Repaint Mercury Cowling

[brooksville_rebel]

Like to paint the cowling on my 1987 Mercury outboard. Its the two part split cowling. (Not the exact one as the attached image. I didn't have one of mine but pic shows what I am asking about.) My question is about the black leather like rough area. Not sure what that is exactly made of and how to deal with it for painting. Does it peel off or need to be scraped off ? Or Just prime and paint over it. ? All the videos I seen redoing the cowlings are mostly Yamaha's and they just have decals. Thanks.

 

[chevymaher]

Clean it with thinner and a brush. Rattle can it with rustolium satin black.

 

[brooksville_rebel]

Thanks. !

 

[Scott Danforth]

Peal the decal off the sides....paint as needed.... Buy new decals.....FWIW, the dull black, stripes, etc is all one decal

 

[tpenfield]

Make sure that you are sitting down when you look up the prices of the decal sets

If the decal and matte finish areas are in good shape, you could just mask those area off and paint what is needed. . . :noidea:

 

[Scott Danforth]

FWIW, I would only grab a polishing cloth and some wax. the cowl looks great compared to a bunch of others I have seen

 

[tpenfield]

I believe the OP said that the ones in the pic are not his but ones that look just like them. I would imagine that his actual cowl must be in more need of painting :noidea:

 

[Renderwurx]

He is actually not talking about the decals at all, the the "faux leather" treatment. This appears to be a thick vinyl layer that uses a decal cement to attach to the cowling. (In the image below the areas outlined in pink) It gets very dull looking and if you paint the cowl it will look very out of place and worn on a shiny new surface. I think Chevymaher's suggestion might do the trick... "Clean it with thinner and a brush. Rattle can it with rustolium satin black."

I too want to dress up my cowling.

 

[Scott Danforth]

the whole thing, the fake leather looking stuff, etc is all a decal.

 

[brooksville_rebel]

RenderWurx that is what mine look like. And yes the pink area is what I was talking about. I am tempted to just try to peel them off and do something else there.
I am not putting the the Mercury decals back. I do vinyl so will cut my own but being somewhat demented in the mind I am going to put something off the wall. Like Nuke Powered or some crap. Just not sure yet. Getting the decals off has been a pain. I used a heat gun and scraper but man whatever adhesive they use fricken worked good. THanks all.

 

[Renderwurx]

If a fellow could find some thinner material, it would be sweet looking to put diamond plate in that space...

I too have a vinyl cutter and would likely rebuild the logos up form scratch. I may try to rejuvenate the faux leather part and replace just the logos.

 

[kcassells]

Try some boot polish. May just come back up. IDK.

 

[chevymaher]

If a fellow could find some thinner material, it would be sweet looking to put diamond plate in that space...

I too have a vinyl cutter and would likely rebuild the logos up form scratch. I may try to rejuvenate the faux leather part and replace just the logos.

Try putting the Ardex Ocean Polymer wax on it. That stuff is amazing. Returns color to things. I use it on everything not just the boat now.

 

[Renderwurx]

Try putting the Ardex Ocean Polymer wax on it. That stuff is amazing. Returns color to things. I use it on everything not just the boat now.

Thanks for the heads up... will check it out. Not cheap, but if it's really that great...

 

[chevymaher]

It is worth every penny to. It doesn't take alot so it goes a long long way. All my cars have it on them now.

 

[brooksville_rebel]

If a fellow could find some thinner material, it would be sweet looking to put diamond plate in that space...

I too have a vinyl cutter and would likely rebuild the logos up form scratch. I may try to rejuvenate the faux leather part and replace just the logos.

I have some diamond plate vinyl. Might have to give that a look see.