Other Gel coat removal?

[adamgav]

I have recently got a fx1 hull that someone has tried to gelcoat the bottom deck. The problem is that the gelcoat never set correctly and is still tacky after a year! My question is, what would be the best method of getting the mess off the bottom? Other than that the hull is perfect, hence the reason I want to get the bottom sorted.

many thanks
adam

 

[txsuperjetfreak96]

wow thats crazy, the stock paint on my 96 is a beotch to get off, could only imagine how hard that would b to get off, only thing i could think of is scrape it off somehow, or use some kind of paint stripper

 

[adamgav]

Does anyone know of any paint stripper that will not harm the glass?

 

[txsuperjetfreak96]

ive thought bout useing some but wondered the same thing too lazy to go find some and read what types of materials it could b use on

 

[burton148]

Aircraft remover

 

[Joker]

Aircraft remover

This or a da with 80 grit. And the come back over it with 120 then 220

Edit: I didn't read your original post I just skimmed it but acetone will work and it will be the cheapest. If you go with the Aircraft decal remover it will probably work better but it will be more expensive.

 

[yamadog282]

Uncured gel coat can be removed using acetone and acetone is glass friendly. Owner probably put epoxy on the gel coat before it cured. Sux but wil be a fairly simple (not necessarily easy) fix.

 

[tokarzl]

Acetone on a rag and have a ton of rags and a gal of acetone! will take a while but it will come off. Once you get the tacky material off start at 320 and work your way up to 1000 grit wet sanding then buff it

 

[L.T.D]

Sounds liket they may hace used gelcoat without adding surfacing wax. You could try putting the hull in some type of bag that you can seal air tight. Or you could get some pva mold release and spray over it to seal it off from the air

 

[Brian_216]

spray a coat of pva over it and put it somewhere warm to cure. the PVA will seal out the air to allow it to cure. Gelcoat without wax will never fully cure unless it is used in a mold or covered with PVA to seal out the air.

 

[High Speed Industries]

Have it media blasted. Plastic media will take the paint off and it won't harm the glass.

 

[adamgav]

Thanks for all of the help. I tried the acetone trick and after a few metres of cloth and 2 litres of acetone the bottom is tack free! Now it's time to sand and buff. Thanks guys.