Beyond Rustoleum, any kind of paint you recommend for re-painting an aluminum mast for a Cat-22? Any other advice? Thanks.
Painting an aluminum mast
- Thread starter Bdub
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Re-painting?
Has the mast been painted before? If not, make sure you use an etching primer on the aluminum or the paint will not stick properly. If you plan on raising and lowering your mast a lot for trailering, I would consider a two-part paint which will give a much tougher finish which would be more scratch resistant. Why the need to paint at all?
Has the mast been painted before? If not, make sure you use an etching primer on the aluminum or the paint will not stick properly. If you plan on raising and lowering your mast a lot for trailering, I would consider a two-part paint which will give a much tougher finish which would be more scratch resistant. Why the need to paint at all?
If you have to paint it yourself you can, if not, you can bring it to an aircraft paint shop.
Don't use marine or auto paints, they are not formulated for aluminum.
You are going to want to follow the same procedures we use on aircraft parts.
First you are going to want to prep the surface with scotch brite (brown) or use a fine or very fine Roloc pad on an air driven angle grinder. You can also use the thicker brownish colored 3 inch soft scotchbrite pads on the same type grinder, although they use a different locking mechanism from the Roloc.
After a rough surface prep you will want to use Alumiprep (acid etch/cleaner) follow directions for dilution, let dwell for 5 minutes or so and rinse with plenty of fresh water. Then you will want to make sure the surface is dry and the temperature is over 70 degrees at min., hotter is much better, and then coat with Alodine. I always do it 3 times, I want the surface to be good and gold colored. This is your conversion coating, similar to anodizing, but chemical not electroplated.
After that, I use a self etching primer like Dupont's Variprime, or you can use a 2 part epoxy primer. 1 coat green, 1 coat white to ensure proper coverage. Then use a real hard paint like we use on aircraft landing gear legs. Products like Jet-Glo or Imron. We like Imron, but you have to shoot it with a great respirator or fresh air supply. Use the catalyst to do it right. There is another special landing gear paint that they use, and I will try and find out for you.
Don't use marine or auto paints, they are not formulated for aluminum.
You are going to want to follow the same procedures we use on aircraft parts.
First you are going to want to prep the surface with scotch brite (brown) or use a fine or very fine Roloc pad on an air driven angle grinder. You can also use the thicker brownish colored 3 inch soft scotchbrite pads on the same type grinder, although they use a different locking mechanism from the Roloc.
After a rough surface prep you will want to use Alumiprep (acid etch/cleaner) follow directions for dilution, let dwell for 5 minutes or so and rinse with plenty of fresh water. Then you will want to make sure the surface is dry and the temperature is over 70 degrees at min., hotter is much better, and then coat with Alodine. I always do it 3 times, I want the surface to be good and gold colored. This is your conversion coating, similar to anodizing, but chemical not electroplated.
After that, I use a self etching primer like Dupont's Variprime, or you can use a 2 part epoxy primer. 1 coat green, 1 coat white to ensure proper coverage. Then use a real hard paint like we use on aircraft landing gear legs. Products like Jet-Glo or Imron. We like Imron, but you have to shoot it with a great respirator or fresh air supply. Use the catalyst to do it right. There is another special landing gear paint that they use, and I will try and find out for you.
Plenty of paint makers make the correct stuff and the whole etch and rinse with water is and issue around dealing with the waste water
It really comes down to how much time and money you want to spend because it takes a bunch of both
Agreed. If you want it to look great and last, then do it right the first time.It really comes down to how much time and money you want to spend because it takes a bunch of both
Mast Refinish Project
[FONT=Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial]I did this project on my mast several years back (catalina 30) and there is much more to this than just applying the paint. Its all in the deconstruction (ie removal of everything on the mast), preparation and reassembly. I also rewired my mast and ran all halyards internal as part of the project (you may want to consider such). That said - after the above considerations are taken into account, I would recommend a quality 2-part urethane with the appropriate aluminum primer. My neighbor owns an auto body shop and sprayed a 2-part urethane based paint on for me and that was the easy part. I think you are fine with a roll-n-tip method verses spraying but again, go with a 2-part paint and you should get 20 yrs+ out of it. Anything else will start to ding and scratch almost immediately. And make sure you also do the boom....
The project is well worth the effort and will surely turn heads.
Good luck! - Rob[/FONT]
The project is well worth the effort and will surely turn heads.
Good luck! - Rob[/FONT]
yep, painted both masts on our ketch, actually we painted the entire boat from the waterline to the masthead using AwlGrip, http://sea-trek.blogspot.com/2008/01/refurbishing-spars.html . Chuck
Wow, great advice. Far more complex than I imagined but that, of course, is the difference between a good job and shoddy job. Thank you all.
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