# Plasti Dip as a bottom paint



## peterconway (Sep 23, 2010)

Has anyone tried the product Plasti Dip as a bottom paint? Take a look at this and let me know what you think. It looks like a good answer to a problem.


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## SHNOOL (Jun 7, 2007)

We're looking does the link pop up automagically?


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## Faster (Sep 13, 2005)

Don't see any antifouling properties mentioned....


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## peterconway (Sep 23, 2010)

I'm just wondering if it is used, and peeled off when fouled, would that be an alternative to bottom paint.


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## MarkSF (Feb 21, 2011)

I looked at your past posts, and most of them seemed to make some kind of sense. So I am tempted to put this one down to an overdose of recreational drugs, or hard liquor. NB : no matter how convinced you might be that you can fly, you can't.


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## ravinracin (Apr 21, 2010)

Dip an object in the plasti dip and throw it into a bucket of salt water. See how it does and get back to us.


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## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

Might be as good as Never Seize?


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## peterconway (Sep 23, 2010)

Okay...I get it. but don't burn me at the stake for offering an idea. Remember, the sailing community once believed the world was flat.


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## boatpoker (Jul 21, 2008)

peterconway said:


> Okay...I get it. but don't burn me at the stake for offering an idea. Remember, the sailing community once believed the world was flat.


Us power boaters never believed that


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## SHNOOL (Jun 7, 2007)

peterconway said:


> Okay...I get it. but don't burn me at the stake for offering an idea. Remember, the sailing community once believed the world was flat.


Give us some credit, the sailing community figured out the world wasn't flat, long before the inboard motor was invented, and surely sooner than the lubbers figured it out.


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

When exactly did the sailing community believe the world was flat? It's documented that it was hundreds of years BC that it was realized the earth was round. By the time Columbus attempted his sail to India, it had been known the earth was round for a couple of thousand years. An attempt to re-write history was made just a couple of hundred years ago.

I say it was a myth propagated by the stinkpotters.


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## boatpoker (Jul 21, 2008)

Hey ! watch it . My pot don't stink.


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## hpeer (May 14, 2005)

Not the first time I've heard something similar. 

Truck bed liner has also been mentioned, to me, after drinks, a few.


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## Don L (Aug 8, 2008)

peterconway said:


> Has anyone tried the product Plasti Dip as a bottom paint? Take a look at this and let me know what you think. It looks like a good answer to a problem.


sounds expensive

try it and let us know

but I'm pretty sure plastic outboard props foul


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## eherlihy (Jan 2, 2007)

peterconway said:


> Remember, the sailing community once believed the world was flat.


WAIT!...
Do you mean that it's not?


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## peterconway (Sep 23, 2010)

SHNOOL said:


> Give us some credit, the sailing community figured out the world wasn't flat, long before the inboard motor was invented, and surely sooner than the lubbers figured it out.


Yes, figured it out.
I'm dismayed that an idea prokes nothing but instant dismissal. At 57, I try and keep my mind open to there still being a better way. Surely there must be great security in having it all. I am far from being there.


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## eherlihy (Jan 2, 2007)

Lighten up... this is the internet, and the weather in the US of A has been horrible these past few weeks. I believe that my boat is buried under 4+ feet of snow, and I'm not alone. Your friends on SailNet are simply funning with you, because they're bored, and they can't work on their boats. (Well, that and we're all a bunch of AFOCs...)

Try it and let us know how it works out.


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## JimMcGee (Jun 23, 2005)

eherlihy said:


> WAIT!...
> Do you mean that it's not?


Of course the world is flat !

A quick Google search turned up these links:
The Flat Earth Society
FES -- Deprogramming the masses since 1547
TFES.org, Welcome to the Future !
https://www.facebook.com/FlatEarthToday

Hey if it's on the Internet it CAN'T be wrong ! 

And hey science isn't _always_ right. Just ask those _trusted_ folks at Fox News :laugher

.


