Offshoreonly.com - Looking For Ideas Refinishing Aluminum

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Looking For Ideas Refinishing Aluminum

Boat towers and wakeboard towers. Alot come powered coated or what ever coated color Most are - Grey, Black , white, clear over aluminum, brushed aluminum, smooth aluminum, red and so on. Anyways alot over time become a poor exterior finish in my area some real quick and some within 6 years. Also many towed boat towers get marked up from the darn junk we have on the roadways from construction.

Also today metals, these towers are not the metals of the past. they can pit, dull and mar very easily. Looking for something that looks good / finishes good without spending days on it. Something fairly easy as well if all possible.

Powder coating prob is not cost effective because alot of these towers one can buy for 450 to 1200 dollars brand new shipped to the door. With that said to spend 400 to 800 dollars powder coating or whatever used for refinishing is not worth it when one can just buy a new tower.

I am looking for a coating / epoxy or whatever that is thick enough to refinish the towers and possible smooth out the exterior finish that is durable and LASTING. Even for bare aluminum.

I looked at POR 15 but that becomes very dull in sun lite. Maybe something from refinishing custom wheels / rims. Any ideas what could work here. THANKS

Nuvitte II, they used in WW2 on aircraft, then a good wax. Labor intensive!

BUP, where I used POR 15 I wasn’t worried about fading, but I thought the instructions said you could top coat it for UV protection. Is shooting it with clear an option?

^^^^^^ Do not know as I tried calling them today but NO answer. I do know it is tough as nails.

My experience with pot 15 is it doesn’t hold up to UV rays at all. Even with there uv clear. I would think a single stage direct to metal epoxy would work.

Imron? I don’t even know if they still make it. I’ve had it sprayed on ATV frames and some aluminum parts and it was the most durable thing I knew before powdercoating. Don’t know if it would necessarily qualify as “cheap” unless you’re buying fleet colors (Pepsi blue, Coke red/black, safety yellow, etc).

PPG Shopline epoxy / SEM Hot Rod black. Quick and somewhat inexpensive .

It's all work not matter what . your going to need to throughly prep the existing paint and any chalking /pitting in aluminum to offer any kind of guarantee. Don't know what your thinking as far as pricing , but if a new unit at $450 and up your losing money from the start.

I don't see how anything would really be cost effective if new ones can be bought for those prices.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Griff (Post 4669169)

I don't see how anything would really be cost effective if new ones can be bought for those prices.

This^^^ And probably the biggest reason is that almost half the cost of refinishing will be due to the need to remove the old finish and repair the damage to the metal surface. (No need for that on the original finish.) Then again, poor application (or surface prep) for the old finish is at least a contributor to the original finish failing anyway.