What's The Deal With Painting Aluminum Boats?

[GrundleLove]

Do just got my 89' 17' tracker tx bass boat and its got some water lines...no big deal ive been scrubbing them off with water and soap pretty easily. But then looking at it and its kind of..."lack luster" the hull is is great shape but i was wondering what the deal with painting aluminums to make it more "pazazzy" . I did some googling and found a lot of heavy information that no real "definitive" information. Whats the dealio people. Yay? Nay? pain in the ***? not worth it? pretty easy? etc.

[Polarkraft05]

im currenlty painting my fiberglass boat. the most work is 1. finding a way to lift it off the trailer so you can paint the bottom. 2. all the prep work

Im using petit easy poxy, it looks great, and best of all can be rolled on, i would have never believed it until the manufacturer recomended "rolling and tipping" it on everyone that has seen it so far wonders how i sprayed my boat without taping off the interior and everything in the garage. no one believes it is rolled on.

If you have any questions feel free to ask me, im no expert, but like i said i am in the process ( pretty much done) painting a fiberglass boat, and the same paint can be applied to aluminum if i remember right.

[webertime]

Painting Aluminum can be a P.I.T.A... If it were me, I'd bust out the scotchbrite pads and some Mothers or Maguires and polish/buff her up.

[bassinKS]

we actually painted our 94 tracker pro 17 before duck season started to camo it up it turned out great i wish i had pics at hand i would post them up of the finished product.

we destickered it which was a little tough but with the right stuff it makes it easier then we just took an electric sander and started sanding to rough up the surface then got a paint sprayer like the ones used to paint a house and went to town with a flat brown a couple coats later and it looks great.

[tboydva]

You might check out iBoats forums. There are lots of threads in the Restoration Forum covering aluminum painting. Here's one for instance. Prep is the most critical part. If you're paint isn't pitted (or you don't care about painting over pitting), you could probably get away with a good cleaning, solvent "final rinse" and a good priming. As mentioned, "flipping" the boat to get full hull access is the pain. If you have a grinder, get a stainless wire wheel (make sure you use stainless for aluminum), and you can clean up the metal very quickly. Best of luck!