Bottom Paint

[Parkerman]

My Parker came with the bottom painted black with what I am guessing is an alblative paint. It comes off when you touch it. It also comes off all over the kids legs and feet when they are swimming around the boat.
I trailer my boat so I have no need for bottom paint as it is only in the water for 6 hours at a time. From what I hear removing the paint is impossible and the gel coat was probably scratched up prior to painting. What I think I want to do is to paint it white. I am thinking this will look the best and I have seen a boat or two with this done. So what type of paint should I use? What sort of prep do I need to do first? I want this paint to last and remember it does not have to be bottom paint necessarilly. I want something that will go on, stay on and not come off to the touch and not need to be done every season.
Any ideas?

 

[goinsfishin]

The good news - removing bottom paint is not impossible. Just dirty, nasty, messy, tiring work. :x
You can DYI the job or have a professional do it.
Keep in mind that having a shop do it can be relatively expensive, DYI is dirty, nasty, hot, sweaty, tiring work and you will need a good respirator, goggles and protective clothing.
If it comes off to the touch it sounds as though it's a few years old. Try a commercial grade powerwasher and blast it good, a lot of the old paint will flake right off and then you can see better what you are dealing with.
For repainting there are many choices of "hard"-non ablative bottom paint in a range of colors, do a search on this site...it's been exhaustively covered.

 

[Hammerhead]

I'm in the same situation. Looked into a lot of ways to clean and paint. What I am doing is using a pressure washer to remove all the loose paint, sanding, then repainting with a gallon of black Vivid. This paint is listed as being a hard paint for trailer boats. The gel coat on your boat is rough sanded so it will never be smooth. There is some information on soda blasting but too involved for me.

 

[mildew2]

Having the same problem myself. Have used a pressure washer and that took a layer or two off, but there's alot left. It really takes away from the looks of the boat. Was using some "easy off oven cleaner to remove a name that was painted on the side of my boat. Some of the easy off ran down onto the bottom paint on the lower sides and it took the ablative paint right off, but don't know about using it on the whole bottom.
Is there an easy answer to this problem??

 

[mildew2]

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