Paint Prep

[BigTerp]

Finally got my Tracker 1648 flipped and on some sawhorses over the weekend. Now I'm ready to do some prep work and then paint. Just had a few questions regarding the prep. My factory paint is in decent shape so I plan to paint over it, except for the dinged/scratched up parts which I'll sand down to bare aluminum and prime with self-etching primer first.

- What grit sandpaper should I be using to rough up the existing paint? I see some guys use as rough a 150 where others use something like 220. What would be best?

- What should I be using to wipe down the hull with after sanding and primering and before applying my paint? I used acetone to clean a bunch of areas before I applied my self-etching primer after I replaced solid rivets, filled old seat holes etc. Worked well, but I noticed it did strip some of the factory paint (towel turned greenish). Is this going to be a problem if I wipe down my entire hull with acetone prior to painting?

- Last September I replaced my transom. Where I had to replace bolts and solid rivets I sanded the areas around the bolts and rivets down to bare aluminum. I then wiped with acetone and applied some self etching primer. It has stayed like this ever since. Should I treat the old primer like old paint and rough it up with some sand paper before painting?

Here is the area I'm talking about. This was before I applied the self-etching primer.

You can sort of see the same area in this picture. This was just a few weeks ago. You can also see where I have some self-etching primer on the rear bench seat. Should I treat these areas the same as old paint and rough up withs ome sandpaper prior to painting?

Not trying to get a showroom finish, but I would like to make it look as nice as possible, and be durable, with what I'm working with.

 

[Redlion]

I just prepped my Alumacraft to apply Durabak to the inside. I started out with just water. I avoided any car wash soap to prevent any waxy build up. I then used 100 grit sand paper and used a mouse sander. After sanding I rinsed with water and dried. Then I used a no rinse TSP cleaner and applied with a rag. After TSP, I primed any bare aluminum. The manufacturer recommended applying xylene right before applying Durabak but if you are just painting I would think TSP (which didn't eat at exsisting paint) would be fine before self etching primer.

 

[BigTerp]

Thanks for the response. I was out last night so I went ahead and picked up some acetone. I've been doing some reading on here, and many guys have used acetone. So I'm hoping it will work out fine. I won't be soaking my boat with it, but just applying to a towel and wiping everything down to remove and grease/dirt before I apply my paint.