Paint vs. Powder coating.
Probably powder coating would be best for longevity but is there any input for spray painting? More important what about prep.

Joe

Joe,
Painting aluminum can be tricky, paint doesn't like to stick to it. Make sure the surface is clean and proper "tooth". I prep with medium steel wool and then degrease with a good solvent.

The initial primer is key. Look at some of the aircraft supply places to find Zinc Chromate primer. It generally comes in a chartreuse (puky yellow green) color. It will stick to aluminum the best, then you can paint over it with your color of choice.

Paul

Great. I've seen that product before. Never even thought about priming. I just thought about sanding the gold finish off.

Joe

Brownells, the gunsmith supply firm, has several products for finishing aluminum guns, scopes, sights, etc. Some of them require baking in an oven, but one, Aluma-Hyde II, is an epoxy coating that does not require baking. It comes in 12oz. spray cans,and the semi-gloss black, perfectly matches the black Goldspar masts. I made up three rigs, only using two new black masts, all the other parts(one mast and six booms), were made using the original, natural aluminum masts. When coated with the paint, it was impossible to tell which was the original finish. It's not as scratch resistant as the baking Alumi-Hyde, but better than Krylon or Duplicolor paints. As for preparation, I just rubbed the parts down with 000 steel wool before painting. No priming needed.

www.brownells.com
800 741 0015



Paul #614

Hi Joe,

The gold finish is an anodized finish which will require a fair amount of sanding to return it to the original silver finish of aluminum. Painting over anodizing is very difficult as the purpose of this finish is to harden the aluminum which allows it to resist scratching and discoloration. Paint and or primer(even zinc chromate) does not like to stick to anodizing.

Some of our class vendors sell an un-anodized goldspar mast which is ready for priming and painting. Zinc Chromate will stick to that and the finish will last quite well.


Chuck
#84

If you want to remove the anodizing, you can do so using oven cleaner. Be careful, it is toxic and the fumes are BAD [:0]

Spray it on for just a few seconds and the color rinses right off. I use this to remove the camoflage color from arrow shafts when making booms

Paul

Clever idea cause I sure hate sanding and I have plenty of sanding on the hull.

Joe