Painting tips/advice for an Aluminum boat

[Dragonsm]

I have a 1985 Lund Mr. Pike 16 footer I rescued a few years from a resort. I slowly pieced together my project with a new motor and trailer and replaced the floor and carpet inside. It has been a great fishing rig for me, however the paint on the outside doesn't have the sparkle as it use to and it has a few scrapes and bruises here and there. (The paint is intact and great shape otherwise)

Well, if it is an easy task, I thought about tackling painting the red on the boat to give it that fresh look complete with new decals.

I have never painted anything "metal" before and was wondering if this was a task that someone with a little time and patience could tackle.

Tips? Advice? Equipment? Brand of paint? Any and all help is welcomed and appreciated!

Thanks in advance

Steve

[over the limit]

last year i painted a 1958 B&k (best boat ever build if you ask me, still does not leak a drop)

anyways i used a drill with a wire brush on the end and removed all of the paint, and repainted it with an rustolem

applance enamel, get it at manards, it went on nice and gave a great closs finish, used the boat on about 12 outting last year and still looks great.

[MNmikew]

I restored my '72 Lund 14' last summer. Wire brush off as much old paint as you can and fill big scratches will alum. filler. Prime, paint. I bought the origional Lund paint for my boat. A bit pricey but worth it I think. Also picked up some new origional stickers for it. Used a acid based hull cleaner for the hull and it sparkles like brand new. Of course after you paint the boat you'll have to paint your trailer too.

One thing, if you try to take off your DNR boat sticker it will not stick if you try to reuse it. Mine had expired anyway so it was not big deal. You can get dupes from any DNR agent.

[IFallsRon]

Use a pressure washer with a mixture of cleaning soda (something like Arm & Hammer's ARMEX) and you'll have a clean, pit-free surface ready for painting.

[lawdog]

Surface prep is the key to good paint jobs, no doubt about it. But the other key is to apply lots of light coats rather than a few heavier coats. Aluminum in particular is notorious for paint runs. Use an air compressor and a professional grade paint sprayer hooked up to it with good paint too...

[Kevin Turner]

Good advice so far...

If you can lightly sand or scuff the existing paint, there is a good chance your repaint will do just fine. If you have to sand to bare aluminum, I would carefuly acid wash the bare aluminum and apply a coat of etching primer. After the etching primer, apply your sealer, then final finish coats.

[rmh2o]

Considering you are willing to do the prep work yourself I would recomend checking around some of your local body shops and see what they would charge just to spray it.It may be worth it and have a better finish.

[fishlakeman]

I actually have restored quite a few Lunds in the last two years and pretty much tried everything you could think of. Here's what I found is the best way to paint.

Start out by using an orbital sander, with 320 grit sandpaper discs. If the paint is in good shape you don't have to sand it down to bare metal, just where every scratch is, feather it out. Just make sure everything has been sanded, this is a messy job, but it has the best results. After I'm done sanding, I usually blow each side off with the air compressor, then right before I paint, I wipe the sides down with DuPont enamel reducer. (Note: if you choose to use enamel reducer, you need to apply it in the following manner or else the paint won't stick: have two rags, one to apply the reducer, another to wipe off the reducer. wipe the reducers on and then immediately wipe if off with the clean rag, if the reducer drys on, it creates a barrier between the metal and the paint, so the paint wont stick.)

If you don't use enamel reducer, just wash it with soap and water, rinse, then dry.

Depending on the paint, you might not even need to prime it, most of the time I just put 2 coats of marine paint and it does a great job. I use a paint gun with compressor. I get all my paint from a marine in Minneapolis, they don't have Lund paint, but they have quarts of marine paint in Lund red color. A quart runs $34.00, but I think it's well worth it, great paint with great results. A quart would cover a 16 ft boat with 2 coats i think.

Oh yea, if you want the name of the marine i use, e-mail me at nick_pederson33@ hotmail. I highly reccommend this place for their prices, help, and they have everything including every type of Lund decal there is.

This is the professional way to paint a boat, and it is a time consuming process, if your looking for something more simple, I think Rust-Oleum would produce a decent finish. But if you have a paint gun, your looking at about the same cost with professional marine paint,and the spray paint.

One thing I tried and was very dissappointed with the results was using factory Lund spray cans. The lund spray paint was $15 a can and I used 4 cans on a 14 ft boat. I had primed this boat due to it having some bad scratches, and the paint covered terribly, very thin, hard to get even coating. Stay away from the Lund spray cans!

Hope this helps you out!

[riverrat56]

Ok here is a question for everyone, i have a 14ft Lund that once once Lund Red but now is kind of orange/red from being old, it has some nice sized scratches in it also, I would like to paint the boat camoflauged so i can use it for goose hunting, Im thinking an Olive drab color with some reeds painted on it in a green / brown color. My question is where can i get some paint for this and would it be ok to use a marine grade paint for the main boat and then go cut a few reeds down and just use a high quality spray paint to do those? Also what type of prep work would i need to do? Sand down to aluminum fill in the scratchs prime and paint? And i do have access to a paint sprayer but do they make a olive green color in a sprayable paint?

[straydog]

like fishlakeman said rustoleum makes a descent cheap paint, especally for a duck boat. I did one last year and bruhed it on and it turned out pretty good, it does'nt look factory but its a duck boat. The store I bought the paint from told me primer was not needed, just use the paint to primer the bare metal spots and then paint the boat, I dont know how long it will last but it didnt cost much.

[riverrat56]

straydog-where can i get some of this paint at? it sounds like exactly what i would need.

[straydog]

I bought it at L&M Fleet in grand rapids but im sure fleet farm carrys it, or mabey even your local harware store.

[MN Mike]

I repainted my 12' Lund a few years back, just used red paint I got at the local implement dealer which happend to be Case IH. It looks great to this day ( except for some scuffs and scratchs I put in it ), seems to be more durable than the paint that was on there, called Lund up and they even sent me decals for it. The paint I used was shot out of a spray gun, it wasn't out of a spray can.

Mike

[Steve Bakken]

Like these other guys said, you want to use some sort of bare metal or acid etch primer on the bare aluminum. Another thing to watch for is if it has ever been repainted at some point in it's life. We've had hundreds of boats in the shop through the years with "mystery paint" on them. Often, these types of paints can swell up and make "bullseyes" when you put another product over the top of them. If your not sure what all is on your boat, your best bet is to either sand it off completely or else use a good quality sealer over the top. Most of the time we just strip it off so that you know that you have a good clean base for your paint job.