Bilge paint

[vashalfpint]

Howdy friends. I have an old wood boat in which oil had been spilled in the bilge and wasn't cleaned up, saturating the wood. We tried cleaning with a pressure washer and degreaser, but don't know if it did a good enough job to paint the bilge. Is there a paint I can use? Do I need to steam clean and degrease?

[ihrig]

The orange cleaner degreases really well. $6 a galon from Home Depot. Bleach works good too, but will ruin wood in high consentrations for long periods, so don't leave the bleach bottle on the boat.

[dpowers7]

Two things. First take and make a very stiff mixture of TSP Trisodium Phosphate. Also at home depot for about $5. This is great stuff.
I have used degreaser and a scrub brush, then pressure washer, then TSP with water and a scrubber like scotch brite, then TSP with water and sponge. Eventually your bucket of TSP and water will not be oily. Then after it completely dries- completely... then brush on a coat of CPES. Before it completely dries but almost dry, brush on a coat of Oil based Rustoleum. I found Home depot has it by the gallon and they no longer will color add to Rustoleum, so I bought a little pint can of black high gloss rustoluem and mixed it with my white high gloss rustoleum. One gallon will give two coats on a 17 foot boat.