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## ravinracin (Apr 21, 2010)

Ok No funning. (it this a work?). About 14 years ago I dipped the steel handles of my best garden pruners in the plasti dip because the plastic sleeves over the handles finally came off. The pruners were first purchased in 1975. So yesterday I was pruning my fruit trees with same pruners and the handles with the plasti dip were as good as the day I dipped them. Granted not salt water but the dip has held up very well. 

As far as cold, snow and the like. Today I have to go down and put another day working on the boat. 70 degrees, sunny and lots to do. We have had 2 major rain storms all winter. This 70 degree weather is wearing me out. If we get a little rain, I get a break. This wonderful California weather is not all it is cracked up to be.


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## ravinracin (Apr 21, 2010)

funning (is this a word?)


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## jwing (Jun 20, 2013)

I have no basis to make any judgment regarding the suitability of Plastic Dip for a bottom paint. But I LOVE the creative, outside-the-box thinking! BRAVO!

I wonder how much drag the plastci dip would add to the hull/water interface.


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## Faster (Sep 13, 2005)

ravinracin said:


> funning (is this a word?)


You know you can edit/correct the original post, right??


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## jwing (Jun 20, 2013)

ravinracin said:


> funning (is this a word?)


Yes. However, the correct spelling is: funnin'.


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## peterconway (Sep 23, 2010)

This product is being used to temporarily paint cars. There are several utube videos where it's being sprayed on. (For those of you who think it diffult to dip your boat)
For me, there is something wrong in the current method of maintaining a boats bottom, and of course current manufacturing doesn't want a change.


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## bljones (Oct 13, 2008)

A few concerns come to mind: 1.Any abrasion will leave shreds of plastic in the water. 2 any abrasion will allow water in, eventually causing a blister, which will cause drag, eventually causing the bottom to fail ...leaving a lot of plastic in the water.
3. They wrap cars in adhesive backed vinyl to change the colour as well, with videos of the process on youtube. that doesn't mean it is a good idea for a submerged application.


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## peterconway (Sep 23, 2010)

bljones said:


> A few concerns come to mind: 1.Any abrasion will leave shreds of plastic in the water. 2 any abrasion will allow water in, eventually causing a blister, which will cause drag, eventually causing the bottom to fail ...leaving a lot of plastic in the water.
> 3. They wrap cars in adhesive backed vinyl to change the colour as well, with videos of the process on youtube. that doesn't mean it is a good idea for a submerged application.


I agree your concerns are valid. But doesn't the abrasion cause the same risk for paint?


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## bljones (Oct 13, 2008)

No.


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## guitarguy56 (Oct 10, 2012)

ravinracin said:


> As far as cold, snow and the like. Today I have to go down and put another day working on the boat. 70 degrees, sunny and lots to do. We have had 2 major rain storms all winter. This 70 degree weather is wearing me out. If we get a little rain, I get a break. This wonderful California weather is not all it is cracked up to be.


I've been here in Seal Beach since last September after being in Montreal over the previous winter dredging in 3-4 feet of snow and ice... I can tell you the 70'ish weather right now we're having and sunny skies are a blessing indeed! 

Aren't some marine chains plasti-dip or vinyl dipped?


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## bljones (Oct 13, 2008)

they are, and they are a corrosion nightmare.


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## Group9 (Oct 3, 2010)

peterconway said:


> Okay...I get it. but don't burn me at the stake for offering an idea. Remember, the sailing community once believed the world was flat.


What? The world's not flat. Well, why does it look flat?


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## miatapaul (Dec 15, 2006)

bljones said:


> A few concerns come to mind: 1.Any abrasion will leave shreds of plastic in the water. 2 any abrasion will allow water in, eventually causing a blister, which will cause drag, eventually causing the bottom to fail ...leaving a lot of plastic in the water.
> 3. They wrap cars in adhesive backed vinyl to change the colour as well, with videos of the process on youtube. that doesn't mean it is a good idea for a submerged application.


