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42 MARCH 2015 COATINGSPROMAG.COM " T he hu l l was look ing prett y bad, but we cou ldn't spend the mi l lions of dol lars we' d need to blast dow n to sheer meta l," Howard said. "But we needed to do something because the paint was blister ing and f la k ing of f the sides of the ship, so we needed to do something about it. We met w ith env ironmenta l reg u lators and ta l ked about our options, what we cou ld and cou ldn't do w ithin our capabi lit y. We're a state agenc y, so we don't have the people who have the k ind of ex per tise needed to ta ke this dow n to bare meta l. But by work ing w ith the reg u lators, we came up w ith a process where they wou ld a l low us to gent ly scrape mater ia l of f the side of the ship, capture that mater ia l, and d ispose of it as ha zardous waste. T hen we' d apply a pr imer and topcoat on top of the old paint. Of course, it 's not an idea l situation because I' d love to be able to get a l l the old paint of f." But Howard made the best of his options. A crew of bet ween t wo and four men are slowly and painsta k ingly scraping of f the old paint and col lecting ever y thing they scrape of f to ma ke sure it does not touch the ocean waters. A nd a lthough the ship is ow ned by the state of South Carolina, it 's the Patr iots Point crew that has been work ing on the recoat in-house. Howard said he ex pects the job w i l l ta ke a couple of years to f inish. Special Tactics Te crew has been relying on a specifc product called CHLOR*RID to get the job done. Howard said the crew cleans the ship with a very low pressure wash of CHLOR*RID solution, which helps remove the salt from the side of the ship. "Obviously, the ship is sitting in a salt water harbor, so we needed to get salt of the side before we could paint it," Howard said. CHLOR*RID ofers tests to see how many parts per million of chlorides, sulfates, or nitrates are on the surface of what needs to be cleaned, said Robert Richter, the southeastern regional manager of the company. "Te soluble salt absorbs moisture and causes corrosion, even out of the paint," Richter said. "We test to see the levels of the soluble salts, then add the product to water and power wash, and it brings the salt in solution with the water and rinses it of the surface. So when they paint, it makes the coatings last 10 to 15 years longer." "Tey were very interested in the product, because with limited maintenance money, it will have their coatings system last longer," Richter added. "Tat's why they used our product." Richter said the museum's interest in CHLOR*RID ofered his company a chance to do the right thing. "Since it's a chari- table organization; we decided we would donate the product instead of charging them for it," he said. "Tey're self-supported on whatever money they take in from tours, so we decided to donate because that would help them out a little bit." Richter has been to the jobsite several times during the process and said the CHLOR*RID product has been working great. "Tey're limited on what type of surface preparation they can do, being right on the water, so our products help them do the best job they can with the type of surface preparation they're doing," he said. Richter said his company is glad to have the opportunity to help out, especially on a project that is focused on veterans. "Most of the people in our company are veterans, and it's just one way we can give back," he said. "It's a piece of history that represents a time a lot of people don't get to experience today. Back in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, we all were going to diferent wars, but it's not like that today. So they bring school kids in there and have camps where kids stay on the ship like the old sailors did. It's a piece of history." Howard said the CHLOR*RID has been working well to help clean the substrate. After the surface is as clean as the crew can get it, the crew applies ROC Prime 100, a primer from Rust-Oleum, at an average wet flm thickness (WFT) of 2 to 4 mils (51–102 microns). Tey follow that with two coats of Rust-Oleum's Sierra Performance MetalMax, a water-borne acrylic urethane. The crew worked from a barge with a 2-ton (1.8 metric tons) man lift. Even with the lift, getting access to all of the nooks and crannies on an angled surface has been a challenge. Before the coatings could be applied, the crew needed to prep the steel hull. This included cleaning with CHLOR*RID and a pressure washer to help remove the salts on the side of the ship. World War II Aircraft Carrier