Hello, everyone-
This is my first post here. A little background .....in 1993 I decided to build a cedar strip canoe. I have always been good at working with wood and thought it would be fun. I purchased 20 ft pieces fo western cedar and had a friend who owned a cabinet shop to cut into 3/4 inch wide strips. I purchased plans for an 18 1/2 ft canoe and, nine months later I had a beautiful canoe. A friend and I canoed in my creation several times over the next 2 years and I discovered that building the canoe was more fun than using it. It has been unused since 1995. It has been exposed to the sun on and off since then. I have decided to restore the canoe since I have the time now, being retired. The boat is in very good shape, with only three small spots of epoxy/fiberglass delaminated from the strips. Since I had history refinishing wooden golf clubs, I used Deft exterior poly on the canoe. Talk about tough!!! I am trying to remove the poly to prepare for recoating. I have an orbital air sander that takes a round 6 inch disk. Using 180 grit is a slow go. What grit should I use? Also, should I remove the poly that isn't peeling? It seems that one side is peeling and the other is in pretty good shape. The inside is not peeling. Should I just sand the good spots lightly and remove the peeling places from the bad spots? And what coating should I use...poly or spar varnish? Thanks for the help.