I noticed that my drives were looking a little ratty. I wanted to clean them up & paint them. What is the best paint to use & should I sand them down to bare metal prime them & then paint or can I just clean them up scuff sand & then paint them. I just want to freshen them up looks wise. The internals are perfect and the run strong. It just looks bad when on the trailer.

Need to know your shop capabilities and what your desired outcome is? I am assuming you will be pulling the drive off. I stripped mine (aircraft stripper) rattle can sprayed it with a Zinc based primer (go to the auto store ask for Aluminum primer) quick wet sand and shot it with a single stage(Nason) paint out of an inexpensive siphon gun. I did it this way because it was quick and relatively inexpensive. I picked my colors from some paint chips in the store. Mine is black and silver. I have also seen drives that are a work of art, multi color paint jobs that match the boat, they look great and I tip my hat to those guys.

Depending on how bad the original powdercoat and surface underneath is, you should be able to knock it down with 180 grit paper, feather it out with 320 grit and then for a simple factory black look up you can't beat the paint that Mercury sells.

It's a spray can of "Phantom Black" enamel. Flows on easy, lays out nice, has a super gloss to it and dries quickly. Seems to harden and hold up very well providing the surface was prepped right. I do all of my drives like that. It's cheap, easy and effective!

Just my .02 cents . . .

Harry

You gotta get the prep right first - remove the salts - wash all surfaces especially and bare or exposed aluminum with salt away or Chlorrid, no matter how much sanding you do the chloride ions remain in the pours, the salt picks up humidity and will react with the aluminum even after it has been painted over. For the paint system stick with a "system" while paints are often very similar there can be significant differences. Go to West Marine/ Boat US etc... and see what they have to offer - Epoxies will have 3X the adhesion value of a conventional single component alkyd primer, you want adhesion to minimumize "undercutting", eposies chaulk when exposed to sunlight so you will need to protect the epoxy with aliphatic polyurethane. Urethanes do not like to be in water more than 10-15 days as a rule or they can blister. Read the label. If it dose not say for immersion do not use it . Mercury also has a paint repair system on there web site.