Paint strip from cabin top

[S/V AMITY]

  Previous owner for some reason thought it fit to paint the cabin top with homemade "non-skid".  Appears to have used rattle-can enamel sprinkled with odd empty-ings from the vacuum cleaner bag.  Have been stripping it with gelcoat-friendly stripper.  The underlying molded-in diamond pattern looks perfect so why he did this is beyond me.  The crinkled look of the stripper on the cabin top is a plastic overlayment put on to keep the stripper from drying.  After letting it marinate for a day or so I go over it with the pressure washer.  Will take likely 3 stripper application cycles to get all the old paint off.  Messy job.

[Dale Tanski]

Often factory patterned like what is found on a 365 looks just fine, however years of exposure and use have taken the "points" off of the tops of the patterned nonskid and it gets slippery under foot.  Often a "real" pair of deck shoes does the trick but they cost money.  are you going to recoat the deck surface, and if so with what?

Dale

[S/V AMITY]

  The diamond pattern is strong & "grippy"... only adds to the mystery as to why it was painted over.

[Dale Tanski]

Well...
It was added as a protective coating so the non-skid would be in great shape when you wanted to use it.
I have seen a Catalina 30 once where the decks were painted with that silver roof coating. I'm sure it fixed the leaking problem.
Dale

[S/V AMITY]

  "...decks were painted with that silver roof coating..."
       
    I can't fault his logic.

[Jordan]

We're starting to look at repainting and repairing stuff in the cockpit on deck. The grip has been worn away, and it gets quite slippery. We were talking about different options, and wondered if there is any reason not to put some kind of grip over everything? We were discussing masking, looking at the smooth vs. textured spots.

Is that mostly for aesthetic reasons? Do you think it would look crappy? We're picking out our colors, but I'm much more focused on functionality. Thoughts?

[S/V AMITY]

  After three "safety" stripper coatings and pressure washings and the paint still not off, I remembered something I learned back in my old Aquasport days... the old stand-by: Easy Off oven cleaner.  In my opinion, the new safety strippers are worthless.  They simply aren't aggressive enough.

  The Easy Off, which is lye, worked like a charm.  Turned the white paint yellowish on application (see picture). Single application (4 rattle-cans), let it do its thing for 4-5 hours then pressure washed the paint off... done.

  Also got the bow rail off and over to the welder for repair of a crack in the tubing.  At some point will be designing a new rail to extend to the fwd. end of the bowsprit.  Not this year... too many projects underway.

[Dale Tanski]

I use to use EZ off oven cleaner for lots of things but the government knows better and took out much of what works so well.  Such is the case with so many of the cleaners today. You end up using 5 times the amount you should have used before it was new and improved.

Dale

[S/V AMITY]

  For big jobs, we used to make up our own "Easy Off" with lye from the hardware store and corn starch as a thickener.  We stripped the bottom paint (probably a .200" thickness) of our Marshal 22 that way.  Requires a bunny-suit, gloves & full face protection but works like a charm.

  Concerning gov't regs, don't get me started about non-vented gas cans.  I've spilled more fuel since their introduction than ever before.  The bureaucrats who promulgated the new cans never owned a push-mower or small outboard.

[SVJourney]

There is a thriving online market for old style fuel jug nozzles now.  Solves a few problems. 

[S/V AMITY]

I just bought three for my old Gott 5 gallon jugs.  The spare fuel diesel jugs on the boat are the non-vented type so I use a small electric pump to transfer the fuel to the deck fill.