The Paint is coming off nicely. The carbide scraper works well on the hull and the Porter Cable Random Orbit Sander works wonders on the topside paint.
My next battle: removal of the non-skid.
Overall, the non-skid was still attached extremely well, but it had come loose or cracked in a few places. Most of the non-skid had been painted over twice, but wherever it was exposed, it had turned a yellowish color. It had to go. To remove it, I went with a suggestion from a friend on the Plastic Classics Forum; I bought a 4 1/2" grinder and used 40 grit flap-disks to grind the bulk of the non-skid material off. On the picture above, you can see how far I went with the grinder on the left side, and then you can see the finished result on the right side after I had sanded it off fairly smooth.
Unlike the Porter Cable Sander, my Milwaukee Grinder has no dust collection system. The grinder paired with the flap-disks throws an amazing amount of material into the air. My garage is covered with light-blue dust. Still, progress is progress...
After getting the bulk of the Non-skid off with the grinder, I switched to the Random Orbital Sander in order to smooth the very uneven surface left from the grinding. The non-skid clogs-up the sandpaper much quicker than the paint does.
