Painting an Aluminum Boat

[WildBill33]

Hey All, I have an older 14ft. aluminum boat that I want to fix up I'm going to start by re-painting it. What steps should I take to paint aluminum? I was told to use a primer called aluminum oxide does that sound right to anyone, if it does were could I buy something like that.

-WildBill

[Steve Bakken]

I'm not really familiar with that term either. There is a zinc oxide which can be found in most primers, however, which of those primers you use will have a big effect on the final product. If budget is the highest concern, there are primers with zinc oxide in them that you can just spray on righ out of the can. The downfall to this is that it is not real durable and if any chemical such as gas, brake fluid, etc., ever comes in contact with it, it can get soft and smear. What we use at the shop when we're painting customers' boats is an epoxy primer. This also has the zinc-ox in it but it is a two-part product that when mixed together, catylizes and transformes into an indestructable shell. Very durable, also, more expensive. There is also a phospheric acid primer, but this is primarily for cars where rust is an issue and on an aluminum boat we've found that this tends to be overkill, so I would go with one of the first two, basing your decision on how much you want to invest in the boat and how long you want to keep it. Hope that helped.