Easy way to strip powdercoat for polishing tower

[rugger]

I found a really easy way to strip powdercoat that I thought I'd share -- since there's been a lot of talk lately about polishing towers. I still love the look of powdercoated/painted towers, but a polished tower seemed better for my setup. I just finished mine, and it was easier than I imagined.

I'm sure there are plenty of great methods -- but I really thought this was slick because its more "hands off" (no scraping, no sand blasting and very little detail work -- which makes it more ready to polish).

Stripping the tower:

- Buy a large can of Jascos Premium Epoxy and Paint remover. This stuff is nasty, so keep it off your skin.

- Brush copious amounts of the Jasco gel right onto the tower using a paint/utility brush and wear gloves

- Wait 45 min or an hour, and brush on another coat. You'll see the gel start to eat away the powdercoat.

- After another hour or so (depending on temperature I think) when the powdercoat is bubbled up, a pressure washer will blow the powdercoat right off! You don't want it to dry -- it needs to stay wet, like grape jelly. If you don't have a pressure washer, you can wipe it away with rags.

- Wash the tower with soap and water. Mine had a slight film left over but it washed off.

- That's it!!! I took a wire brush to only a few spots, everything else came right off beautifully, even the welds were free of color. No scraping or chipping at all.

- I should add that you'll probably have to go back and redo a few spots, I did.

EDIT: Forgot to mention to remove the knobs on the Titan III, or tape them off somehow. I didn't, and even though I was careful the Jasco gel dripped on the knobs and started eating away at the plastic. Oops!

Polishing the tower:

My tower is stainless (Titan III), so I haven't tried aluminum, but the underlying metal looked pretty good after the Jascos and was ready for polishing with just a little more prep. In fact I started polishing it without any more prep work and it looked pretty good (seen in the pictures). But it did have some scratches so I went back and wetsanded the tower before a final polish.

- Lots of good info on this site for polishing, and I'm no expert, but obviously a rotary buffer and wool pad make a huge difference in the effort. I spent about 4 hours total on the polish, which included wetsanding time. Also -- if anyone already has Maguiers 105 compound it works very well on stainless. I learned this after trying different metal compounds on the custom SS wedge I made for my last boat. I used 105 on the gelcoat and the tried it on the stainless wedge and it worked the best. I went right to it for this project. I think Star One uses RedBall compound for the Titans and I know MartinArcher said it worked awesome for his tower. I just didn't have it.

I didn't intend on a post, but here are a few pics of the process from my phone. Hope someone else finds the Jasco's tip as useful as I did.

https://picasaweb.google.com/myfourday/TowerStrippedAndPolished#

Edited May 23, 2011 by rugger

[Ndawg12]

That stripping info would have been nice about 6 months ago Awesome write up, I bet I spent 30+ hours on mine and it still isn't a perfect mirror finish all over

[martinarcher]

Haha....I actually used the same method....the second day. The first night we ran out of paint stripper and used razor blades for hours. The next day we put a few coats of stripper on it and then hit it with the pressure washer. It is awesome since you don't have to get that nasty stuff all over you. Looks like that Jascos is even nastier than what I used. Mine didn't come off quite that clean.

I screwed myself over by then cutting, welding, scraping, cutting some more, heating, bending, etc.....then polishing. Lots of boo boo's to polish out. I can't believe you got it looking that good in 4 hours! I bet I have 40-50 hours in wetsanding and polishing mine!

Nice work....that boat looks sick! Told you a TIII would look awesome on that boat!

Edited May 23, 2011 by martinarcher

[Bill_AirJunky]

Nice, the tower looks SWEET!

So whats that stuff do your lawn?

[rugger]

That stripping info would have been nice about 6 months ago Awesome write up, I bet I spent 30+ hours on mine and it still isn't a perfect mirror finish all over

Mine isn't a perfect mirror all over either -- but I stopped when it looked good. About 2-3 passes per section did it for me. There's a few spots that I see now that I wish I gave another pass, but only I noticed and you can always hit it again with the polisher. Plenty of better polishing examples here -- I mainly wanted to share the Jascos tip. But I do think it helps because you don't scuff up the tower stripping it.

Nice, the tower looks SWEET!

So whats that stuff do your lawn?

I only polished it on the lawn. I'm sure the Jascos would do bad things. I used that stuff over gravel only. The powdercoat ends up peeling off in large pieces, and then dries to a hard plastic texture again in whatever shape it landed in.

[rugger]

I screwed myself over by then cutting, welding, scraping, cutting some more, heating, bending, etc.....then polishing. Lots of boo boo's to polish out. I can't believe you got it looking that good in 4 hours! I bet I have 40-50 hours in wetsanding and polishing mine!

To clarify -- the 4 hours was just the polishing portion. I did the Jascos stripping in chunks. The titan tower was in good condition underneath which made polishing easier.

Hey, your 40 hrs of tweaking it to make that tower fit was worth it. And besides, nothing is too good for the Setter.

[martinarcher]

To clarify -- the 4 hours was just the polishing portion. I did the Jascos stripping in chunks. The titan tower was in good condition underneath which made polishing easier.

Hey, your 40 hrs of tweaking it to make that tower fit was worth it. And besides, nothing is too good for the Setter.

That's probably about the amount of time I had in my Titan I since I didn't have any fab scratches or cuts in it. It was pretty easy.

Now that's the spirit! The Sunsetter is spoiled for sure, but she deserves it!!

[jwl019]

Anybody know what size of this stuff I need to buy to strip a Titan 1 tower? Quart or gallon? I don't plan on needing it for anything else, and if its real strong I don't really need it just sitting around either.

[bamabonners]

wonder what is under the black on a G3 tower?

[jwl019]

I used 2.5 quarts stripping my T1, go ahead and buy the gallon. Mine after stripping is no where near as shiny as the OP's, but mine is getting another coat of powder.