thinking of painting my Abrooker 12ft tinny its bare aluminium at the moment. can anybody tell me what i have to do to get it ready to paint and what sort of paint i will need to use. cheers.
I did exactly what you want to do. You don't need anything special for aluminum. Buy a good oil based enamel. Take a portion of it and thin it with paint thinner. I don't recall the exact proportion but I think about 25% thinner 75% paint is about right. Tip the boat on its side and tie it up to a hook on the wall or something rigid. The paint will self level better that way when you brush it on. The foam pads or foam rollers do a nice job without brush marks. When thoroughly dry, do a light sanding to break the gloss, wipe down the finish with a rag dampened with paint thinner to remove any dust, then give it the finish coat. I masked off a straight line and did not paint the bottom as no one will see it anyway and the bottom will be more likely to get scratched and scraped. When fully dry, tip the boat the other way and do the other side. Good luck, have fun! PS. My boat became a planter and has been outside three years enduring Wisconsin winters and is holding up great other than a little fade on the red portion.
get it clean, sand lightly, metal primer and marine grade finish. cleaning and sanding are the secret. the better the job the better the paint will stick.
Any acrylic will do it's the primer that's important Aluminum has it's own kind of primer it is usually green or yellow in color and reeks to high heaven. Once the primer is on paint it like any other thing like a bike or a car.
There are lots of fancy (and expensive) materials for painting aluminum boats, but the truth is that simple, careful preparation and rustoleum will give great results for most people. A light sanding with 120 grade wed/dry sandpaper and an oxalic acid wash will prepare the surface. Use rustoleum primer and then just standard rustoleum. I would use the spray cans. For about $30 and a few hours work and you are done. You could go for a fancy epoxy coating, but repairing nicks and scratches will be difficult if not impossible. With rustoleum, it easy to fix minor problems in future.
