pontoon corrosion

[brendanl96]

I just recently picked up a 2004 sunchaser 820 and I noticed that the paint on the pontoons chips right off, my uncle told me that this was electrolysis and showed me that underneath the paint there are a few small pinhole size holes.I want to strip all the paint off but I'm not sure what the best method is, aircraft paint stripper, wire wheel, sander? Also what's the best way to repair the holes? I was thinking of using muggy weld but was told that aluminum is extremely hard to work with. Please help!

 

[greenbush future]

Re: pontoon corrosion

Pictures will tell us much more. Most toons don't have painted float tubes, they are left raw, but not seeing what you do, is tough to just guess. Pin holes??? are your tubes taking on water? Are they pitted through? where are they located? Close up pictures of the corrosion would help too.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: pontoon corrosion

Where are you located, if only roughly. As mentioned many 'toons aren't painted because it can be difficult to maintain. The best stripper to remove the paint depends on what type of paint. Single stage paint will be much easier to remove then epoxy based or catalyzed paint will be.

If there was little or no paint prep of the aluminum prior to the paint being applied, it should be easy to remove.

Pix would be helpful. Any chance the paint was applied to hide the corrosion?

Good luck & welcome to iboats.

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: pontoon corrosion

The 1st 2 pix I found of a 2004 Sunchaser 820 have 'bare' 'toons:

 

[brendanl96]

Re: pontoon corrosion

Here's the best picture I have right now IMG_20131215_121648_401 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

I would say that corrosion happens at the water line or below. I was told that it was possibly electrolysis that was eating at the pontoons underneath the paint. I don't think that it was painted to cover anything. I'm located near Clearwater, Florida

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: pontoon corrosion

That sounds about right, probably moored in saltwater before you bought it:

 

[brendanl96]

Re: pontoon corrosion

That sounds about right, probably moored in saltwater before you bought it:

Yeah I would probably say so. What do you think the best way to get off this paint is and how to repair it?

 

[maryhannaj]

Re: pontoon corrosion

Welcome. I do think you should use paint stripper. I have used aircraft paint stripper working in the body shops. It works very good but it's very toxic.
For the rust, use a red scotchbrite wheel on an angle grinder. They work really well for digging the rust out of pits. They can eat up the aluminum though so if you do it that way, just get the feel of how much is just enough to elimjnate the visual corrosion.
There is also a chemical rust preventative that is made for coating the surface after rust has been removed. I beleive it's made by Rustoleum and it is in a small white squeeze bottle. Not an aerosol.
If you find a very badly pitted area, use a small lightweight body work hammer with a pointed end to just lightly tap the spot. Real light though. You will know if the rust is engrained too badly in the aluminum by the way it feels soft with the tapping of the hammer and it will also carry more of a squashing sound then a ping when you tap on it. If it feels soft, cut it out to just a bit beyond the soft spot and patch it, otherwise it will continue to spread wether you sand it off or not.
If the rusted spots can just be sanded clean of surface corrosion, then just do that and wipe on the rust preventative, prime and repaint it. I have used the rust preventative wipe for a rusted old dirtbike restore. I had it for about 3 years before I sold it and not a bit of the rust resurfaced. I would definatly use it again.
Good luck.

 

[pauloman]

Re: pontoon corrosion

a very common problem. Generally fixed with a flexible thick epoxy paint like cm 15 . if really bad areas, use fiberglass cloth with the epoxy. Then you can paint with an aluminum mcu paint like aluthane for that new aluminum look (or enamel over the epoxy or the aluthane for any color you like). If pinholes are really tiny - the aluthane by itself will work (ie like around leaky rivets)

Paul Oman - MS. MBA
A.K.A. “Professor E. Poxy”
Internet Epoxy Confederation (IEC) EPOXY HOMEPAGE
epoxies since 1994
Member: NACE (National Assoc. of Corrosion Engineers) -- SSPC (Soc. of Protective Coatings)

 

[brendanl96]

Re: pontoon corrosion

Thanks everyone! I'll pick up some aircraft paint stripper and epoxy and let you know how it turns out

 

[Watermann]

Re: pontoon corrosion

Your taking on a big job but it's doable for sure. It looks ot me like some schlub did a bad paint job on the toons so I hope it comes off nice and easy. So you don't get discouraged after about 4 hours of stripping recruit someone ambitious to help you. Put the stripper on the paint and then cover it with plastic so the fumes stay there and the stuff doesn't start drying out. If you have a pressure washer use it first to remove what paint you can that's loose. You'll need some good scrapers, 3M pads with handles and fine wire wheel for your drill. I would imagine your toon is just suffering from ugly surface pitting is all, not pinholes. If the paint comes off easy then you could use the washer to spray the paint off after the stripper bubbles it.

I don't know who would ever put fiberglass epoxy or cloth on aluminum pontoons to repair pitting, big expensive mistake maybe epoxy paint. Take a close up of some of the pitting after you strip some of the paint. I would bet you can just leave it bare after stripping and not worry about the huge chore of prep, primer and repainting.

Edit: Get a couple bottles of JVV's best to make those dingy toons shine like new after your done stripping paint.

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: pontoon corrosion

It ain't cheap but...POR-15 would be my Product of Choice to paint and repair your "Toons" Aircraft Stripper will strip em clean and then the POR-15 to paint and seal the Toons. This stuff really really works. Lots of Colors to choose from...

POR-15 Rust Prevention