ,i was hoping for a powered scraper.We have no area soda blasters or glass blasters so the cost for that is exponential.Any suggestions welcome,i just dont want to buy evey scraper out there to find one that works well.

 

[fwebster]

Perhaps your situation up there is different, but the only boat yard here that scrapes bottoms to prep for bottom paint ends up repainting about 1/2 of their bottom jobs. Scraping leaves no "tooth" for the new paint to adhere to, it just removes paint that is already flaking off. Consider sanding with 60-80 grit disks on a rotary sander….the idea is remove enough bottom paint so you see 60-70% gelcoat showing. Much faster, much less physical labor and a much better surface to accept the new paint. Done this way, down here, where our boats are in the water 365 days a year, we get 3-4 years out of a good ablative bottom paint.

 

[PlayDate]

We have the same boat. That is on my list of jobs I never, ever want to do. I don't know what you consider to be expensive but I spent $1,600 to have 14 years of hard bottom paint taken off my boat. It was worth every single penny.

Our marinas in the area are Clean certified so they would never allow a contractor or owner to sand their boat without tenting the boat and the area under it.

The guys I hired worked from 6 am to 8 pm....full respirators and haz mat suits. They tented the boat at the water line and took turns entering the pressurized area to blast the paint off.

It was money well spent....no scraper or peeler marks and the resulting surface was perfect for paint.

 

[PlayDate]

 

[PlayDate]

Frank's suggestion works well if you have ablative paint already. Unfortunately, my boat had hard paint when I bought the boat so the routine was scraping and repainting with hard paint every couple of years.

The buildup and uneven surfaces just got to the point all of it had to come off. Ablative is on it now and has been perfect for 5 years.

 

[1956olds]

Of course i will sand it after scraping,i am a auto body tech i couldnt do it any other way.I just want to scrape off as much as possible first to save time sanding and hopefully less clean up.I have wetsand blasted several of my large boatsbeforewith great results but they were outside and tented when done,i always keep in heated storage now though so tenting is my only option.i only get one or two days a week to work on her if they remember to unlock the doors,Thats after the hour or so drive to get there.Thanks for the replies. PS; currently have hydrocoat on her bottom.Thinking vc-17 or similar.