I've got a 30+ year old heavy duty Grumman 14-foot aluminum flat-bottom boat that I use for fishing in freshwater and saltwater. It is perfect for my needs. I use it with an electric and a gasoline motor. The boat is still in excellent mechanical condition. It has "bass seats" and a livewell. But after 30-some years, I'd like to paint it to keep the poor thing from feeling embarrassed when I take it out in public.
I thought repainting would be simple. NOT!
Good paints designed for metal, including aluminum, like Rustoleum say "not suited for water immersion".
Does anybody have any suggestions for preparing and then repainting an old aluminum boat that still has about 95% of its original paint? The old paint is mostly just faded. The paint has rubbed off on the bottom ribs, in the areas where straps pass over it to hold it onto the trailer, and where my feet and butt regularly reside when fishing.
I'd like to paint it myself, but I'm now thinking I may need to take it to a boat dealer who knows how to restore old aluminum boats.
If I can do it myself, I can do it with brushes, plus I have a couple of different size sprayers for my compressor.
I painted one before with "marine epoxy paint". You will need to clean the surface with compatible solvent first. It's pretty nasty to use, as I recall, but it's tough.
The one boat that we did do we used acid to etch the aluminum and old paint. We used a two part epoxy paint and went with a cream or tan colour. Basically dirt colour.
Applied the acid with a chemical hand sprayer then power washed off. Let dry in the sun before mixing and spraying the paint.
Ken, I had a similar project in mind and haven't had good weather or time to tackle it yet. My boat has very little paint left and my hope was that perhaps I could use a metal stripping gel or acid wash, then power wash and see if I can get it down to aluminum. Then I've seen on youtube where really bad aluminum pontoons can be brought to a showroom shine with a combination of a special cleaner meant for cleaning commercial A/C unit coils and a power washer followed by polishing.
I don't need a glowing polished boat, but thought if I could get most of the peeling paint off then use the A/C coil cleaner to get the tarnish/oxidation out of the aluminum that would be good enough for me.
I guess it depends how much paint your boat has left on it.
wbuffet, I wonder if that super slick epoxy would stick to the underside of my mower deck and help keep it from rotting from stuck on grass? Does it stick to steel or just aluminum?
Research a product called POR 15. It is damn near bullet proof and is used up north on hiway equipt. where corrosive salt is on the roads. Use a respirator when applying. Can be brushed or sprayed. I have used it many times in vintage car restorations.
Dear Alcohol, We had a deal where you would make me funnier, smarter, and a better dancer... I saw the video... We need to talk.
I've used coal tar paint on the inside of a front-end loader bucket that was beginning to rust. Came with an additive to mix in an amount of paint that had to be applied within 20 minutes. Stopped the rusting problem and has held up very well. Minimal preparation. Black only.
Cat, I had an old aluminum that I completely repainted years ago. I took some light grit sandpaper with an orbital sander and just scuffed up the paint. The old girl did not look so bad when I finished but decided to repaint it anyway. I used a paint from Sherwin Williams that they had for aluminum and applied it with a brush. After all of that the boat looked good for years until I sold it. By the way I got what I paid for it.
My brother has used a similar product to POR 15 called chassis saver. He coats the deck after about 6 hours when it is just getting tacky he overcoats with top color (say yellow for JD decks). He wants to do that to my deck but the prep of breaking off all the bolts, getting spindle housing out etc sounds too much for my old mower deck.
I may just try the underside with the chassis saver or the coal tar paint. Some just use a coating like fluid film, motor oil, or have tried graphite paints.
No matter what it will wear off as the underside of the deck takes a beating and that is why I'm thinking about going simple and protect rather than beautify.
Some found that PAM non-stick spray works fine, cheap and easy. Clean and reapply every year.
Thanks for all the great information. It gives me a number of good alternatives. I'd like to do it now, but I somehow seem to be rather busy. It may be next winter at our beach home before I actually do it.
One of the reasons I'd like to do it now is that I've got to remove/replace the nearly unreadable old license numbers and the state registration stickers before the end of the month. The old numbers, and especially the state registration stickers, will take some doing. There are at least four sets of the reflective state stickers that are damn tough. Rather than take the old ones off, I've been putting the new renewals over the old ones. I may need a jack hammer with a sharp blade to get them off.
And then there are suggestions like this. I showed it to my wife. She took that old coot's friend's side.
Originally Posted By: Dave Davidson1
I'll bet that that old beat up boat looks better than the owner.
Oh well, it is good to have OLD friends like Dave.
For pond or small water fishing consider painting the bottom in a broken pattern (camo). Paint in some limbs and patches/blotches that break up the sillioute of the bottom. Stealth is important in small water fishing.
For pond or small water fishing consider painting the bottom in a broken pattern (camo). Paint in some limbs and patches/blotches that break up the sillioute of the bottom. Stealth is important in small water fishing.
Originally Posted By: N.TexasHalfAcre
Could you Rhino Line it like a truck bed?
I've given serious thought to Eric's idea of a camo pattern on the bottom. I'm just not sure how effective it would be, as I usually fish tens of feet away from where the fish actually might be. This boat mostly gets used in 40-500 foot lakes, and in saltwater backwaters.
And then, in my inflated mind, I believe that fish greatly fear any sighting of me. EWEST, DD, and many of the other Pond Boss members know how the fish scatter and will not hit on anything when I throw my line in the water.
I've used the Rhino truck bed coating on several projects. I have been extremely impressed with it.
I applied it inside my tractor loader bucket a couple of years ago. It just doesn't peel or scrape off.
