Mast and Boom....Refinishing?

[sloopy]

I have my Cape Dory 25 sloop at home at the moment for some upgardes and maintenance. Since the boom is off and the mast down, I was wondering how much of a job it is to paint them? They are original Spartan rigs, anodized aluminum. Mast has 9 riveted on steps and normal attachments. Is this pretty time consuming? Expensive to do oneself?
What's the best way? What's the best paint? Two-part epoxy?
Any and all suggestions wouold be welcomed. I've done just about everything else on this boat but that.
They appear to be in fair shape, just scratched a little, few dings, dirty compared to the rest of the boat.
Would it be easier just cleaning them? With what?

 

[sailingdog]

unless the anodization is shot, just cleaning them up is probably the way to go.

 

[Alec]

If you've never cleaned the mast before I think you'll be pleased with how easy & effective it is. Just get yourself one of the commercial aluminum cleaners available at most marine stores, some Scotch Brite pads, rubber gloves & lots of water. The cleaners require that you keep the metal wet or the cleaner streaks when it dries, so make sure you can do it where you have running water. Don't get too aggresive with the Scotch Brite...just use it to take off the dirt & try to keep the halyards off the mast while you are doing it as they will leave marks.
Afterwards give it a really good coat of wax. It will make the mast look years newer.

 

[Chuckbear]

Here is some information when we did ours
http://sea-trek.blogspot.com/search/label/07. Refurbishing The Spars

 

[sailingandsuch]

I dont think it is to difficult of a project, I have never done it but I have read about it. (thats what you get when you read alot on the internet)

I have a few helpful links on my website that are right up your alley. Just visit the link and scroll down to "Mast and Boom".

http://www.sailingandsuch.com/sailboat-projects.htm

Good luck with it!

 

[Maine Sail]

I dont think it is to difficult of a project, I have never done it but I have read about it. (thats what you get when you read alot on the internet)

I have a few helpful links on my website that are right up your alley. Just visit the link and scroll down to "Mast and Boom".

http://www.sailingandsuch.com/sailboat-projects.htm

Good luck with it!

To do it right it can be time consuming and labor intensive..

 

[sailingdog]

As Maine Sail points out, it really is a lot of work to do it properly. To do it right really requires removing most of the hardware from the spar.... sanding, filling and fairing the spar surface, and then applying a good two-part LPU paint. However, that usually isn't necessary in most cases.

 

[tommays]

IF you really shop around the 3 paints and 2 solvents you need will set you back 190 dollars

If you need to remove rivets and there 3/16 SS you will need a 100 dollar rivet tool as the cheep rivet tools cant set SS rivets bigger than 1/8

A bag of good rivets is 50 dollars i needed 60 rivets for all the hardware

When you take the mast apart your going to find a bunch of things that are worn out and while i have a shop and can machine many new parts for free i still needed to buy almost 400 dollars worth of wire,lights and boom castings that had shapes that were to complex to spend the time making copy's

Now i have lost track of the hours it is taking BUT if you want it to last you cant take any shortcuts on cleaning and prepping the metal :naughty:


The only down side i can see right now is the stroke i will have the first time a ding the paint during a race

 

[Chuckbear]

Why would you ever have to take out rivets and re-rivet the mast unless it is falling apart in the first place? Then painting would be your least issue.

 

[sailingdog]

We're not talking about taking the rivets out of the mast, but a lot of the hardware, like padeyes, cleats, bails, etc are attached using rivets, and generally should be removed if you're painting the mast. Many times, these pieces of hardware are stainless steel, and as such, the contact points where they are attached to the mast are often areas that are in the most need of painting due to galvanic corrosion.

Why would you ever have to take out rivets and re-rivet the mast unless it is falling apart in the first place? Then painting would be your least issue.

 

[Pink Flamingo]

Use an automotive aluminum cleaner,much cheaper than something with "Marine" on it.

 

[Chuckbear]

We're not talking about taking the rivets out of the mast, but a lot of the hardware, like padeyes, cleats, bails, etc are attached using rivets, and generally should be removed if you're painting the mast. Many times, these pieces of hardware are stainless steel, and as such, the contact points where they are attached to the mast are often areas that are in the most need of painting due to galvanic corrosion.

That makes sense, I suppose I am just not used to seeing hardware riveted on. Even if I were not painting I think I would remove the rivets and re-install the hardware with fasteners.

 

[sailingdog]

It depends on the mast. On thin wall spars, you really don't have much of a choice but to rivet. Rivets are also a bit less susceptible to corrosion in my experience, especially if you dip them in TefGel or Lanocote before fastening them down.

That makes sense, I suppose I am just not used to seeing hardware riveted on. Even if I were not painting I think I would remove the rivets and re-install the hardware with fasteners.

 

[tommays]

Well

I can only comment on two masts and i will start with details on my 28 year old stick

1. It only has a .100 wall thickness

2.10-24 screws, they did so so 30 feet UP but we not happy at deck level and will get changed to 12-24 which are a PITA to get local

3. SS self taping screws i thought who the heck would do this BUT everyone came out in pretty good shape and in talking to a large local loft that installs a LOT of stuff it is what they use

4. SS rivets they are the KING ,it took about 45 minutes to remove over 50 rivets .Every rivet hole was in perfect condition you just drill off the head and give them a light tap with a flat punch to remove

5. 3/16 SS rivets have a shear strength of 1000# each and the least amount used on my boat was 4 on some exit box's , the high stress areas like the boom yoke mount used 6


On my friends large double spreader rig same issue with screws a LOT of trouble getting them out and having to go one size larger on many

 

[Tim R.]

The problem with SS screws in aluminum is that after years and no proper installation lube(tef-gel), the screw tends to remove the tapped threads in the aluminum with it. Rivets will not do this.

I refinished my spars a few years back and I removed every screw and almost every rivet. This had been 22 years after installation and all the screws came out clean preserving the aluminum threads. My rigger tells me that some manufacturers were pretty good about this.

See my mast refinish by clicking my link below.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

For your size mast and boomboat, painting would not be an overwhelming project and you may find that you like the look far better than bare aluminum. Our mast and boom was originally painted black and was peeling badly. I found that once I sanded the paint off, the aluminum was flawless so I could go straight to the prime wash phase. I recommend that you use the prime wash, a 2-part primer, and a 2-part finish paint such as Interlux Perfection. We are not fond of black so we painted with snow white.

I did take the short-cut by not removing the parts that were riveted to the mast and boom. In our case, this was the spreader feet, the yoke for the gooseneck, and the yokes for the boom vang (one on the mast and one on the boom). All other accessories that were screwed or bolted on with stainless steel screws were removed (with some agony). I simply painted around the SS yokes which I left in place. After 25 years, there was no evidence of any pitting anywhere on the boom and mast. We'll see in the future if I should have removed the parts, but I suspect that the mast and boom will see another 30 years of service without any corrosion issues.

Here's how nice the white mast looks.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

I have written about how to paint aluminum in detail in this post. It should be still out there.