Actually the wrap works quite well above the water line. I imagine that is how they got those ugly graphics on the Gunboat 55 that is going (or was) to be at the Miami boat show. Lots of power boats are wrapped as are some racing boats. I don't think it would work under water. The plasti dip might work as a covering over inflatable tubes though as it is flexible and could help protect for UV. It is quite expensive though as I doubt you will get more than a few square feet coverage with enough thickness to do much. I think people say it take 2 cans to do a car wheel. At $7-8 a can it will get expenisve.


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## jwing (Jun 20, 2013)

My experience with whitewater canoes and kayaks, which suffer abrasion that is degrees of magnitude more severe than most sailboats are subject to (Granted, kayaks are made from something different than Plasti Dip, but they are some kind of plastic.):



bljones said:


> A 1.Any abrasion will leave shreds of plastic in the water.


Not true. Most abrasion scratches the surface but does not leave shreds of plastic in the river. But not exactly untrue, either. Particularly hard hits on sticky rock will leave small bits of hull material behind.



bljones said:


> 2 any abrasion will allow water in, eventually causing a blister, which will cause drag, eventually causing the bottom to fail ...leaving a lot of plastic in the water.


Not true. It depends on the thickness of the plastic, of course, but I've never seen a kayak or canoe leak due to abrasion.

Ocean kayaks are made from plastic, too; salt water has no detrimental effect.

My point is: Someday in the future, most sailboats will be made from a material that is not fiberglass, just like someday in the past, no sailboats were made from fiberglass.


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## Fstbttms (Feb 25, 2003)

peterconway said:


> Has anyone tried the product Plasti Dip as a bottom paint? Take a look at this and let me know what you think. It looks like a good answer to a problem.


Exactly what problem is it an answer to?


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## peterconway (Sep 23, 2010)

Fstbttms said:


> Exactly what problem is it an answer to?


It's not an answer, just an alternative, maybe a better one. 
I was just introduce to the product being used on large surfaces and wondered if this would work. The ease of applying and removal was appealing and once cured the protection seems durable enough. Because it is completely removable, there is no foul regardless of how and where it is used. If nothing else, I'll spray my girlfriend with it....yea, that works.


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## Fstbttms (Feb 25, 2003)

peterconway said:


> It's not an answer, just an alternative, maybe a better one.
> I was just introduce to the product being used on large surfaces and wondered if this would work. The ease of applying and removal was appealing and once cured the protection seems durable enough. Because it is completely removable, there is no foul regardless of how and where it is used. If nothing else, I'll spray my girlfriend with it....yea, that works.


I guess I don't understand. The product has no anti fouling properites whatsoever. Therefore it will foul rapidly and heavily. Are you suggesting that the product be removed and a new coating of it applied whenever the boat bottom becomes dirty (which will be a matter of a few weeks in California)?


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## Stumble (Feb 2, 2012)

It would probably work. In that sure you could peel off the fouled section. But it would likely foul in days, certainly weeks. I just can't see it being a good idea to skin your boat once a month to remove the hard growth from the bottom.


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## Sailormon6 (May 9, 2002)

Fstbttms said:


> Exactly what problem is it an answer to?


Thanks for asking, Fastbottoms! I was wondering the same thing.

Bottom paints generally serve two principal purposes. They serve as antifouling, to deter the growth of algae and barnacles, or they serve as barrier coatings, to prevent the intrusion of water into the fiberglass. I don't see any indication that Plasti Dip contains any substance that deters the growth of algae or barnacles, or that deters them from clinging to it. I also don't see any indication that it is capable of being continuously submerged in water, or that it effectively resists penetration by water. Water is one of the most invasive substances known. Given enough time, it can penetrate steel and etch glass. I don't see anything about Plasti Dip that would suggest that it would provide any more effective barrier against water than ordinary house paint. Moreover, the manufacturer doesn't market it for either of those purposes. If they thought it would be better than other products that are specifically designed for those uses, they would market it as such. I'm sure the company would like to break into the lucrative marine paint market!