I have about a 40 year old Old Towne canoe that I bought about 30 years ago from an outfitter after they could no longer use it. It had a rip in the kevlar exterior near the stern. I tried lots of things to fix it, including Old Towne's stern repair kit. None of them really did the job. About two years ago I bought a body repair kit and more Rhino truck bed coating. I won't go into all of the things I did to patch this canoe, but it included several applications of Bondo, some pretty sticky metallic body screen, some very short but extremely aggressive screws with large flat heads, more Bondo, fiberglass, Rhino, more fiberglass, , , It has held over several river trips with rapids.
As I mentioned above, I may not get to properly repaint the boat this summer. But, I think I may just put it upside down in the driveway in the next few days, clean it with one of the cleaners mentioned in posts above, and apply a few coats of Rhino on the bottom.
Lynda (my wife) says I should let the main part of the hull look the way it does. It is so ugly, nobody would want to steal it.
That kind of goes with Dave Davidson's comment above.
Maybe they are right. But, I would at least like the bottom, and the interior looking a little better.
wbuffet, I wonder if that super slick epoxy would stick to the underside of my mower deck and help keep it from rotting from stuck on grass? Does it stick to steel or just aluminum?
Most all garden hoses run at 60 psi and 10 gallons per minute. We put one power washer nozzle for each mower blade in the deck hooked together with a garden hose fitting on it. You hook the hose up then fire up the mower and run it after cutting grass. Found it worked best if you then set it down on concrete. The air flow and water cleaned every speck of grass off the deck.
It is both riveted and welded. The gussets, corners, transom, etc., are welded. The stiffeners​ are riveted. It has never had a leak of any kind and except for the paint, it is in very good mechanical condition. This is an old aluminum Grumman 14' x 5'.
Well... a few days ago, I was surprised by a Rustoleum product I had never seen before. I accidentally ran across it at Lowes. Lowes Self Etching Dark Green Primer
I think most of you know me well enough to know that I'm not here to push some "miracle product" ... like, "buy this, and you'll get a free ginzoo knife ..." That ain't going to happen. I have no connection with Rustoleum nor Lowes.
But, my old 14-foot Grumman jon boat has recently been sitting near the tractor barn for several months, and it has been crying out to go to the beauty parlor. A few days ago it really made me feel guilty when I was putting new lights on the trailer, plus I did a little bit of welding and then paint touch-up on the trailer.
Yesterday, I ran across the paint mentioned above as I was looking for some paint for another project. I saw this primer/color, and saw the "self etching" on the label. I brought a can home, did a little research about it, did a little bit of cleaning on my old boat, and sprayed it on parts of the boat.
I know this probably sounds like the Long Island NY TV salesman selling some crazy product to waterproof the screen door on the bottom of his boat, but ...
In this morning's daylight, I couldn't tell a color difference between where I sprayed it on bare spots and the boat's original 1980s paint color. I hadn't even seriously cleaned the boat before spraying it.
I needed more supplies this afternoon. I got three more spray cans of this paint. Tomorrow morning, I'm gong to scrub the boat with paint thinner, then detergent, and finally with vinegar. Then, I'll take the pressure washer to cleanse it, then dry in the sun for an hour or so. Then I'll spray it with this crazy paint. (It will certainly be after the late morning/early afternoon winds come up. The first few ingredients on the can shows it is made from toluene, acetone, and xylene.
What little I did last night really looks good. We'll see what happens.
I can not speak for this brand of self etching primer as I have only recently used it for some bare metal areas on a welded up tailgate project, but the self etching primer is fantastic stuff. Rustoleum is a staple in my paint cabinet however. It should do fine as the only coat on an aluminum boat. It's flat, a color we like, resembling camo, and it really adheres to metals well. DO BE VERY AWARE of it's fumes. It is MORE aggravating to the breather than most paints! It is really meant to have a top coat, but many many boats have been rattle can'd with the cheap stuff with no primer and their owners have been happy. Painting a boat with only this primer would be a step up from regular ole' dollar store spray paint.
The photos above look to be of a similar boat to mine. Mine has the original swivel fishing seats that are still in great shape and are very comfortable. My old Minn Kota Turbo 65 will just about put it up on plane if I'm the only one in the boat. I've also got a 9.9 hp Mercury but I almost never use it.
As for the fumes -- yes, I read the contentents. Everything in the can is deriously deadly. I will only finish spraying it when there is no wind.
I don't plan to over coat it. It is virtually indistinguishable from the original color. So I can mask over entire areas that have gaps, like over the registration and inspection, the Grumman logo lettering, etc, and it won't be noticedable.
I've had very good luck with just Rustoleum primers over many of my homemade welding projects. They are pretty tough. I even spray the inside of my tractor loader bucket about every two years with black Rustoleum black primer.
I'll post some photos when I finish. It is too breezy to spray today.
Ken
Last edited by catmandoo; 06/27/1710:38 AM. Reason: Correcting the corrector
These photos show how well the Rustoleum primer matches the old paint.
The transom and the gusset in the photo below were sprayed. Nothing inside the boat was sprayed.
This photo shows the side, which hasn't yet been washed before I paint it, buy it too shows the newly painted transom compared to the side. The sun is shining directly on the transom, so it looks lighter in the photo than the side does, but they are really close in color.
No matter your boat is old or new. You can paint it. As your boat is too old I would suggest clean your boat first you can use boat trailer to clean bottom part of the boat. After cleaning the boat please do service if needed. Then paint the boat. You can use primer before painting a boat to give better finishing and make it look stunning.