Well, I am past the point of no return on the bottom now. Here is the process that got me to the point in the picture below.

1) Paint on Jasco paint remover from gallon can

2) Scrape off as much paint that bubbled up during chemical process

3)paint on 2nd coat of Jasco remover

4) scrape off paint, mostly down to bare wood.

5) use 7'' sander/polisher with 80grit disk to sand remaining paint and metal fastners.

6) touch up small spaces with the 5'' orbital sander using 80grit disc

7) drink a beer

This first side was tough as I had to figure out all the steps as I went along. I think that the biggest issue I had was the Jasco. This product was 1/2 gelatin 1/2 goopy liquid. I would pour it into a mixing cup and apply with a chip brush, but half the time it was just useless jello. I tried crushing the jello pieces but it didn't work to well.

I came up with a process where I would coat evenly as best as I could with the liquid jasco and then collect all the jello into a pile and pretend it was the Blob and leave it to eat some stubborn paint section. Moving the blob became a game and kept me from dumping the rest of the Jasco crap all over my local, orange big box retailer's paint department floor.

If I were to do it again I would definitely use a different product. I have used (and will again) their spray can product which is great for targeting small areas.

Here are some additional pictures.

The White spot on the next to the chine on the left is a piece of damaged bottom. It seems to be some sort of repair putty that was added. I had to dig it out and have patched it with a mixture of epoxy and wood flour.

As far as I can tell it was the worst damage on the hull. It is amazing the condition of this plywood, which was originally laid in 1959 and only protected with paint.

There is noticeable checking and some scrapes and bruises but nothing that needs serious attention. It dried out completely in a day or two exposed to the sun. I was really impressed.

What I did discover was that the keel(mahagony) and the chines are all fiberglassed. This, I am sure helped preserve the boat this long.

The chine glass I am roughing up and then going to cover with the new glass. The keel fiberglass I cut and removed so that the only glass remaining is directly under the keel itself. This is fine as I will add significant fillets along the entire keel and then glass it with heavy cloth. By the time I am done, the old glass will be buried and frozen.

However, during this process I found the lone rot on the bottom.

The picture below shows the area at the front of the keel that is suspect

I had to cut away about 1/6th of the front of the keel to expose the affected area. I sanded/gouged out as best as I could.

You will notice the underside of the butt joint that was used to join the two pieces of plywood. The joint was filled with caulk which I removed and replaced with the wood flour/epoxy mix. 2 layers and sanding and this area is as good as new.

I am going to be laying glass on the joint and then adding the keel piece back (bedding it in the epoxy/glass so the height matches)

That was it on the bottom.

I am planning on adding 1 layer of glass then filling the weave with 25%graphite/epoxy mix and then 2 more layers of the graphite/epoxy.

Hope that is easy!!

Here is the link to the boat I might model Predator 160

Now the bottom is done!