Reynolds Metals

How do you prepare and paint an aluminium Boat?

There are some knicks and small dents in the aluminium. i would like to fill those out as well. Any and all tips with everything would be highly appreciated. Thank you. I should add that im new to this. Id like to fill holes and get out knicks what kind of filler should i use for holes. and what kind of paint

Public Comments

1. use Marine Tex to fill dents. sand and clean the surface, apply marine metal primer and finish coat.
2. To do it right, you've got to sand it down in one day and apply a special primer, you don't really want to leave it exposed to the elements. Then work on dents and other things more slowly. Then paint with marine grade paint... This is coming from a friend of mine who as a 35' 1970s aluminum boat.
3. Get all quality PPE (personal protective equipment). The best coating for this if you must paint in the first place is two pack. The best way to look after your alloy is not to paint it, but to install equipment to detect stray voltage, maintain anodes and keep it dry and clean. The natural oxide weathering protects the alloy indefinitely and allows instant identification of spot corrosion for immediate removal/repair. Coatings allow extensive corrosion and damage to occur with little sign above the surface - this is very problematic near high stress areas such as weld seams. Commercially the only reason to paint any alloy item is cosmetic - it will not outlast a correctly maintained raw alloy finish. But accepting you must paint, the type of finish that is strong enough and flexible enough is industrial two pack. This is a professional and highly toxic group of finishes that require a professional attitude and techniques. There are issues from an EPA perspective too - and over spray will not dust off the neighbours cars either!! There are single pack urethane coatings that claim equivalence - I have no opinion other than to say that insurance companies have not placed any of these products on the mandatory minimum codes given to me for repair and commercial survey, nor have any paint and coatings companies offered these products as replacements for their warrantable commercial and exterior coatings! Whatever product you choose stick to the whole system - then you get warranty. Do whatever the manufacturer says and they will back their product to the hilt. You need an etch primer, misted on for very thin boundary layer adhesion after pin holes/splits welded and high nicks are flush sanded. Dents filled after. Surface flush sanded and any visible alloy immediately mist coated with the alloy etch primer. A high build undercoat is used to build a minimum of 15 mil cured depth per layer, two applications should be heavy enough to test at 30 mil - a third layer may be needed after fairing board sanding to identify high/low spots. Fill with light filler to manufacturers recommendations. When fair use last coat of high solids to coat entire surface. Finish sand. Top coats have a glass finish but hide nothing at all - this is the part of the job which will make the finished surface - so do it right. The top coats are applied wet on tacky - finished film thickness of each layer is typically 2 - 4 mil - heavy application will cause massive runs and waste product - several light coats will give a glass finish. It is useful to do one light coat, allow to set up and see how much sanding marks etc. are visible - often shocking! (should have used lights at the high build sanding stage - film thickness must be achieved to manufacturers recommendations. Fine fill and finish sand if needed, spray finish coats. Very fine sand and buff to glass finish. Done. Clean up and remove tapes, film mask etc. The job is not cheap, and lesser coatings create more problems down the track - the effect is nice cosmetically, but additional clean anodes must be fitted inside and out to ensure galvanic and electrolytic protection. Dissimilar metals should be isolated from hull, but this is hard in practice - use Duralac extensively for every fitting. From this point hull inspection should be minute and monthly - blisters must be investigated instantly.