mirro 12 foot aluminum boat -- year, lead, and painting???

new to the forum. thought i'd throw out some questions.

recently picked up a 12 foot aluminum boat with a "mirro" badge on the side. assuming this makes it a mirrocraft boat. anyway, was wondering how to figure out the year of manufacture. Is there a serial number on the boat? haven't been able to locate one. only clue to the age is a tag from '76. also, it's got the turquoise paint, but it's worn and comes off the boat when you touch it. this got me thinking about lead content due to the potential age of the boat. I've got young children and so this is a concern. i'm on a pretty tight budget so am not really in a position to have the boat stripped or media blasted. if i clean it well (per the instructions in another post on the forum) will a paint like rustoleum seal up the lead? Silly questions, I know, but I'm new and want to get boating asap. Thanks for any help.

Re: mirro 12 foot aluminum boat -- year, lead, and painting???

I can't speak to the lead but rustoleum works quite well on my 12' tinny.

Re: mirro 12 foot aluminum boat -- year, lead, and painting???

Welcome to iboats!

For peace of mind, get a lead test kit.

Re: mirro 12 foot aluminum boat -- year, lead, and painting???

Welcome to iboats.

You say the old paint is falling off so to get new paint to stick to the boat you will need to remove the old paint that si loose, if it is still stuck to the boat good you can paint over it but will still need to sand.

Just get a plastic sheet under it and clean off what you can get with a scraper, wire brush, whatever works.

After you get the old paint off you will need to cover whatever you are painting on the boat with etching primer, $4.50 at any auto parts store then you can use what ever paint you would like on it and it will stick.

The ecthing isn't "primer" like the grey stuff you can sand, this only preps the surface to hold paint so all you need is a very thin coat, paint, if you don't know doesn't like to stick to aluminum and needs the primer.

As far as the lead in the paint just don't let your kids eat it and probably don't let them be around when you are sanding but think about how many millions of people grew up around lead paint and are still here and doing fine and that was living in an entire house painted with it, the problem came from kids chewing on window sills and such and ingesting the paint.

There is such a small amount of paint on the boat I really don't think you need to worry to much about lead.

Re: mirro 12 foot aluminum boat -- year, lead, and painting???

If you're on a tight budget just remove the paint and leave the aluminum bare. You can buy 1/2 gallon of CitrusStrip for $20 and brush it on one late afternoon and remove it the next morning, then a box of Brillo pads or a pack of Scotch brite pads to scrub it with and you'll have a nice shiney aluminum boat that you won't have to worry about scratching the paint on.

Re: mirro 12 foot aluminum boat -- year, lead, and painting???

jigngrub said:

If you're on a tight budget just remove the paint and leave the aluminum bare. You can buy 1/2 gallon of CitrusStrip for $20 and brush it on one late afternoon and remove it the next morning, then a box of Brillo pads or a pack of Scotch brite pads to scrub it with and you'll have a nice shiney aluminum boat that you won't have to worry about scratching the paint on.

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One benefit of this approach in removing the paint (stripper) is you wouldn't create a lot of dust. If you do go with a more traditional sanding approach, and some sanding will be needed at some point, wear a respirator if you're concerned.