painting midsection and lower unit

[cocacola]

previous owner painted this with some real thick paint....with a damn brush!

I sanded most of the brush strokes smooth with some 120 grit, but need to get smoother before painting. There's got to be a better way (other than sandblasting)

How can I get most all the paint off midsection and lower unit?

I have the proper paint for it.

[Rusrog]

well but it's all in the surface prep. If it were mine... I would look into powder coating it. It will last a LOT longer than the paint will and prep time is just the same. Sand blast it, coat it and forget it. I did my Mercury and it looked fantastic. Very little effort and much more durable with less maintenance. There is a good coater here in Ft Worth that I use and I can get you his name if you decide to go that way.

BTW... I will try to get yoru switch in the mail today.

Russ

[cocacola]

thanks Russ. My work puts me in touch with powder coaters too, so there's a plus. Obviously it's the best choice, but am unsure if I will take the time to do as I don't want to remove guts of lower unit. Did you do that or mask/seal area's off? Thanks for the switch!

well but it's all in the surface prep. If it were mine... I would look into powder coating it. It will last a LOT longer than the paint will and prep time is just the same. Sand blast it, coat it and forget it. I did my Mercury and it looked fantastic. Very little effort and much more durable with less maintenance. There is a good coater here in Ft Worth that I use and I can get you his name if you decide to go that way.

BTW... I will try to get yoru switch in the mail today.

Russ

[hsbob]

even if you powder coat it youneed to remove the old paint. use paint remover. just keep it away form any seals.

[150aintenuff]

as long as you dont blast the back and areas that have seals and plastic exposed you can dand blast the mid and lower as a unit.. done several that way... but you need the most gentle media you can get...

[silverbullet02]

I just used a DA sander with 80 grit (it's what I had laying around) then hit it with the green zinc primer stuff then some merc phantom black...looks pretty good, especially considering I did it in the driveway. oh yeah, before I hit it with the first coat of primer I wiped it down with alcohol. bout 2 coats of primer then 4 or 5 of the black, good to go.

[pyro]

Not to sound too negative here, but I wanted to clear up a couple of key points:

If you prep with 80 grit, the finished product will LOOK like 80 grit. Swirl/jitter patterns all over the place. You'll be sanding and re-priming forever. Take it down a few stages of grit at the end. Well worth the effort.

If you go the sanding route, it may actually be best to skip any solvent wiping before priming. The sanding tetures and exposes bare metal, which is a good thing for finish bonding. The solvent can't "wipe" into the pores and gouges of the sanded surface, but it CAN re-dissolve and distribute tiny deposits of anything oily that are left behind, ensuring that the said pores and gouges are filled with any such contaminants. Not good.

For surface prep on very SMOOTH surfaces, you can, and should, do SEVERAL solvent wipe-downs with alcohol or acetone, each stage on a fresh cloth, ensuring that the non-porous surface is totally oil-free.

If the lower unit has a nosecone, DO NOT use chemical paint remover. It will soften the fairing epoxy too. BIG mess. Sand it by hand if this is the case. Don't sand down more once you're through the black in the faired area.

[silverbullet02]

pyro, I agree with you and good points. I left out a 1 in my number, it was 180 grit. If I had smoother, i'd have gone with it, but it ended up turning out ok. Lotsa coats of paint, then I hit part of it with a fairly aggressive buffing pad and compound just to see what happened and it shines real nice...I never thought about the pores of sanding and wiping down, good point there too. I actually wiped it several times till my rag came off clean. Mine's not a showboat tho, and here's a couple pics of what it looked like when I bought it, so anything's an improvement, lol! Here's one of what it looks like now too (sorry it's dirty).

Brian

[cocacola]

looks great!!!!
By the way... I am a former "bubblehead".
Just before I came onboard, we were stationed in Bremerton shipyards.

A good friend of mine's boy just went to MM A-School and is headed there for duty.

Hey... if you happen to be in Arlington, Wa...pay this guy a visit
http://forums.screamandfly.com/forum...d.php?t=136256

the sob defaulted on a deal that left me without a prop for now.

pyro, I agree with you and good points. I left out a 1 in my number, it was 180 grit. If I had smoother, i'd have gone with it, but it ended up turning out ok. Lotsa coats of paint, then I hit part of it with a fairly aggressive buffing pad and compound just to see what happened and it shines real nice...I never thought about the pores of sanding and wiping down, good point there too. I actually wiped it several times till my rag came off clean. Mine's not a showboat tho, and here's a couple pics of what it looked like when I bought it, so anything's an improvement, lol! Here's one of what it looks like now too (sorry it's dirty).

Brian

[mr_velocity]

I'm going through this process now, going to do the entire motor. The parts must have been previously sanded and painted. I am bead blasting everything clean, where it was done by the previous owner it comes off real easy, where the merc paint is still under there it takes a while. Once clean and prep I am going to spray with Dupont 2580CR Chromate LF Epoxy DTM primer followed by Imron.

[Techno]

If your going to do everything why don't you polish it? This way there isn't any paint to peel and you can bling the people you pass.

[mr_velocity]

If your going to do everything why don't you polish it? This way there isn't any paint to peel and you can bling the people you pass.

Funny you should mention that, I'm getting some other parts ready to bring to the plater, was thinking about having the motor done as well. Only problem, then I would have to keep polishing it and that's way too much work