I am refinishing a couple of Arneson drives. This boat is a 42' Harley that is moored in fresh water 24/7 365 days a year in a boat house. I use it in salt occasionally, sometimes for a month or so each season. I am looking for advice on stripping and painting. I don't care about looks. I just want it as durable and long lasting as it can get. The boat ideally only comes out of the water annually for inspection and maintenance. The drives are currently apart and stripped. Thanks in advance for any help.

Steve Hixson

Blast them and powder coat them.

Aluminum parts especially casting require special care - Blast clean all external surfaces to remove existing coatings - Wash parts using demineralized water ( you can find this in the grocery store) wash again with salt away or Chlorride - rinse again with DM water -
If you are going to powder coat parts -
Pre-heat first - lots of oil will bleed out of the castings - clean with stong solvent like MEK and preheat again - clean again - The powder coat parts - First coat should be an "outgassing" powder that will minimize bubbles - let the part cool - sand blemishes and powder coat again finish color. The main housing is heavy and should be baked for 30 plus minutes in a convenction oven -

If you are going to paint - oil bleed out will not be an issue - Pre-treat with alodine 1200 - apply three coats of polyamide epoxy @ 3-4 mils per coat - If you have growth issues apply antifoulant - ( Imersion grade Polyamide epoxy can be found through commercial paint stores for $ 40.00 gallon - Sherwin Williams - Tenemec - Devoe - International - DuPont - You may also look at west marine - paint will be more but it is the same stuff -

Man...i thought I knew how to do it, but jamess4 description is even better than mine!

Paint on outdrives and Arnesons requires some sepcial consideration as to the paint itself, zincs for saltwater, magnesium for fresh and a ton of other electrolysis releated issues. There is some info in the Interlux site about the special outdrive paint and the issue that tin based paint can cause on aluminum underwater. Also shorepower issues--

Check out attachement and look at post on Battery charger question I put up a little while ago.