Outdrive painting

[kaliona]

I've read many many posts about repainting the outdrive and recall reading that some who've done this have had good luck with Rustoleum brand paint. After I clean and sand the outdrive I plan on hitting just the exposed aluminum with zinc chromate. Then I plan on hitting the entire unit with Rustoleum primer. I have a couple cans in the garage but it's labeled as "Auto primer". It's the "Premium" line, not the "Professional" line in the silver can. Would it be ok to use this? Is all primer the same, whether it's "auto" or "marine" (if there's such a thing)? The zinc chromate I have is not labeled as a primer, it just says "Zinc Chromate Green". After the primer I'm going to use Tempo Mercruiser Black for the top coat.
Will I be ok with this???
BTW, my boat is always trailered so it doesn't live in the water.
Thanks

 

[Peter1950]

Re: Outdrive painting

I painted mine a couple months ago with heavy duty farm implement paint. Sanded first and just sprayed it on. Its tough and holding up fine. Mine also its not in the water for more than a few hours periodically. Looks great and holding up well. Take off the cover plates and emblems. Otherwise its LOTS of masking especially around the bellows etc. A month or so later give it a good waxing too.

 

[WizeOne]

Re: Outdrive painting

right from the horses mouth.

http://mercstuff.com/painting.htm

 

[wca_tim]

Re: Outdrive painting

I like 2-part single stage urethane primer and paint - dupont nason is a great product line. Self etching primer followed by ful-thane single stage. Works great even using a cheap harbor freight gun in the yard, etc... I posted some pics a while back of one of the drives i painted recently.

For rattle can jobs, zinc chromate followed by rustoleum industrial (in the silver can) seems to hold up well...

every bit as important as what paint you use is the prep. clean, clean, clean and degrease the crap out of it... once before you sand and once after sanding and washing with detergent in water.

 

[45Auto]

Re: Outdrive painting

I've never had much luck with the spray-cans lasting very long around here. As wca_tim says, the single stage two part urethanes will make it look factory new. The secret's all in the prep.

The cleaning and alodine makes a huge difference in paint adhesion on aluminum. Might be worth it to use the alodine before the rattle-can paints, I've never tried that before.

Official Mercruiser painting procedure:

From
http://www.mercurymarine.com/serviceandwarranty/mercruiserfaqs/technicalinformation.php#1135

 

[justchange]

Re: Outdrive painting

One thing I've done is to sand then wipe the entire surface to be painted with white viniger. This eliminates all the oily and other residues.

The "zinc chromate green" you have is [I think] a rust inhibitor. It shouldn't be necessary on aluminium but is your choice.

 

[wca_tim]

Re: Outdrive painting

zinc chromate is self etching primer... exactly what you need on the bare metal.

if you want to do a first class job. strip it using aircraft paint stripper (available in auto parts store), sand it using whatever grit you need to get it all smooth of gouges, etc... then bring back to finer grit stopping at 320.

wash it with dish soap, then degrease then use por-15's product called marine clean or metal etch (usually available at Napa and some other auto parts stores).

just follow the directions.

then comes dupont nason zinc chromate primer (called etch primer, 491-17), followed by three coats of dupont nason ful-thane in "black" color code DX8. If you want extra gloss and depth, shoot two medium coats of the ful-thane then a final coat with ful-thane mixed 50 50 with the integrated clear. I like the nason line of paint because it is REALLY easy to get to lay down right and is very economical. It's also available at most larger napa auto stores. I use cheap ($10) harbor freight detail guns for this kind of thing. It also holds up great on the drive...

Note that this is an isocyanate-based paint. do it outside and wear a respirator with combination particulate and organic vapor cartridge. use only a new filter and for a small job like this isn't an issue.

Here's the kind of result you can expect...