The last set I did, I had the little Yanmar out anyway, so of COURSE all the liners, pans, beds, whatever were cleaned and painted. (If someone wanted me to drop an engine back in a 'greasy hole', they've hired the wrong guy to begin with). And while I generally leave these tasks to the owner, there haven't been but a couple that were actually willing to pay my rate to clean an engine sump, the mounts in my opinion ARE my problem. Anyway, they looked fine structurally, so I throw 'em in the glass cabinet and take it all off. You could stand there and hold the nozzle on the rubber all day long and it won't hurt them, it's rubber, and merely bounces the glass/sand back off. Primed them and painted them with the same Yanmar paint that originally goes on the block. The paint obviously is not a give-away, it is after all MARINE paint, so it must be outrageous in price. (I just gagged a little there, sorry). But it looks like the day it was repowered. Beautiful. And if anybody else looks in there, they instantly know this is a tight ship, and not some neglected rust bucket. Which is exactly the opinion I form about the boat, AND its owner at a glance.
And if nobody else sees it, YOU know they look good or bad, and to me that's all that matters anyway.
And as caustic as this is going to sound, if I get a call to work on some greasy, or rusty relic, I have an adjustable rate that will reflect this. Whether you mechanic tells you this or not, I gather MOST mechanics worth their weight does the same.
It's just paint. Twenty bucks. Show some grace. We are not after all power-boaters. That's the kind of crap they do. And why it's twice as expensive if I have to touch it..
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