Bronze Prop treatment
- Thread starter Ron20324
- Start date
Bottom paint is useless as it wears too quickly on a spinning prop. See suggestion above. There are more expensive options but none are any better than zinc coating paints.
I've been painting bronze props directly with bottom paint since 1958 and have never seen any problems at all, ever. A few years back, Prop Speed came through the boat yard and did our prop for free. It really was no better than regular bottom paint, adhesion or antifouling, so I don't waste money on that stuff. However, we are a charter boat and don't sit in a slip like most, so it may work better for lesser used boats.
Thanks to our government outlawing all the prop coatings that actually worked to keep the growth off, the choices are limited.
There is a coating called "Prop Speed" but is a PITA to apply and it is yellow in appearance. Very expensive and I don't have first hand knowledge if it works. I did try a similar product a few years ago with less than great results.
You can just use bottom paint. The hard formula to resist wearing off. Ablative will be gone in a NY minute.
Or you can use the Pettit Barnacle spray - about $30 for a 16 oz spray can. Or the generic "Cold Galvanize" spray that is sold under various labels like Ace (check the ingredients against the Pettit- they are the same). I have used the Ace or Rustoleum brand Cold Galvanize for 12+ years and found it works as well as anything else. About $8 per 20 oz can and will do the prop for two years of application.
There is a coating called "Prop Speed" but is a PITA to apply and it is yellow in appearance. Very expensive and I don't have first hand knowledge if it works. I did try a similar product a few years ago with less than great results.
You can just use bottom paint. The hard formula to resist wearing off. Ablative will be gone in a NY minute.
Or you can use the Pettit Barnacle spray - about $30 for a 16 oz spray can. Or the generic "Cold Galvanize" spray that is sold under various labels like Ace (check the ingredients against the Pettit- they are the same). I have used the Ace or Rustoleum brand Cold Galvanize for 12+ years and found it works as well as anything else. About $8 per 20 oz can and will do the prop for two years of application.
Practical Sailor has an article on it. YMMV
www.practical-sailor.com
Propellor Paints Versus Barnacles - Practical Sailor
Since 1974, Practical Sailor’s independent testing has taken the guesswork out of boat and gear buying.
www.practical-sailor.com
I tested a Velox product last season for a magazine. It was fairly easy to apply. The results were pretty good. Compared to nothing on the bronze prop (my usual treatment-nothing), I didn't have much or any growth at the end of a 5 month season(June thru October) in the water. I always have some prop performance problems by the end of the season due to a few barnacles, etc.
I'd buy it as an annual coating. It's pretty affordable and you can get at least 2 seasons out of a small can for a typical sailboat prop.
This season I'm testing Propspeed for the same magazine. Like Capta, a rep applied it and it's pretty involved. It looked great at launch. I'll be hauling at the end of this month. For the high initial cost and involved application, I expect it to last another season. Time will tell.
I'd buy it as an annual coating. It's pretty affordable and you can get at least 2 seasons out of a small can for a typical sailboat prop.
This season I'm testing Propspeed for the same magazine. Like Capta, a rep applied it and it's pretty involved. It looked great at launch. I'll be hauling at the end of this month. For the high initial cost and involved application, I expect it to last another season. Time will tell.
Yup. That's it. I clean the prop very well with a stainless wire wheel in a drill, wipe down with acetone, and spray on 3 thin coats. BTW, I do have a Stainless steel prop so maybe you need to use a different wire brush to clean yours.
I've read in a couple different places of people brushing on multiple coats of egg whites with each coat drying before the next with great results. Anyone try it?
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You might want to coat the brand new bronze prop with epoxy before anything else and then hot coat whatever paint/coating you are applying. Bronze is mostly copper so copper bottom paints probably won't galvanically react much, but the epoxy creates a barrier to seal the bronze prop. It will stay stuck and the paint/coating may adhere better if you hot coat it. Hot coating just means to apply the paint while the epoxy is still tacky to form a chemical bond with the epoxy as apposed to just an adhesive bond over fully cured epoxy. I tried Velox on a new prop and meticulously followed the instructions. I was disappointed as barnacles and oysters still took up residence and were hard to scrape off.
I’ve been using Pettit with good results, however I don’t wire brush the old paint off. I just smooth it lightly and spray the new coat. This has the added benefit of not eating the zinc as quickly by appearances. These are my observations which could vary with someone who is sober.
Last year the yard applied Pettit and it worked pretty well. I am trying cold galvanizing paint from Home Depot this year. Painted 3 coats in March after sanding the Pettit and acetoning it. Didn't remove all of it from the prop as it seemed pretty tenacious. The Pettit performed pretty well in my part of the Chesapeake, so I'm hoping the Home Depot version of their spray works just as well this year - its very inexpensive compared to everything else (unless you use leftover bottom paint). I'll know when I haul out in Dec, but if its done its job I still have at least half a can left over from last year, making it super cheap..
Being in fresh water, I never needed to coat a prop with anything. The one I bought from Ron a few years ago still has the original galvanize appearing coating was on it when I got it... Very little has worn off.