Painting bellows flanges?

[curliss]

I am replacing the U-Joint and exhaust bellows on a 1970 MC1. After power washing corrosion and scale from the bellhousing and gimbal bearing housing there really wasn't much paint left anywhere. The boat will be trailered (never left in water) and used only in freshwater. I plan on cleaning, using a chromate primer, then painting - but I wondered about the flanges where the bellows adhesive goes. Should these be left bare, or painted? Any recommendations from experience welcome. Thanks again.

 

[Don S]

Re: Painting bellows flanges?

Paint them. They are painted when new.

 

[curliss]

Re: Painting bellows flanges?

Thanks again Don S.

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Painting bellows flanges?

I treated the corrosion on my bellow flanges with Jasco Metal Prep, (it converts the corrosion to ???, something that's paintable) then primed and painted. When I painted my outdrive several years ago I had some corrosion pits, these were treated the same way and the corrosion never came back.

The instructions on the Jasco Metal Prep say to paint it onto corrosion/rust, let it sit a day, brush off any residue, then paint. I didn't want the acid to interact with the primer/paint so I washed the stuff off after it did it's thing. Worked for me...

 

[a70eliminator]

Re: Painting bellows flanges?

I didn't know you could use that stuff on alluminium hmmm... how did it do?

 

[fishrdan]

Re: Painting bellows flanges?

Jasco metal prep worked great on the corrosion, only thing about it is, you have to wait 24 hours for it to work and dry out, a bit time consuming.