Bottom/outdrive paint on drive?

[wengr]

Hello. So I went to see a boat for sale, 19ft bowrider 4.3 merc I/O, and was surprised to see that the outdrive had been completely painted with a dull grey paint. This is something that I have not encountered before. The boat also has bottom paint (different color), but what is odd is that there is no sign whatsoever that it has ever been left in the water.
So, my questions are, can the outdrive paint be an indicator of some past issue? Corrosion? Cracks/welds?
Is that likely, or is it more likely that a po made a "proactive" choice that I personally would not have made? At a casual look, there seems to be no obvious issue with it. Also, while I doubt it - is there any chance that it would come off leaving an original look to the drive? Thanks in advance.

 

[wengr]

This is it.

 

[BRICH1260]

Doesn't look bad, may have just been a corrosion preventative measure. You could sand down and repaint shiny black pretty easily.

 

[Scott Danforth]

you can see your drive from the helm?

just giving you a hard time

most likely a preventative maintenance type of thing.

 

[tpenfield]

Outdrive anti-fouling paint . . . probably "Trilux 33" . . . nothing to worry about. I/O boats that are run in the ocean look like that. It is practicality over prettiness.

The paint is typically ablative, so it will wear off. If you want nice & shiny, then you will be stripping the paint off and re-painting.

 

[444]

Usually the outdrive on anything older is chipped, peeling, worn looking. Someone probably wanted to freshen it up. Take a close look at the skeg, maybe he had a repair done then decided to paint the whole thing. I wouldn't be concerned about the paint in and of itself.

 

[JoLin]

Like Ted said- we outdrive owners who slip in salt ALL use it on our running gear. I paint mine every season before I splash the boat. Helps to keep the barnacles at bay.

The owner may have an ulterior motive for painting that drive, but don't automatically assume it's a "cover up".

My .02