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## arf145 (Jul 25, 2007)

I don't get what advantage it would provide. Plasti Dip might protect against bumps or something, but boats don't need that kind of protection--what boats need is something on the bottom that discourages barnacles and marine growth in the first place. As far as being able to remove barnacles and fouling by peeling off the bottom, that doesn't help the real problem of sailing around with all those barnacles on the bottom of your boat slowing you down.


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## Fstbttms (Feb 25, 2003)

Sailormon6 said:


> Bottom paints generally serve two principal purposes. They serve as antifouling, to deter the growth of algae and barnacles, or they serve as barrier coatings, to prevent the intrusion of water into the fiberglass.


Actually, anti fouling paints are not waterproof and not intended to be. They work by allowing water ingress into the paint matrix, thereby providing a method for the biocide to be transported to the surface.


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## JimMcGee (Jun 23, 2005)

C'mon you guys are taking this seriously?

Am I the only one who assumed the original poster was fishing?










Talk about throwing bait in the water! It must be winter


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## peterconway (Sep 23, 2010)

Thank you for the input. My point was to get some, and provoke thought. I'm just dissatisfied with bottom maintenance a routine.


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## MarkSF (Feb 21, 2011)

peterconway said:


> Okay...I get it. but don't burn me at the stake for offering an idea. Remember, the sailing community once believed the world was flat.


That's not true. Sailors were among the first people to realise that the earth wasn't flat - they had observed for centuries that ships in the distance would disappear over the horizon at certain point.


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## Donna_F (Nov 7, 2005)

peterconway said:


> Thank you for the input. My point was to get some, and provoke thought. I'm just dissatisfied with bottom maintenance a routine.


If routine maintenance is the issue, why won't growth adhere to the plasti dip stuff, at which point you have to peel it off when fouled as you said, then reapply?

So you are back to the routine maintenance you are trying to avoid.


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## MarkSF (Feb 21, 2011)

One thing - you can't just "peel Plasti-dip off". It's an aerosol plastic paint. It can be hard to remove, and often has to be rubbed off with solvent. 

So not only does it not work because it has no antifouling properies, it also doesn't work anyway. 

So all you've done is coat your boat's bottom in some crap paint.

An idea is only an idea if you've actually given it some thought. Otherwise, I could just say "why not cover your boat bottom in lard" and call it a solution to a problem.


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## jwing (Jun 20, 2013)

peterconway said:


> Thank you for the input. My point was to get some, and provoke thought. I'm just dissatisfied with bottom maintenance a routine.


Yes. In my experience, the best way to break through the status quo is start with a brainstorming session where all ideas are presented and recorded without regard to their practicality. No criticism is allowed until all ideas have been brought forth in a non-judgmental milieu. Then the ideas are discussed and expanded, enhanced, combined, rejected, whatever. Some people just aren't open-minded enough for brainstorming. If they insist on interjecting judgment, they get asked to fetch lunch and rejoin the group later.

I'm sure there were plenty of sailors who dismissed early ideas of making boats out of fiberglass. I've witnessed naysayers attempt try to shout down many great but undeveloped ideas, and ultimately proven wrong when the idea guys persisted and move forward without them.


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## Minnesail (Feb 19, 2013)

bljones said:


> 3. They wrap cars in adhesive backed vinyl to change the colour as well, with videos of the process on youtube. that doesn't mean it is a good idea for a submerged application.


I tried this and had a 50% success rate.

The waterline of my boat had a very unattractive mixture of the original bootstripe, some sort of barrier coat that slopped up over that in places, and a newer bootstripe that was about 2/3 flaked away.

I bought an 8" roll of automotive adhesive vinyl and applied it about 3" below the waterline and 5" above.

After only a week or two in the water the strip on the port side had started to come loose in spots. By the middle of the summer all the adhesive below the waterline had failed and the stripe was only held on by the part above the waterline. It peeled off in one chunk, no harm done.

