Soda Blasting

[barrybrown]

Last week I had the bottom of my boat soda blasted, the enclosed pictures are after, I'm not sure if that is industry standard or a bad job but it left me extremely disappointed and with a few days of sanding ahead. In defense of the contractor he offered to refund some of my money, not because he thought it was a bad job but only because I was not happy with it. I declined because if this is his product it was my responsibility to know what I was buying. I looked at another boat recently soda blasted and saw many large areas left untouched. The procedures are such that it seems nearly impossible to get a clean job, but that could be just this contractor.
I'm posting the pictures so that anyone considering having their boat soda blasted will be encouraged to do a more thorough job of researching both the product and the contractor.

A lot is said about both the courtesy and the knowledgeable help found on this board and that is true but I'm also impressed not just by the knowledge but the ability and willingness to share it and that goes beyond Tim to so many of the contributors who go to great lengths researching and explaining what to some might seem obvious or what might be extremely obscure. It also provides an opportunity for perspective.
On my way back from buying sanding discs, the same day as the soda blasting, I stopped at a Starbucks for a coffee. The woman that brought the coffee refused to take any money because according to her I looked so unhappy, she said Starbucks had a key on the register for such occasions.
No matter how down I get by setbacks all I have to do is come to this board and it will only take a minute to find someone with a worse problem, setbacks are indeed the norm in boat repair and my project is coming along just fine.









Barry

[Hirilondë]

Any where that the bottom is white not only is all the bottom paint gone, but so is some of the gel coat. The question for you is: Where do you want to draw the line? If the old bottom paint is a hard paint, and you are now just going to add more, or even a different one, then maybe it is better to not have removed gel coat at the expense of imperfection. If you have to do some sanding anyway to get a smooth finish, then it may be better that he didn't remove much gel coat as you are now going to be removing some yourself. I don't think I would be upset, and maybe even pleased that he knew when to stop.

[Rachel]

From what I can see, it looks like a fairly typical soda-blasting job (granted it's not a close up shot, so I can't see too much detail).

Rachel

[Peter]

I think any more blasting would be harmful to the boat. The hardness of the paint is a key factor in ease of removal, and is bound to be different in different areas of the bottom. I'd say you're pretty close to having the job done ... certainly the worst is over. Try finishing with a good DA sander with not too coarse a grit paper.

[barrybrown]

Dave

Thanks for the input, it is mostly an issue of expectations which is why I wouldn't accept a discount and am unwilling to throw the contractor under the bus. My understanding was that it would remove all of the paint without damaging the gel coat and when discussing it with people offering this service at boat shows I have asked the obvious question of why something that was abrasive enough to cut through the paint would not cut into the gel coat and been told just that it wouldn't. I suspect that I received the industry standard much as you Rachel and Peter have suggested.

My intention is to use Coppercoat which requires all paint to be removed and at this time most of it has been removed. I would guess that a large percentage of people having this done are planning to barrier coat the bottom which also requires all paint to be removed and they are likely to be as surprised as me to see how much additional sanding is required.

I have worked with my hands much of my life and know that given enough space to work and visibility adequate to see what I am doing in a very short amount of time I would develop the skill to remove nearly all of the paint with minimal damage to the gel coat. What I observed was a tent that appeared too small to allow the operator enough space to work and no effort to provide visibility in fact they told me that it is done mostly by feel (looking at the pattern of cleared areas would seem to confirm this), under those conditions the operator did a remarkable job. From my observations the end product could be much improved by a change in procedures, since I'm not one of the brighter people on the planet and am unlikely to discover anything that has not occurred to the people in the business there must be trade offs that make improving the procedures impractical.

Barry