Removing spray paint from kayak

[ShayA]

I thought I would share this since I didn't see anything like it on this board. I'm sure having to remove paint from a kayak is a rare thing. I recently picked up a used kayak locally on Craigslist. When I met the guy I saw that there were flame-like things spray painted on the boat. He said it was like that when he bought it as a demo boat from a place in Colorado. Anyways, the boat is in great shape and barely looks used on the river. Got it home and decided I wanted to get rid of the flames. I could tell he had tried to scrape some of it off at one point. After some research on removing paint from plastic I decided to go with some citrus based paint remover. Citristrip aerosol paint remover from Home Depot. It worked well and there is no visible damage to the plastic. Here are the before and after pics. It ended up having 2 coats of paint. Silver on top of pink. Who in their right mind wants to paint their boat and then paint it silver and pink? It was not the easiest task taking the paint off. First I loosened some of the top layer with a plastic scraper just lightly scoring the thick silver coat. Sprayed a generous layer of Citristrip on and let it sit for an hour. The directions say you can let it soak for up to 24 hours but I didn't want to leave it on the plastic that long. Used the plastic scraper and most of the silver came off fairly easy. It is a messy job and this stuff is still a chemical so use chemical resistant gloves. Although it says safe for indoor use it is a strong citrus chemical smell so I did it outside. Be sure to clean up your over spray. I wiped it clean after scraping the first layer then sprayed it again and let it soak another hour. The scraper didn't work well on this coat because the sections of the boat that were sprayed the plastic is textured. I used a green scouring pad you would use on pots and pans. It came off really well. Rinse with some water while scrubbing or else the paint just smears. Finished cleaning it all up with water then a coat of 303 and all new.

[robkanraft]

Thanks, this gives me some courage. I'm considering adding a "touch" of camo to my new green rec boat, but was wondering what would happen should I not like the results!