Frank A, need help with engine paint

[john from md]

Frank,

I am tired of looking at my 85 Force with LPS 3 on all of the worn paint. I want to repaint the engine but I want to do it with a brush instead of going through all of the hassle with spraying it.

Do you have any recommendations on what paint I should use? I use it in the Chesapeake and Delaware bays and rinse it each time I return.

I haven't painted anything since I painted my airplane with Alumnigrip (which was along time ago) and I don't know what kinds of paint are out there in this "green or else" world that we live in now.

Thanks,

John

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: Frank A, need help with engine paint

Well, not really mechanical, but it is a Force, so here goes:

I use spray cans of Dupli-Color primer and acrylic colors from Pep Boys and I don't consider it a hassle. You can get an adequate paint job using a brush, but it takes special technique--I forget what they call it.

Anyway, the hood is no problem because you spray it off the engine. But spray shows every imperfection so you do need to take a bit of care with the between coat sanding. As for the aluminum parts, I suppose regular primer would be acceptable but I sand to tight paint or bare metal and prime with zinc chromate primer--Hey! That's the way it came from the factory and they must have had a reason for using more expensive primer.

I have another post called 140 Chrysler or something like that. Shows the decals I had made and the engine fully painted and trimmed with Chrysler letters and pentastars. I'm sure that if you looked hard, you could find acceptable Force plastic letters from junked cars too.

 

[john from md]

Re: Frank A, need help with engine paint

Frank,

I am only going to paint the metal section of the engine. The cowl is in excellent condition and the only thing I am doing to it is adding sound suppression foam.

I didn't consider "spray bombs" (spray cans), I just didn't want to set up my spray gun and compressor and all that crap. I can mask it of and spray that stuff, I was concerned that I would need a two part epoxy type paint so that it would last a while.

Zinc Chromate was good stuff, for metal. As for your lungs, it adheared just as well to them. The real Zinc Chromate has been outlawed for a few years now. I was planning on using a primer but I hadn't decided which yet.

John

 

[lowkee]

Re: Frank A, need help with engine paint

I used normal old Rustoleum spray paint from Home Depot and I must say.. spray paints are definitely not the cheap garbage they used to be! It looks fantastic! Shiny black without all of the rounded bumps of spray paint past. .. or maybe I'm just getting better at spraying it <shudder>

 

[Frank Acampora]

Re: Frank A, need help with engine paint

Not outlawed, just controlled! By price--LOL. I just bought two cans of Moeller zinc chromate professional primer for 12 bucks a can at Dinbockowitz Marine in Allentown. They make it in green and yellow color. Has the cancer warning on it. It is new stock, Jan 11-08.
The other stuff I bought for 14 bucks a can at another marina was Tempo zinc phosphate. That was when I didn't know I could get Chromate.

Hope Erin Brockovitch doesn't get after moeller! LOL

 

[RRitt]

Re: Frank A, need help with engine paint

Raw aluminum - use alodine or other conversion coating. This is a chemical reaction that changes top layer of aluminum molecules. This makes the aluminum corrosion resistant and gives a surface that paint can stick to. Aircraft spruce has it as alodine. Summit racing sells it in powder form (chem-dip or something like that). PPG repackages aloding as DX503. 3M calls it alumina-prep.

Next - PPG DX1791. The two part primer used on aircraft. good stuff, not too expensive, best paint for aluminum, watertight seal. I haven't found anything else that equals this PPG product on aluminum.

Next - primer of your choice. urethane primer surfacers are waterproof and can be sanded smooth for that shiny finish. laquer and aresol primers usually aren't waterproof.

Next - topcoat. Ford engine color Deep WedgeWood Blue is closest I have found. It is a listed color with PPG so you can get it in acrylic or urethane - cheap or expensive - single stage or dual (i would go with single stage urethane and use generic hardener).

but that's the easy part. The hard part is getting the old paint to come off.

 

[john from md]

Re: Frank A, need help with engine paint

Thanks guys. Funny, I just happen to have an Aircraft Spruce catalog.

John

 

[RRitt]

Re: Frank A, need help with engine paint

ya know ... just saying .... if your old paint is structurally sound then you can skip a ton of work by using your old paint as your undercoats.

You can either wet sand with sanding sponge or scuff up with 3m green scuffing pads (also sold in a lot of hardware stores as pot scrubbing pads). just make sure the paint is scuffy and clean so that your new paint won't flake off. Everybody thinks that you have to shoot autobody paint with a compressor. Not true. You can brush it on. A pint of PPG Acrylic enamel (deep wedgewood blu) would probably be the cheapest and easiest. If you don't use hardener than it may bubble or blister if solvents get on it in future (like carb cleaner or something). Regarding brushing on autopaint ... it's about the same as brushing polyurethane onto a wooden cabinet with about the same results.