Outdrive repaint what putty can be used ?
 

I am looking to repaint my bravo drive and entire gimbal / transom assembly ... Most of it is pitting free but the drive does show minor corrosion here and there.

I am going to be sandlblasting every part including the drive but would rather not take the drive appart , I know I should use the Zinc Chromate primers but what can I use to fill in minor imperfection ? I am thinking of some jb weld ?

Also I am decent at spraying with a rattle can but is there a non aerosol primer and paint available by Merc ?

Thanks

i used liquid metal, worked fine!

similar to this

http://www.amazon.ca/Permatex-25909-...s=liquid+metal

If I had to do it again I would not remove the original paint. I would scuff it up and use it as a good base adhesion to the aluminum. I tried a few different fillers. Lab metal and few others. I ended up using Dynatron Dyna-deLITE to fill my pits. I put some on a piece of aluminum and let it sit in a 5 gallon bucket for a few months. It is water resistant. It's held up great for the last 5 seasons. There are a few threads in the drive section on this subject and a few more alternatives.

Refer to post #10.
http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/r...-progress.html

I used this stuff to fill in some pitting on my drives. Worked good, and sanded nicely.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ilpage_o03_s01

Marine Tex been using it for over 20 years now. They have a white color inwhich is great for fiberglass hulls minor to medium stuff for filling and sanding. They also have a grey color to use. You can use either color for whatever.

Years ago a boat owner had a OMC cobra outdrive that froze broke a long crack across the bullet - he wanted a cheap band aide fix for filling and fixing the long crack all the way across the bullet. We used Marine Tex - kept building it up and then sanded & painted it to match. We pressure tested the crack repaired outdrive - filled it with gear oil - then sent him on his way with the cheap band aide repair. This was in 1994 and I knew it lasted for 5 years min. - but after that we never seen him again. I was sold on Marine Tex since then. Just saying.

I would not blast all the original paint off. The Merc factory black paint sticks like no other. I would just scuff, fill pits and feather.

Merc has spent millions getting the correct combination of primer and paint for protection and adheision....nearly every repaint where the owner stripped the cases to raw were unhappy with the quality and adheision they were left with in a short time

I agree. Nothing will hold up better. This includes a drive sprayed with DuPont Imron. I've always used a product called Allmetal. Works great and holds up to abuse. Sands very easily.

Thanks for all the answers , the problem with keeping the factory paint is that some garbage hardware store crapped as been brushed on ... several coats of it .... Specially on the transom assembly ...

A body shop owner and good friend of mine is suggestion an Epoxy primer with a single process Urethane paint. What do you guys think ? He also said that bringing it down to metal is not necessary.

sand off the cheep paint, but do not go to bare metal, stop when our down to the Merc stuff (it will not be hard to tell),. Even if your unit only has 80% of the Merc paint left your still better off keeping it and working with the bare spots.... If you do what you planned and take it to bare metal "you will be redoing (touching it up) every year from now on"

The other options is to leave it bare aluminum.

I have a plan to paint only the upper in black and the whole transom assembly in black. I am putting on a nose cone and will probably paint the lower silver / aluminum color this way if the skeg drags in the sand at the sandbars where we go in the summer I can easily touch it up.

yes , this is the way I have been doing it for years ..

I used All Metal with a Hydromotive Nose Cone and all was extremely well ! 10yrs or so use.

Couldn't agree more. We just re-did ours. The original plan was to sandblast and were convinced otherwise. Probably for the better. We did a quick rough sand, primer, and phantom black. Results came out amazing. We opted to add a clear coat too. Which was worth the extra paint time.

The other issue with sand blasting assembled is potential damage to inner o-rings. Many people tape off localized o-ring features but you still run the risk of damaging them especially if the tape doesn't hold up to a blaster.

Yep, Hydromotive recommended Allmetal to install their nosecones.