Ep36 Racing the change of season to prep the mast for paint.

We removed every piece of hardware from the mast and boom and discovered a lot of peeled and bubbling paint. That can only mean one thing...corrosion. We wanted a better look at the aluminum, so we decided to completely strip and repaint both mast and boom. Weeks of sanding did a pretty good job removing most of the paint, but the edges and corners needed a bit more attention. We thought about having the yard media blast, but the cost was out of our budget. With a bit of research we discovered that you can sand blast through a pressure washer and it's a safe process. Dry media blasting is a dangerous proposition requiring an enclosed space and a lot of protective gear to protect your skin and lungs. We purchased a cheap kit from Amazon, rented a heavy duty pressure washer from the local Home Depot, and 1000lbs of sand. After a bit of trial and error, we completely cleaned the mast of every scrap of paint. Unfortunately, by the time we finished the hand sanding of the boom, the season turned and we ran out of appropriate weather to sand blast, so we'll have to wait for spring with some warmer temperatures and longer days to finish this project. Unfortunately that also means we won't be able to paint until spring. One more project left partly done.