But the stripe on the starboard side stayed on all year and when I hauled it out in the fall showed no sign of failing. The only difference I can think of is that the starboard side faced south when it was in my yard, so that stripe baked in the sun for about ten days while the port stripe stayed in shade.

Anyway, it was a half-assed cosmetic fix. I hope to apply real paint this spring.


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## Don L (Aug 8, 2008)

eherlihy said:


> WAIT!...
> Do you mean that it's not?


It's flat! You know how I know, it's because I've never had to sail uphill.


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

Hey, the world originally WAS flat and that worked fine for many aeons. Then the Gods learned Origami, and they thought they'd have some fun.

Besides, you know the mess it makes when the dragons and krakens and all fall off the edge and go SPLAT! when they land?

Origami.


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## ravinracin (Apr 21, 2010)

MarkSF said:


> One thing - you can't just "peel Plasti-dip off". It's an aerosol plastic paint. It can be hard to remove, and often has to be rubbed off with solvent.
> 
> So not only does it not work because it has no antifouling properies, it also doesn't work anyway.
> 
> ...


The Plasti Dip I have used is exactly that, a dip. I would take what I wanted coated and dip it into the container. Not a spray at all.

Today this dip has no anti - fouling properties, maybe someone will add some. I think back to my childhood and we had this big heavy hard black phone with a finger dialer on the face of it. Now we have "I" phones and they may be replaced soon. My boat has a very, very thick fiberglass hull, newer boats, not so thick. Maybe the new boats will be made of some new plastic, which is what plasti dip is. I can see a lighter, faster, stronger plastic boat. Hell I heard that body panels on Mercedes Benz in Germany are made of hemp, maybe new boats will be made of hemp! Now put that in your pipe and smoke it.


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## miatapaul (Dec 15, 2006)

ravinracin said:


> The Plasti Dip I have used is exactly that, a dip. I would take what I wanted coated and dip it into the container. Not a spray at all.
> 
> Today this dip has no anti - fouling properties, maybe someone will add some. I think back to my childhood and we had this big heavy hard black phone with a finger dialer on the face of it. Now we have "I" phones and they may be replaced soon. My boat has a very, very thick fiberglass hull, newer boats, not so thick. Maybe the new boats will be made of some new plastic, which is what plasti dip is. I can see a lighter, faster, stronger plastic boat. Hell I heard that body panels on Mercedes Benz in Germany are made of hemp, maybe new boats will be made of hemp! Now put that in your pipe and smoke it.


That is going to be a BIG container to dip your boat in. Might work for a bath tub toy.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk


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## outbound (Dec 3, 2012)

Would think whatever coating is used unless quite porous the metal bits in the water would need to be left uncovered. Think metals,especially stainless, corrode faster when left partially oxygen starved. 
Often wondered about Teflon or other super smooth coating. Growth would not be able to adhere. Kind of like prop speed on steroids and no tin or copper in the water to mess up shellfish.


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## guitarguy56 (Oct 10, 2012)

outbound said:


> Would think whatever coating is used unless quite porous the metal bits in the water would need to be left uncovered. Think metals,especially stainless, corrode faster when left partially oxygen starved.
> Often wondered about Teflon or other super smooth coating. Growth would not be able to adhere. Kind of like prop speed on steroids and no tin or copper in the water to mess up shellfish.


Good idea with Teflon if it was able to be sprayed in on a large scale... same for a silicone based spray... I mean once silicone in on surfaces it's hard to remove and retains its slippery surface tension... I imagine either of these two materials would likely not have growth... but a good test would quality the results.
See this abstract:

Silicone Based Coatings


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

Actually Plastidip DOES have a spray version and there are folks using it "commercially" to spray entire cars. Protects the factory paint from chipping, gives you fun colors, and can be peeled off with no damage (supposedly) when you're bored or want to change it.

But Teflon is a different story. After you spray on the coating, you have to BAKE IT AT 450F or something like that to cure the coating and turn it into solid Teflon. Fiberglass doesn't really like being baked that way.

