John is fully enjoying spending 6 hours per side sanding the 3M Premium Marine filler compound flat and then fairing the entire bottom. Starboard is finished. Port will be completed later today.
His process involves sanding cross-grain with the pneumatic longboard sander with 40 and 60 grit, and then sanding with the grain using 80 grit. To go further is to rob the surface of the “teeth” needed for paint to adhere.
While he sands, I will be employing a BAHCO scraper with our DeWalt, and carefully removing residual paint from the chines to the boot stripe. Once we are down to raw wood, I will sand the surface flat.
We will begin applying Interlux InterProtect 2000E Epoxy barrier coat tomorrow morning. Five coats later, we will begin rolling and tipping Interlux Perfection Mauritius Blue to the bottom. As always, our progress will be constrained by cure times.