1973 14ft VALCO Aluminum Restoration

mseagrave

Recruit
Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Messages
1
1973 VALCO.jpg
Well, I finally did it! I bought a boat. I just picked up this 1973 14ft Aluminum VALCO. It's seems to be in pretty fair shape. However, I am hoping I can get some advise on some things as I begin to fix it up.

Frist, I cleaned out the boat, put the motor: (Montgomery Ward 25) on a rack and did a drip test on the hull by filling the interior with water. I came away with only 3 very small drips. I've marked these drips and ready to fix them.

However, before I do this, I need advise. On the bottom of the boat, one of the previous owners painted it with some sort of black paint. It's got a rough texture and was done a little sloppy, but I'm not so concerned about that. The thing is, I really don't want to strip this black paint off the entire bottom and repaint, I really just want to fix the drips and recover this black with a fresh coat of ??? in black in a much cleaner manor.

Can anyone give me some tips on what sort of paint I should use for this?

Thank you in advance for any input!

Oh, here's a couple more pictures.
VALCO2.jpg VALCO3.jpg
 

jbcurt00

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 25, 2011
Messages
24,828
Re: 1973 14ft VALCO Aluminum Restoration

Unfortunately unless you can ID the black 'paint' on the bottom, it will be difficult to recommend a paint that will stick to the existing w/ out extensive prep, and if you're going to have to work hard to prep it, might try a really aggressive stripper to remove it. That was what I felt needed to be done w/ the truck bed spray in liner applied to the interior of my Jet.

AutoZone will price match (in store) the online price of Rustoleum Aircraft stripper at Summit Racing. Almost a 50% savings...

LET ME BE CLEAR: I've used lots of chemical strippers for a variety of surfaces, and the Rusto Aircraft is by far the worst, by quite a bit. It's toxic, produces toxic fumes, QUICKLY leaves chemical burns, QUICKLY leaves chemical burns (needed to be repeated), makes a horrible toxic mess as it chews thru paint. But it does work extremely well on a wide spectrum of paint type products. Full face shield, full sleeve chemical gloves, and a GREAT cartridge respirator are all basically mandatory. You do not want to get this stuff on your skin, or any where your skin may touch prior to that surface getting well rinsed & scrubbed.

Others have had great success with a variety of other strippers, and I did try a couple. They were almost 100% ineffective on the DIY bedliner on my Jet. The Rusto Aircraft was a last resort.

Pix of your hull & the black 'paint' really close up, may help someone ID it. But there are lots of black paint & paint like products on the market for marine use, it could be any one of those or any number of other non-marine products that could have been used anyway. If it's well stuck, someone may have a recommendation on how to prep it & a well rounded paint or primer product that will adhere to a variety of paints.

From your 1st pix, it looks very much like DIY bed liner material. But a better, up close pix may help ID it for sure... And be very careful if you decide to remove the black paint. It may be covering any sort of ugliness or leaks. But I hope not!

Welcome to iboats
 

Bamaman1

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
May 15, 2011
Messages
1,895
Re: 1973 14ft VALCO Aluminum Restoration

I agree that the bottom of the boat may be painted with bed cover. I suggest starting with a heavy body paint remover available at Home Depot or Lowes--seeing if it'll lift the stuff. You can always go with the aircraft stripper that smells even worse apparently.

If you could clean the bottom, I would suggest flipping the hull and spraying it with oil based enamel with a hardener. Tractor Supply has a good supply of inexpensive but good gloss enamel paints for general purpose.
 
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