Other coatings and paints with ground up Teflon _particles _in them are not the same as a genuine Teflon coating.

Try this: Keelhaul an environmentalist on a conventional bottom. After the wounds heal, if they heal, keelhaul them again on a bottom painted with TBT.
Ask them if they can now understand and appreciate the reason why you want to use it without legal issues.

You really just have to put it so they can understand the nature of the problem.


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## OPossumTX (Jul 12, 2011)

Many long years ago, I remember reading about the then new teflon frying pans. A certain engineering type fellow read all the hype about nothing sticking to "TEFLON" and decided to test their claim of unstickableness. He went out and bought a small Teflon frying pan, tied a bit of line to the handle, it was fitted with a handy hole for easy attachment after all. Having secured line to pan, he hung it off his Florida dock and left it for a while. After checking occasionally, he found that various hard groth including the ubiquitous BARNACLES had securely attached themselves to the pan. After he satisfied himself that the barnacles were truly stuck on there, he packed up the pan and sent it to Dupont with a letter challenging their claim that nothing sticks to Teflon. According to the story/urban legend/tall tale or what ever, the advertising literature soon changed to almost nothing sticks to Teflon.

My early experience with PlastiDip was not good. The coating got easily damaged and certain common solvents make it dissolve or just get sticky. It may be improved and it may be just fine for tools not used with petrochemical solvents. I personally, would not use it for anything more demanding than keeping the ends of a bit of line from fraying, and that only if some were given to me.

Have FUN!
O'


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## miatapaul (Dec 15, 2006)

OPossumTX said:


> My early experience with PlastiDip was not good. The coating got easily damaged and certain common solvents make it dissolve or just get sticky. It may be improved and it may be just fine for tools not used with petrochemical solvents. I personally, would not use it for anything more demanding than keeping the ends of a bit of line from fraying, and that only if some were given to me.
> 
> Have FUN!
> O'


This is my experience, especially the spray on. It is not durable at all. Next time you see wheels painted with it run your fingernail across it and you will pull off a section of it. (just don't let them catch you!) The liquid you actually dip works fairly well, and seems a bit more durable. And it is very thick so I am sure if you tried brushing it on, it would never smooth out.


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## captain jack (May 5, 2013)

peterconway said:


> Okay...I get it. but don't burn me at the stake for offering an idea. *Remember, the sailing community once believed the world was flat.*


that's actually a myth. we have references to the world being round from the vikings and as far back as the greeks, maybe farther but i don't know about it for sure. you don't have to sail around the world to realize it must be round. the horizon is on all sides. all you have to do is walk, or sail, beyond what was your horizon, and you have to realize the curved nature of the earth's surface.

really, considering the technological sophistication of humans, even in ancient history, it's rather beyond belief to assume that they wouldn't figure something so simple out. the romans had screws for drawing water up hill. the egyptians moved blocks of stone so big that we can't move some of them with modern cranes. the greeks has such complex mathematical abilities that they could design columns that would not appear tapered as you looked up. the viking ships were a technological marvel. migration age germanic sword steel was of a quality that modern man couldn't achieve the same quality til the 90s. but they were all too primative and dumb to realize that, when thier buddy, fred, rode his horse over the horizon and then rode back, he hadn't actually fallen off of the edge of the world?

it's a myth that feeds on modern man's vanity in thinking he is the end all and be all of human intellegence.

just saying....


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## captain jack (May 5, 2013)

OPossumTX said:


> Many long years ago, I remember reading about the then new teflon frying pans. A certain engineering type fellow read all the hype about nothing sticking to "TEFLON" and decided to test their claim of unstickableness. He went out and bought a small Teflon frying pan, tied a bit of line to the handle, it was fitted with a handy hole for easy attachment after all. Having secured line to pan, he hung it off his Florida dock and left it for a while. After checking occasionally, he found that various hard groth including the ubiquitous BARNACLES had securely attached themselves to the pan. After he satisfied himself that the barnacles were truly stuck on there, he packed up the pan and sent it to Dupont with a letter challenging their claim that nothing sticks to Teflon. According to the story/urban legend/tall tale or what ever, the advertising literature soon changed to almost nothing sticks to Teflon.
> 
> My early experience with PlastiDip was not good. The coating got easily damaged and certain common solvents make it dissolve or just get sticky. It may be improved and it may be just fine for tools not used with petrochemical solvents. I personally, would not use it for anything more demanding than keeping the ends of a bit of line from fraying, and that only if some were given to me.
> 
> ...


