Thread: 1963 Heron Sailboat repair and restoration

I'm going through the same paint stripping stage Craig! Plenty of burnt fingers from the heat gun and sore hands later, but as long as you are making progress! Post up some pictures?

Chris

Yes me too. And it's only the first night! Had a little smoke in the boat too... oops. Better watch that. What size boat are you doing, and how long have you been doing it?

Check out my thread Craig, just under yours! Its a 16-17 foot ply speed boat, I think i've been doing it for a few weeks now? Don't worry, mine is full of oil and i have smoke everywhere. It took me a good week in afternoons and a weekend to fully scrape and sand the bottom of the hull, now i'm doing the internal surfaces. My hands copped a lot from having them too close to the heat gun's air flow, and i pinched a nerve in the palm of my right hand from the scraper, so have had a numb hand for a week or so now =P Its worth it though, am seeing good progress I think. I'm taking heaps of photos and uploading to Photo Bucket, then linking to my thread here. Its great because I can see the progress along the way, each step. And I'll have something to look back on when I am done!

Chris

Originally Posted by CraigCanberra

Oh, down the hull (I'm working from the port bow back and down, I've found what looks to be fibreglass tape. I'm having a lot of trouble around that with the heat gun, and have tended to go more towards the stern when I encounter it. It seems to be more towards the bottom. I haven't found out if it's all the way yet.

Any suggestions on how to get the paint off the fibreglass? Or am I now in a world of pain??

There'd better be fibreglass tape there!! All the way along all seams.
Herons & Mirrors semi-pioneered stitch & tape construction.

World of pain ? Depends on how much you like sanding.
Paint & polyester resin are just 2 types of plastics with roughly similar thermal
properties. You'll need to be an artiste with the heat gun to scrape off one but not
the other. Scrape off the middles of the panels & sand the strips each side of the
seams. If the whole bottom is glassed, the whole bottom will probably need sanding.

It's also possible that on a 46 year-old hull, polyester resin is nearing its service life
anyway. Sand some to check its condition (how brittle is it, & is it still stuck to the
ply). If good, sand the rest. If cactus, consider replacing with epoxy & glass.

cheers
AJ

HI Craig,

have a look at my thread about my Heron rebuild:

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f32/heron-rebuild-50901

I found that the easiest way to take the paint off the hull was to remove the ply

Even after doing that I found that the longest part of my project was stripping the paint off the timber frames. I didn't use a heat gun though, just a good quality scraper with a sharp blade (I went through a lot of replaceable blades!)

Replacing the planking was very straight forward with the frames to act as templates. I ran fibreglass tape along the chine to protect the edge and gave the whole hull 3 coats of epoxy.

Good luck with your project. The Heron is a nice boat to repair - just the right size to be a challenge, not too big to drive you mad.

OK some pics! I am more than happy to take some positive criticism, as I said - I'm a noob at this. The lowest layer of paint is a real pain to remove, and I think I'm resolving to a little sanding after. The hull will be repainted anyway, just like that new paint to stick properly The tape looks like following the join (chine??) down the length of the hull, and some judicious heat gun work seems to stop it from being affected too badly. So... all ears... do your worst! Remember this is my $250 boat

And its not me in the pics - previous owner

OK.. someone say something. I'm feeling like I've done something incredibly bad, and no one wants to say....what??

Here's a pic of progress of a couple of hours tonight. The welding gloves have helped heaps - no burnt pinkies! I got them for about $20 new, so well worth it.

Certainly have found that in some spots I go along well, and in others, I'm scorching timber and making a mess - but the paint won't come off. Especially that green.

Someone say something....

Ok Craig.... You've done something incredibly bad !!

Feel better now ?


No idea what you're worried about. considering age & all, it looks like it's coming off a treat.
A thought that might save you some sweat & time... If the paint is sound, and the ply
is sound underneath it, why does it all have to come off? Sound paint should be a
quite suitable substrate for repainting.

The tape had better be following the chine all the way along. That's what held it
together !! Have a good look at the resin. If it is sound & well stuck, leave it be.
If it is brittle & cracked & poorly adhering to the ply, probably better to replace it with
epoxy & glass tape. Perhaps in sections so as to hold it together and in shape.
(If one of the people who has really done this tells you different, listen to them rather
than me - I'm just rabbitting on about how I think I'd do it if she were mine)
cheers
AJ

Originally Posted by CraigCanberra

but the paint won't come off. Especially that green.

Someone say something....

The green is the mould stain in the ply....

Righto I'll say something why are all old boats worth about $250 if it's not fire wood you have done well. Bit of a tidy up coat of paint and you are on the water. Hard to build a Puddle Duck Racer even for that.

just looking at the pic you posted at 08:22 PM
you've got the boat strapped down, -and- the roller door cranked down onto it...


was it trying -that- hard to get off the trailer??

OK phew - feeling better! Thanks guys. This is my first go at paint stripping. And my first go at a boat, so I think it's right to be nervous! Interesting about that mold stain... but I think it's on way too thick in patches to be stain (although I could be wrong!)

I'll scrape where I can, and sand the rest. I don't want to disturb that tape. There is also some damage along the keel, so I'll get the boat flipped and take some pics and advice, but I think it will be the same thing - sand, fill repair. Initially I was just going to remove paint around the cracks inthe bow, but I thought I'd keep going because the whole paint job feels like rendered cement. In fact, I don't know how they did such a bad job on it!

boat - no, I just haven't taken the strap off, and the door is down because it's about 2 degrees C in that shed when I'm working on it, and I freeze!

Thanks for the encouragement, I'll post a pic up of where I get to tomorrow!

Craig

Don't be scared of disturbing that tape. Sure, if you don't it's a job you don't need to do later, but retaping the seams isn't all that hard, I'd be more concerned about you saving something that should be removed.

As for paint removal, just do your best and accept the results.

How thick is the ply? Some of those Herons were made with really thin ply and so you had to be a tad wary of how you handled that.

Richard

You seem to be removing the paint OK - but I would suggest a lower heat setting on the gun or holding it further away or at a different angle to reduce the colour and burning.
I have spent many long hours stipping paint off my wooden speedboat hull. The Einstein that had it before me found it under a house he was painting professionally took it home siliconed all the joints, polyfilled all the holes and painted it with several coats of house paint. As a final step he coated the bottom with bitumenised waterproofing paint - now that stuff is very hard and messy to remove !

Small milestone - the port side is complete Hurrah! Still cold enough that when I take the welding gloves off, my hands steam for a minute! So next up will be the starbd, then I'll do the transom last because I have to take some fittings off. So I'm feeling a little encouraged - thanks for all the kind words!

I did think I was scorching a little too much, but the paint doesn't budge on the lower heat settings in places.

Happy