Most of Sunday was spent at the sailing club helping with the spring clean and attaching new galvanised ladders to the pier. It was bitingly cold but that was fended off with Nigel's ballistically hot Chilli and rice... Thanks Nigel, it was just the job.
I was home by 4:30 and still in my scruffs so I thought I'd spend an hour or two on the mirror dinghy. I had previously started to DA the paint back but had decided that it really all needs to come off. I set it up on boxes to help with working height then set about it with some paint stripper.
After a few minutes the paint started to blister up quite nicely, I thought this might turn out to be an easy job.
Not so, it was quite sporadic where it wanted to work and where it didn't. I left it for an hour to soak in (recommends 20 mins on the tin) but it didn't really make any difference. I scraped off the best I could then tried sanding, too slow as I'd run out of 80 grit pads, and scraping with a heat gun; really need a narrower scraper than my wall paper scraper. As neither was really effective I tidied up again and will reconvene when I have some more paint stripper, coarse pads and a better scraper. Watch this space for progress but don't hold your breath :)
Hi Phil, I used Caustic Gel (Strippit) to do an entire Hurley hull. I have some (about a litre) left over that is yours if you want it gratis like. The good news is that Caustic Gel really works, even better news, the burns to my skin have nearly healed up too! I'd be a bit cautious on the mirror as it's held together using a stitch and glue technique. If you use stripper maybe it'll be stitch and hope! cheers Rog
ReplyDeleteHi Rog, Glad to hear your fingers have grown back :) I'd love to give the strippit a go if that's ok with you... I'll get some Roger Rabbit Dipco gloves in preparation.
ReplyDeleteToday I found myself at the Doctors (ECG Test, all OK - phew!) The Caustic burns (nearly healed now) round my belly button raised an eyebrow or two when I explained what they were and how I'd managed to get them despite wearing X3 layers + jumpsuit overalls. The joys of boat ownership on a well worn shoestring - LOL!
ReplyDeleteI've just had to scrub my mind of you stripping in a crop top!
ReplyDeleteAlso, tried a test patch with the strippit yesterday, unfortunately started raining 3/4 hour after application but even so, this morning it had made the paint very thin. Works differently than I expected. Seems to desolve the paint rather than ruck it up and have to peel it off in lumps.
DeleteI gave up on chemical strippers for all the reasons above, stripped both a wayfarer and an merlin rocket right back to wood using a Bosche heat gun and 2" triangular stripper (much easier to pull but you need to keep a file handy to keep the burr onthe edges, don't recall either being especially hard work - good luck
ReplyDelete