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July 28, 2003

Because I was at home because of ongoing site work for the new boat barn, I figured it made sense to be somewhat productive.  The weather was gorgeous, making a day of working outside on the project boat seem most attractive.

The topside paint on #100 is Awlgrip, reportedly applied in 1985.  It is tough stuff.  I found it was effective to scuff the surface lightly (light being a relative term, of course) with my big 7" grinder equipped with 40 grit paper on an 8" soft-pak Stikit disc.  The powerful grinder and sharp paper worked to break the surface.  The hull wasn't particularly fair to begin with, so I wasn't too worried if I should sand too far in any area.  Still, I used great care and a light touch with the grinder to avoid making more work for myself later.

Once I had the surface broken and partially sanded, I switched to my Porter Cable 5" random orbit, equipped with 40 grit paper.  This tool allowed me to sand off all the paint and primer, down to the gelcoat beneath.  The paper scratched the gelcoat harshly, of course, but I was planning to skim coat the hull for fairing purposes anyway.  From the staging I had set up, I sanded from the gunwale to about halfway to the waterline, switching sanding paper often to keep new, sharp grit.  Once I finished a large section at the top of the hull, I moved down to ground level to sand the lower portions, down to the waterline where I had left off sanding when I stripped the boottop.  Still, it was a substantial amount of work to sand off the tough Awlgrip.  I sanded the entire starboard side, except for a small section about 2' long at the aftermost part of the hull and counter, which I couldn't reach properly with the ladder and staging set up as is.  As I moved along, I also sanded the rough tabbing above the cutline at the top of the hull, left over from deck removal.  I carefully sanded any protrusions flush with the molded top of the hull laminate.

When I had the whole side of hull sanded to 40 grit, I switched to 80 grit for a preliminary sanding and initial smoothing of the hull.  The 80 grit began to smooth out the scratches left behind by the coarser 40 grit, first in a long series of smoothing processes.  The hull and gelcoat were in remarkably good condition beneath the paint.  Later, I removed the staging from the starboard side and finished sanding the aftermost area to the transom, completing the rough-pass sanding on the starboard side.  Interestingly, sanding revealed some variations on the gelcoat color.  In some areas, a lighter-blue color is visible beneath the overall grayish-blue, leading to the mottled appearance visible in the photos, most notably near the boottop and below the waterline.  And particularly in the starboard bow, some careless work with a grinder (not mine) led to a series of dished-out half moons that were previously filled with fairing compound (shown as a white material).

Click here for a brief sidebar on styrene leaching.

A few days later, in a marathon session, I completed the sanding of the hull (bulk paint removal and sanding to 80 grit).  Although there is much sanding still to come, I consider that to be part of the rebuilding process, as I sand and fair the hull to smooth perfection.  That comes a bit later in the process.  

Now, I could concentrate on grinding out all the unwanted paint and structure on the interior of the boat.  Click here to continue.