Painting Arneson Bronze Drives
 

Has anyone painted the areson ADS-8 Bronze drives?
I'm wondering what type of primer and paint to use. I want to go with a custom color.

Take them to a powdercoater. That will hold up the longest and look the best.

Make sure they bake the castings in the oven for a few hours to get the moisture out before coating them. Learned that one the hard way! Polyester based systems work well for marine apps.

Jeff

Ken,

Powder will work fine for surfaces that will not be continuously wet,using a polyester powder coat, but it is not without problems. Powder needs to cure at or near 400 degrees F., Arneson cast houseing are pourous and will bleed oils when oil in the pours is heated and has reduced viscosity and or can burn causing sludge deposits that are hard to clean after the fact. Likely hood of blems in the finish are pretty good. Custom powder colors can be pricey, upward of $ 1,000.00 depending on color. Keep it simple, spend money the way the US Navy spends it for similar applications, blast clean the surface to provide a 1.5 + mil profile, apply immersion rated epoxy to all exposed wetted surfaces, the top coat with single stage automotive type aliphatic acrylic polyurethane (this will survive a couple days continousely wet @ 77 degrees) or better yet go with single stage type paints that are polyester based ( Alwgrip brand has at least one) and you can have any color you want, for moderate price. A polyester based urethane will last longer when immersed (5+ days @ 77 degrees), however the manufactuers do not recomend for extended immersion use. Bronze is very noble so corrosion is not an issue, make sure you have zinc annodes near by to keep things happy

james...
that's some precise advice...maybe you can help me....i'm helping a buddy with his bravo3's...perhaps you've followed the corosion problems...any advice on refinishing and restoring the solid, yet crapy looking cases w/o internal disasembly?
thanks!
c

I agree Powdercoating would be a waste of time and money , I own a small Powdercoat co and if fact I epoxy prime and urethane my own hardware . Powdercoat it its applications , lawn furniture and production parts , maybe and engine mount but it would be armature hour if you did a drive