Chipped and pitted bottom paint

[detorres]

My 1984 28ft Flybridge sedan is laid up for the winter and I'm planning out the spring projects. I wanted to do some interior upgrades but I'm wondering if I should focus on the hull first. I have a significant number of spots on the hull that are showing bare aluminum... mostly 1/8" to 3/16" in diameter. Is this something that should take precedence over interior work if budget is an issue? If so would this warrant a "down to bare metal" prep/prime/paint? I can post a couple of pics if that would help.

[jralbert]

Without question, hull first. It's the vessel's first line of defense.

You can do interior work while boat is in the water. That is, unless you are not planning to put the boat into the water. Meanwhile, post pix and some of us may be able to suggest remedies.

[Leviathon]

Pitting is generally an indication of an unprotected hull. First check the anodes on the keel, rudder, prop shafts, and trim tabs. Those might need replacing. I just got an estimate of $1000 to blast from the waterline down to bare aluminum so I can get a good coat of primer and bottom paint on there. If your boat is like mine, it has about 1200 coats of paint on the bottom. Agree, do what has to be done out of the water, then you can concentrate on interior when at dock.

[detorres]

I went out this morning and took a couple of pics. Trying to figure out how to attach (newbie on the forum). Actually it looks like there weren't many coats of paint. The photos will tell the story better. I'm prepared to go the blast/prime/paint route (been researching this on line). Two challenges - First, I'm kind of remote in the U.P. of Michigan and can't seem to find anyone locally to do the blasting. Second, she's on a trailer so it sounds like I would need to get it on stands and blocks to do the job properly. And speaking of blasting... is there a preferred media for this process? Silica? glass bead? I even heard about using dry ice so there's no residue (great idea in theory)...

[detorres]

Regarding he anodes... they are all in place but planned on replacing those as well.

[Maestro]

If you can rent/borrow 4 heavy-duty boat stands from a local marina, it's not too bad to get the boat separated from the trailer while on land. The borrowed boat stands plus 2 bottle jacks allowed the admiral and I to remove the trailer from underneath our 28' with relative ease.

I used this video as a guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2uP2g2VHec