14ft Aluminum Boat advice

[Rick_ca]

Snow has gone off the yard so can get at boat and start cleaning it up, looking at stripping old paint (tremclad) and redoing. What advice does anyone have paint stripper, hot gun or sanding and elbow grease? Then what product can I buy locally that will seal boats outside and what type of paint to use maybe even seal and paint inside as well while at it. Thanks

[sawbill]

I did one 4 years ago and it had 4 coats of paint. I know this because they were all different colors. I did a quick go-over with a scraper to remove loose and flaking paint then worked on the rest using paint stripper. I would put a coat of stripper on a section, let it sit a bit then scrape it up with a regular paint scraper. As I picked up a pile of this gunk on the scraper I wiped it off on the next section of boat that I wanted to do and it still remained somewhat active. I'm sure I reduced the amount of stripper I needed by almost 1/3. Because this was 4 yrs ago I seem to recall also using a brass wheel on my drill for some of the work and it didn't harm the aluminum surface whatsoever.
After the boat was completely stripped I wiped it down with a generous application of paint thinner just to removed any stripper from hidden areas. Then repainted using a sprayer.

[Fisherman]

Paint stripper to remove. How bad does it leak and do you know where, rivets, joints, etc. If it's just a couple of rivets, they can be re bucked to tighten them up. They used to sell heat activated epoxy sticks that work quite well. Short of taking it to a Line-X dealer and do the bottom up to the water line. They do have light colours.

[sawbill]

Just noticed you asked about paint as well. For aluminum you'd use a self etching primer that can be bought at most auto supply stores or maybe even CTC. Three coats is recommended. Doing the inside of a boat is quite a challenge with all the seats, brackets, gunnels and whatnot to work around so go with paint stripper and rinse thoroughly with whatever product is recommended for that. Make sure you use a flat paint for the interior. A good paint supply or automotive supply store will advise you on what proper paint to use. Don't get sold on $400/gallon paint as its just not needed for your $300 boat.
Lots of good videos on you tube about prep and painting aluminum.

[BarracudaFan]

All excellent replies here, but I can vouch for the stripper and the self-etching primer.

My 14' had 2 coats of great paint I had to go through, so I ended up using a bit more stripper than I thought I might. Once I got the hang of how long to put it on and how much, the sections went by pretty quick.

The fella I bought my boat from didn't use self-etching on the inside, and within a few weeks of having the boat on the water, it pretty much all flaked away. Waiting till it's pretty much all gone to look at some options for myself.

Rebucking - so easy and tightened up my boat nicely. A hammer and a small sturdy piece of iron is all I used.