wow. if only teflon really did keep anything at all from sticking. it would be the ultimate bottom paint. and you'd slip through the water with zero drag, too.


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## Fstbttms (Feb 25, 2003)

captain jack said:


> wow. if only teflon really did keep anything at all from sticking. it would be the ultimate bottom paint. and you'd slip through the water with zero drag, too.


Teflon-based anti fouling paints have been around for decades.

VC 17m Extra with Biolux Antifouling Boat Paint | Interlux


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## captain jack (May 5, 2013)

Fstbttms said:


> Teflon-based anti fouling paints have been around for decades.
> 
> VC 17m Extra with Biolux Antifouling Boat Paint | Interlux


yes. slippery bottom paints exist but, they aren't the miracle fix. that product even states use in low fouling situations. if you research such products you find that they do not completely keep barnacles from sticking. they will stick. very weakly, at first. at that point, they can be wiped off. but, the longer they are stuck on, the harder they are to remove.

that kind of product is best for fast moving boats that get a lot of use. i'd have to go look it up but, there is a minimum speed, 15 kts i think, that it takes to dislodge barnacles by the force of the boat moving through the water.

not the kind of miracle bottom paint i was joking about. if teflon was the perfect non stick surface, barnacles and other fouling marine life, simply could not get a hold on it at all.

if slippery bottom paints worked like that, there'd be no other types of bottom paint on the market. why use a biocide based paint that wears off til it is not effective and needs repainted evey year or two when you could use a completely non toxic bottom paint that won't ever let anything stick and never needs redone?

maybe it's an industry conspiracy! they have such a miracle product and keep it buried because they want to sell us inferior bottom paint every 2 years.


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## Van_Isle (Jan 10, 2014)

By the way ... aren't some submarine Anechoic tiles made of rubber?


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

Teflon paint has been around , like Fstbttms says. However, they add an antifoulant, such as biocide or copper. Best I can tell, the teflon is only so that the paint won't stick all that well and you have to reapply every year.


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

AFAIK there are no Teflon bottom paints and DuPont used to get outright litigious when people made claims like that.

There are bottom paints which contain ground-up Teflon particles, flakes, or dust. But that's a paint "containing" Teflon, not a Teflon paint. Teflon is Teflon, it is never a paint. It is a plastic coating which must be baked at high temperatures in order to bond and cure.

You'd need a hull capable of being baked at toaster-oven temperatures before you could apply a Teflon coating to it. That lets out plastic boats real fast.


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## DonScribner (Jan 9, 2011)

Well, not that I'm not presently ODing on recreational drugs or hard liquor, but I'll add a couple of sense (SP intended). I was looking into antifouling a few years back. In my many wanderings, I came across a company that championed a 2 part product that was normally used on, wait for it, pool slides. OK, it's slippery when wet. Most of the most enjoyable things in life are. It's UV protected. Always a plus for expensive toys left to the elements. And it's a pretty pool-bottom blue. That one is for the admiral. Since I had no idea what I had on my bottom (not unlike the communicable scare of '79) I opted for a water based ablative. In all actuality, any water resistant paint that can stand up to a bow roller would have done. But, it's a pretty blue.


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

Don, aren't pool slides normally used in, uh, pools?

You know, pools which are typically filled with toxic chlorinated water and algaecides so there's no heavy crud growing on their walls, and no barnacles have ever spawned in them, let alone, harassed your bottom as it was sliding around?

And you still chickened out and went for a conventional water-based ablative, huh?


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