I concur with Larry's suggestion to contact Stan Susman (stanpfa@pacbell.net). He advised me with the refinishing of our Montgomery 15, and it went really well. My experience is posted below. Message: 2 Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2017 08:25:15 -0800 From: Larry Yake <larryyake@gmail.com> To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Re: M_Boats: Monty 17 repaint Message-ID: <CANjZbokPXwueoNaHrXHemZRhXmygvA15KYQK=aiLA2GLhRaymg@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Hey, that's Sean's old boat! Sorry, no advice on painting, other than talk to Stan "Paintboy" Stussman (sp?). He's the expert. That's a great boat you have there. Very fast! We won the Cruiser Challenge in her a few years ago. All she needed back then was some cosmetic attention. Glad to see you're fixing her up. Larry M17 CornDog ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: David Grah <d_b_grah@yahoo.com> To: For and About Montgomery Sailboats <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2015 6:28 PM Subject: Plan to Refinish Montgomery 15 Bottom In case is anyone interested in an update on this project, I thought I'd provide one. First, I'd like to say I appreciate all the input I received on the project, especially from Stan Susman, Interlux representative, and Larry Yake. The input helped make the project a success. The project essentially went as planned except for the following: Instead of 4 by 4 posts I used two 2 by 4's screwed together to make something equivalent to a 4 by 4. This was cheaper but also allowed me to extend one 2 by 4 up next to the ceiling joist and screw it into the joist to keep the joist from twisting. I didn't use cables to hold the boat up but used two loops each side of the boat of 4000 pound strength tubular nylon webbing over the ceiling joists. Because there were no cables I didn't need the plywood squares. I also left out the lateral bracing. I went over the bottom 3 times with Citristip. The first application took most of the paint off but a number of tougher spots required an additional 2 applications. I didn't use acetone to clean the bottom. Instead I used thinner for the paint I used. Based on Stan Susman's recommendation, I used Interlux VC Performance Epoxy for bottom paint. I sail in some pristine lakes and liked the idea of not having biocide in the bottom paint. I put on 4 coats and it looks great! I didn't add a waterline stripe. The bottom looked so good the hull above the waterline looked a little shabby. I was thinking about painting the rest of the hull but ended up talking to Larry Yake and, based on his experience polishing his Corn Dog, elected to polish the hull instead. I used rubbing compound, polishing compound, and non-silicone car wax I had around and, I have to say, it looks great. I took the opportunity to replace the registration numbers on the boat with a decal from Decal Zone at the same time and that made a big improvement as well. The whole process was a lot of work but I have to admit I like looking at the finished product. The boat looks really good! From: David Grah <d_b_grah@yahoo.com> Date: April 12, 2015 at 6:07:55 PM PDT To: For and About Montgomery Sailboats <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Subject: Plan to Refinish Montgomery 15 Bottom Reply-To: David Grah <d_b_grah@yahoo.com> I'm planning to refinish the bottom of my Montgomery 15 soon and have no experience doing such a thing. I wondered if the group had any comments or suggestions on my planned approach. The boat has several coats of blue ablative bottom paint on it now. They look bad. They are faded and the upper edge of the bottom pain doesn't follow the waterline very well on the starboard side.The boat probably won't be in the water for more than a week at a time for as long as I own it and is usually in fresh water when it is in the water. The hull is white with a blue stripe at the top. I plan to mount 4 - 4 inch by 4 inch posts, 8 foot long, in my garage. The bottoms of the posts will rest on the garage slab and the tops will be bolted or screwed to the joists in the garage. I will brace the joists with diagonal 2 inch by 4 inch to the garage walls (these 2 by 4's are along the bottom of the joists to the plate at the top of the wall). The posts will support the boat and the joists will keep the posts vertical. If things go right there will be very little load on the joists. I'll nail 3/4 inch plywood squares to the tops of the posts and cut groves in the edges to run 1/8 inch cables. I'll move the boat on the trailer into the garage and jack the trailer up a few inches and put it on blocks. I will attach 1/8 inch cables to the back unused holes where the shrouds attach at the edge of the boat and to the cleats on either side at the stern of the boat and loop the cables over the tops of the posts and clamp them.Then I would lower and remove the trailer. When working on the boat, I would place "kickers" under the lip at the hull to deck joint on the side I am working on to lessen the changes that the boat would roll toward me if it came down for some reason. I would also put blocks under the keel. I would use Citristrip stripping gel to remove most of the bottom paint. I have tested it after it was recommended in this group and found it works well. Depending how hard I scrape it can take off some of the gel coat under the bottom paint as well. I'd wipe the bottom with paint thinner and sand it with 60 grit sandpaper to remove most of the remaining blue bottom paint residue. I'd wipe it down with acetone and then sand again with 220 grit sandpaper, probably wet, and wipe with acetone again. I think I will be left with white gel coat over the bottom stained slightly blue. I'd brush on two coats of off-white Interlux Brightside one-part paint up to about 1/4 inch above the top of the old bottom paint and then add a two coat red stripe about 4 inches wide to cover the uneven top of the current bottom paint on the starboard side. I figure the new Interlux won't match the gelcoat so need something to cover this transition. The edge of where the current bottom paint is would always be within the red strip by at least an inch. I'd put the trailer back under the boat and jack it up to take the weight of the posts and the cables, then lower the trailer and take the boat out of the garage and hopefully be done. Does this seem workable? Anything I should plan to do differently? Thanks! David GrahBishop CaliforniaMontgomery 15 - Sky