soda blasting

Think Big · Post by **Think Big** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 9:55 am

Mike I had mine done 2 years age. The nice thing was it had barrier coating on it and the blasting not not remove it. The bottom had no bisters so I just put two new coats over it. I used the Interprotect 2000E. It now comes in two colors and I bought one gray and one white this way you don't miss any spots. Also watch your temps. that stuff has a short pot life. I did mine when it was only about 50 out and by the time I got around the boat it was dry where I started.

sbeer · Post by **sbeer** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 3:23 pm

the guy finally came down today to start the blasting. He has half the boat done and it looks like I said scary. But all is good NOW I know what I got. I will take pics and show you guys what you have in store. Mike

Symeon · Post by **Symeon** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 6:57 am

It would be great to see the development of the work done, and to see how the boat fared during the summer months. This topic is of extreme interest to me as I too would like to sand blast, but constantly refer back to the old adage that "if it aint broken, dont try to fix it".

sbeer · Post by **sbeer** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 6:17 am

This the process that I did. When I looked at the bottom I found that I had a real problem with blisters. Instaed of soda blasting I had it bead blasted. Soda blasting is done when you have a non blemished bottom, no blisters. The soda does'nt harm the gel coat. With the condition of my bottom I wanted something that would rough the bottom up to give me a good adhesion for the barrier. After the bead blast I used a die grinder to open all of the blisters. This allowed me to have just the blister opened and not the surronding gel coat. The blisters were all dry, no water in any of them. I had them from dime size to 2 inches. When I was done openning everything the bottom looked like I should have planed it and stipped the gel all the way off. A buddy in the yard was doing just that to his 38 hatteras. The way his came out looked to me to be way to much work. After all the blisters were openned I sed interlux products to fill and fare out. I then sanded the bottom and power washed to get all dirt off. The bottom was blasted in dec and had sat all winter untill may so it was good and dry. I also raised the water line 2 inches.I then used a fiberglass cleaning solvent and interlux barrier coat. 7 coats and 2 coats of interlux bottom paint. The barrier and bottm paint need to be applied while it is tacky so the whole thing was done in one day. Make sure that you have good ventilation. When we got to the last coat of barrier I was so loopy from the fumes I thought I heard Hendrix in the back round. I will see the final results when I pull in a month. In my opinion and what I had saw after it was blasted is if you stip to the gel coat, barrier coat it. Small stress cracks that you may not see will allow water to get in. The barrier will fill these and literally seal the bottom. If you are going to do all that work whats one more step. When I was done the bottom looked like a million bucks. 20 plus years of caked in paint gone. Mike