RE: black crud?
Last evening I was cleaning up the gunwale caps from a 1924 Old Town 18' using an orbital sander with 120 grit. The top coat was thick, bright red paint, which came off fast, but underneath was thick black crud that looked exactly like that described in the first post. It does come off by sanding, but takes time, and fills a lot of sandpaper. Instead of flaking off, it's gummy, like asphalt. I did some scraping first, with the edge of a hacksaw blade, and finished the job with 120 grit sandpaper. There doesn't seem to be any penetration or staining underneath the black crud. But what is it and why is it there? Tom McCloud