Wooden Boat People
By McKenzieDriftBoat.com
Durback removal
I am refinishing my boat interior and exterior and I am at the point where I need to remove the old peeling durback non-skid paint from the interior floor (deck). Other than coarse sandpaper, is there a better way to get it off? My current intention is to remove it all and take the underlying paint off to bare wood and then epoxy some fiberglass cloth on the floor. I probably am putting too much in to this but what the heck; I want this refinish job to last a few fishing seasons with the occassional new coat of varnish. I tried getting the durback off with a random orbital and some 80 grit, but this is slow going. I am reluctant to get too coarse a grit because I do not want to take much of the wood surface layer off. Anyone that has had some experience with this I certainly would like to hear from. Thanks again. Rip Bozeman, MT
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by chris towles on
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i think you have just found the drawback to truck bed liner. everybody loves to put that stuff on their boats thinking it will be the end all-seal all-cure all, but in reality the stuff can be really hard to deal with when it starts to delam or let water under the surface. personally, i think it makes a good nonskid surface for things like floor boards that are removeable, but putting it on the hull inside or out seems to be a huge refinish problem in the making. probably one of the better points about wood boats is that are pretty darn repairable. put that bedliner on and a quick and easy refinish job turns into a nightmare of hrs of time with an angle grinder making a rubbery mess trying to get the damn stuff off...not good. you might try one of that 80 grit sandpaper grinder wheels..i think they call them a flap disk. once you get that off, glass, and then paint..id skip the bedliner next go round except for stuff like removeable floor boards. bedliner may be a good sealer at first, but i think in the long term glass and 5200 will provide a better seal and be more repairable in the event of an impact, as well as being easier to refinish next time.
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Permalink Reply by eric stevens on
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You might try heating it up with a heat gun, I used oil based paint mixed with non skid powder they sell at home depot and it worked great for me. I would fiberglass it if I were you , and let the glass come up the side like 2 inches so it will keep the water out. Make sure you use a bi axel fabric , it is way stronger than a normal fabric and the inside bottom of a drift boat is the place that needs it the most
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Permalink Reply by Roger Rippy on
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Thanks Chris and Eric for the feedback on this. I went over to Home Depot earlier today and picked up some 60 grit for this job. I just need to watch what I am sanding away. I am not worried about non-skid in a drift boat; but I need to get this stuff removed so I can lay in some glass. I had not considered biaxiel cloth for this project Eric, so thanks for the tip. I not sure what the original builder did but it appears to be paint followed by durback and no epoxy. I have his phone number in Missoula, MT and I probably ought to give him a call. At any rate, once I get this durback removed, I should have an easier time of just wetting out some cloth and then painting over it. I thought about using some rubber mat material from Home Depot for laying on the floor as a non-skid/ wear abrasion protection, but that is still a while off. I am waiting on the expoxy from Resin Research so I can fix some areas of surface checking; then the glassing in of the floor; painting interior and exterior; and brightwork (varnish). Thanks again for the advice and feedback. Rip Bozeman, MT
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Permalink Reply by Dave Z on
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Sounds like an awful lot of back wrenching work. I couldn't imagine sanding between frames on that stuff. You know what I'd do? Kick that bottom off. Remove it, put a new bottom on. Fix any chine damage in the process, and oil your new floor. Never worry about water getting under glass/bedliner, etc again. Put a 1/2" or a 5/8" fir bottom on it, and your choice of false bottom, whether its glass, wood, plastice formica, etc... Might be less work in the long run and you will have full control of the success of this bottom for the next 40+ years.
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Dave,
There are no frames to sand around; straight plywood glue & stitch. I am not looking forward to it but it is not a big boat and I think the 60 grit will grind it out fairly well since it does not appear to be too thick to start with. I appreciate the comments. At my age I really do not think I need to worry about getting 40 years use out of this boat. Ha! My goal is to fix this boat up to last ten years with the occassional off-season coat of paint or varnish. At any rate, the work goes on. Thanks again. Rip Bozeman, MT
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Permalink Reply by Terry E Walsh on
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Heat gun and elbow grease!
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So Terry, do you think the heat gun and a scraper is a better way to go than just sanding? I will give it a try if I get off work early enough today. I have not had time so far this week to make any progress. I still need to order some cloth for use on the checking. Rip Bozeman, MT
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That is exactly how I got it off my boat! It was a B&@@$&$ to get off and then the sanding started. It took me about 40 hours to get it down to the bare wood. Good Luck
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Permalink Reply by Rick Newman on
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Rip,
I recently read a series of posts on Wooden Boat Forum where a guy used an iron, (he got to buy his wife a new one) to remove varnish from his boat. He found that it didn't need to worry about what heat setting he used, he just placed it on the varnish for a while and then scrape it off. It might be worth a try.
Rick Newman
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Permalink Reply by lhedrick on
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I really like DB and I really hate removing it. It's like sanding a rubber tire.
I am surprised to hear that is was pealing off. I didn't think that was possible.
I get 40 grit disks which are used to grind steel before welding. Next you need to find a rotary grinder which is variable speed. If you work it on a slow setting and keep moving you can grind it off but,,,,,,,, you must be patient and work slowly. Heat up the disk too much or the DB and it will clog the disk and game over.
I just don't know about this stuff. I like it for removable floor boards and things which can be replaced but as for the actual boat hull I am starting to think we are better off with a good deck paint which will give us a few years. I doubt I will use it again on one of my boats.
L
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Well lhedrick, you have good points. The more that I look at this stuff, the more I wonder if it is really DB or something else. I still need to call the builder, Stu Williams in Missoula, MT and ask him. He is still building boats and they do not appear to have changed any in the past 15 years since he built this one. He recently sent me a picture of boat #101 and it look identical to the one in my garage except it is new. It is flaking off in spots, so I will start with the heat gun and sander in those locations. I use to work on sailboats back on the east coast and for non-skid we would sometimes just add a sand material to the top coat of paint; seemed to work just find. Of course marine paint companies like Petit (see Jamestown Distributors) make and sell a non-skid top paint and this sure seems more purdent than using a truck bedliner material and it sure does not cost any more! Oh well.. thanks for the reply and Happy New Year to all... Roger Rippy (Rip) Bozeman, MT
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Permalink Reply by peter a boucher on
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Instead of sand I use ( black beauty ) a sand blasting composite with my last coat of deck paint. I have found that to be the best alternative.
Pete in Maine
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