Trojan Boat Forum

I sorta started this new thread as a result of one I saw a few weeks back. But I am also repainting the bottom of my F26. Soda or what ever blasting is out of budget now. I have spent the last three weeks using marine / fiberglass "friendly" paint strippers with very poor results. I even tried that peel strip, orange citrus stuff and a few more with very sad results. After a week of internet research I finally tried Jasco. Yes it is NOT recommended for fiberglass. But if you do a small area at the time this stuff works GREAT!! I probably had 7 or better coats of old bottom paint that was apparently applied very good, although it was indeed time to strip it all away and start fresh. You only have to let it sit for a few minutes up to less than 10 minutes. Scrape paint. Then wipe the area down with a water dampened rag with some regular alcohol on it and the Jasco is neutralized. I had just a couple very small areas, like pencil eraser size where it did mildly soften the gel coat but after I got the hang of it I was able to get ALL the paint off down to the gel coat in one application with NO further gel coat problems. Paint was super easy to scrape off also.

What is the active ingredient? Will it eat into Fiberglass?

I checked the can and did not see what the main chemical was. I suspect it is that methol what ever that people recommend you don't use on fiberglass. Bear in mind there are a few rock heads out there that have to be protected from themselves. That is why some warning lables have to be put on products.

Like I said Jasco is not "recommended" for fiberglass, ie plastics, synthetics. It will likely eventually get through all paint layers, penetrate through gel coat and soften some fiberglass. The procedure in using Jasco on fiberglass is not let it sit too long. Scrape then wipe down with water and alcohol dampened rag.

Only oops I had in getting the hang of using Jasco was a couple very, very small spots where I peeled off a paper thin slice of gel coat. No real damage and nothing close to getting through to underlying glass. And this was in using the big aggressive razor stripper. A plastic or less sharp tool would not have done this.

I have been using Jasco now for two days and there is NO damage to underlying gel coat much less fiberglass damage. I am letting it sit well under 10 minutes, or less depending on thickness in that area and I am scraping with that 3 or 4 inch razor on a handle tool you can get at Homedepot. You just have to get the hang of this tenchnique, proper sit time, right angle and pressure on the tool and most if not all of the old paint scrapes right off first application of stripper.

I was hesitant to try Jasco but after all my research in reading what numerous people who work restoring boats and corvettes said their technique was in removing paint with a chemical stripper I saw that Jasco could be used on f/g.