Ain't no silver bullets!

I was imagining that the old paint and varnish would be dropping off like leaves from a tree in the autumn...  But that stuff is definitely not a quick shot to the heart of the matter.

My first attempt with the chemical stripper, I spread it on thick over a few large areas of the boat, then went inside and diddled around for about 30 minutes; then went back out expecting everything to come off like the peel on an orange.  NOT!

One thing that happened was that the sun had gotten stronger and the stripper had dried in several places.  I took a scrubber to the varnished area and a lot of it flaked off, but the finish was only about 50% removed.  Areas with ancient old paint on them, less than half came off with an initial scraping with the putty knife.

I rinsed it all with mineral spirits per the instructions, which didn't seem to really do anything at all.  I think that step is probably more useful after you have virtually all the finish off and just want to clean it up some more.

It was then that I realized that this was going to be a lengthy project afterall...  I thought of putting a wire brush on my drill and going after the paint that way, but knew it would tear the heck out of the wood, which is fairly soft in many places.  I think a vibrating sander would be a hard way to go too because of all the pieces and seams.  So I tried a different approach with the stripper.

I sat down in the back of the boat and started painting on the chemical again, and where it didn't seem to be having much effect, kept painting the stuff on.  As I was able to scrape paint off, I'd suck up the globs with the shop vac, and then put more stripper on the part that hadn't dissolved that much.  I'd guess I spent at least a couple of hours on the back corner of the boat to get the results that show up in the picture.

Being that it's mid-April, it could easily be mid-June before all the finish is off, just mostly working weekends.  Or it could even be early fall, depending on what comes up in the meantime.  Oh well, it looks like it will be

"steady as she goes"!

Lung stripper...!

Whoa!  Be forewarned about chemical strippers - they are highly toxic and the fumes will go right to your head!  When I crawled up under the bow and started painting this stuff on, I had to retreat pretty quick cuz it was just seconds before I began to feel the effects.The other thing about the chemical stripper is that you definitely want good rubber gloves, and be very careful to not get it onto your skin or it will start to burn.

First thing this morning I pulled the boat out of the garage and onto the gravel driveway; then started to take off parts and remove the seats.  I noticed that the brass pieces were still in really good condition, but that steel screws, for example, were pretty rusty and will have to be replaced.  I'll probably get as much brass stuff as practical, or at least galvanized steel.  The brass screws and bolts came out easily, but the rusty steel stuck and stripped out the hole as it was coming out.

Once all the seats were out, a shop vac was really handy to get all the loose paint chips and dirt and pine needles out of the boat.  It really seemed like I was making a lot of progress pretty quick.

After smearing the stripper on and letting it work for awhile, it seemed that it was going after the paint and bubbling it up a lot faster than it was eating the varnished parts.  I'm guessing that tells me something about the difference in wood protection between paint and varnish.  The varnish really seemed to be stuck tight to the wood.

The label says to wait 15-30 minutes and then start scraping the loosened finish off with a plastic putty knife.  It will probably be a good break to get away from it too and breathe some fresh air and load back up on coffee.

Something tells me that the hard part is about to begin.  Or maybe the harder part, and it just keeps getting harder?  At least it's getting me out into the beautiful spring weather.  It still freezes here overnight, but the days are up into the 60's F, which is well nigh tropical up here in the northwoods!

Well, here's hoping your project is going well.  I'll be back with another report later.