repaint/refinish 12' aluminum fishing boat

[Rusty Heap]

The Pelican Brain trust always seems to be deep and wide broad horizoned for good knowledge across the board.......so..........lake fishing boats, repaint/refinish.



Un-known rattle can and maybe factory paint on a 20-25 year old 12" pickup truck transported boat.

No leaks, rivets seem fine, but bottom is getting scratched up from beaching, paint is peeling sun faded, and I'd like to strip it and paint inside and out.

strip:

1) Sand Blast paint off
2) or use aircraft/aluminum paint stripper
3) D/A sander with 100 grit 6" disks?


Prime it? Anti-oxide stuff?


Paint (I'm not looking for a museum piece) or for that matter even anythings super good or even "just nice" looking.

On the bottom below water line, I'm thinking a non-textured roll-on pickup truck bed liner material like Herc-u-liner or other. Some say it'll add weight or drag in the water, who cares, not that much weight and I only use a 12 VDC trolling motor anyways. I want rugged and gravel beach resistance.

For above water line and inside, I'm open for ideas, roll on is fine, I could shoot some paint on too........not interested in carpeting the inside, just some paint works for me........Not looking at dropping more than maybe $100-200 total in materials for all paint and bed-liner. Don't need super duper epoxy paint that is $150 a gallon. It's just an old 12' foot lake boat, but still.........


ideas thought?


THANKS!

fish on!

[Tobra]

Aluminum does not really rust, forms layer of aluminum oxide that protects the underlying aluminum. I would use paint stripper if I just had to paint it myself Your plans sound pretty reasonable to me. The bedliner stuff should stick pretty well if you rough it up, maybe prime the painted bits.

[Rusty Heap]

On a whim, I tried some oven cleaner that I've been told is supposed to disolve rattle can paint.......the boat paint didn't budge.........I'm thinking aircraft stripper or heavy duty paint stripper........just don't want to put a ton of money into this.


will post pictures sometime soon..........geez, first week of April and it's still Hailing outside in Seattle.............COME ON SUMMER!!! I want to slay some trout.



this website seems to have some good info, maybe I don't want to sandblast aluminum.........with playground sand, but more expensive Aluminum Oxide............there goes $50 for a 50 pound sack of blast media..........that's why I'm thinking chemical stripper and D/A sanding disks....

http://www.finishing.com/50/57.shtml

[tevake]

You might want to start out with some lighter grit sandpaper to see if it will do the job for you. Don't want to loose too much metal.

[drcoastline]

Dave,

From your post I gather this willl be a fresh water boat and you want low maintenance vs. long term looks and protection? That being said I would power wash it to remove any flaking paint.

For the bottom I would advise against truck bed liner. It will creat drag and a lot of it. A little 12v trolling motor willl have a tough time pushing a loaded boat with all the extra drag for any length of time with out draining batteries and wearing out the motor. Remember a boat motor is under 100% load all of the time. In addition all the nooks and crannies are a great place for algae to form causing more drag. Plus the bottom willl need to be cleaned often.

No matter what you put on the bottom it willl eventually wear off from being beached. I would recommend rolling on a few heavy coats of epoxy (even polyester resin) on the bottom. For a little extra protection on the leading edge of the bow, keel and chines from abrasion when beaching I would cut some thin strips of composite porch decking and fasten them to those areas. I would then paint on several coats of an ablative bottom paint.

For the rest of the boat rustoleum willl work just fine for what you are doing. Just an FYI, aluminum is one of the hardest metals to paint as it begins to oxidize immediately. So you willl need to clean it, scuff it and paint it as quickly as possible to avoid having the paint bubble and peel.

The bed liner would make a great non skid on the inside but the black willl absorber a lot of heat. It may become to hot for bare feet.

[Tobra]

You can get that bedliner stuff in any color you like

[porsche4life]

I'd put the bedliner on the inside of the boat.....

[fuelie600]

I plan to do this to an old 1954 aluminum boat after the license expires in 2013. (gotta change the sticker then.)

I plan to useInterlux brightside one part polyurethane. I helped my boys redo a 1968 sunfish last fall using this paint. Came out great using a foam roller and brushing out with a foam pad. Looks almost as good as gelcoat!

[Tim Hancock]

I am not 100% sure, but I thought those type of riveted aluminum boats use sealant in between the rivet joints. I don know if you run the risk of creating leaks if you use paint strippr on the bottom. I have stripped and painted riveted aluminum airplanes.... not a fun job getting ALL the paint off around rivets/seams. Lots of scrubbing with with brass bristle brushes and multiple applications of aircraft stripper. After all that, I then typically etch the entire airplane with etching solution applied by hand with scotchbright pads, then alodyne it, then epoxy prime then polyurethane paint. This is the BEST way to refinish aluminum IMO.

I am not real sure how you might do this using cheaper paint/primer, but you might look into at least using a self etching primer before topcoating with cheap paint or truck bed lining.