Painting a Motor Cowl

[russ010]

I've looked through the threads, but didn't really find anything that I was looking for.

What all did y'all do to paint your cowl, and how's it holding up now?

I'm thinking it's fiberglass (I'm guess, haven't really looked at it enough to remember)... I've tried finding some other info online as to what people use, but everything I find is where people are painting the actual motor (and mine is in great shape surprisingly).

I figured I'd sand it down, primer it, paint it, put my decals on and then clear coat all of it. I'm pretty sure I need to use enamel primer and paint (a little saying I remember my dad telling me was "enamel under lacquer will crack her") so I don't want to mix enamel and laquer...

any ideas?

 

[who pooted?]

Get any loose paint off, sand rough areas, sand overall with light grit for a surface bite, then use the zinc chromate primer and rattle cans of the factory outboard paint from your local marine store. Anything past that like using car paint will just be time consuming and have about the same maintenance issues. Rule of thumb, the darker the color the more you'll have to repaint due to finish coat losing its luster. The dark color absorbs the heat which breaks down the shine.

 

[danmyersmn]

like this?

 

[bassboy1]

Looks like danmyers probably has some good info for ya. Evattman has done a few of them too, so you may want to shoot him a PM.

 

[danmyersmn]

yep, i had to run an errand but I wanted to get back and post the info.

I painted mine with this:
https://www.hannaysmarine.com/2009hannayscatalog/pg_00472.html

I used the sanding primer and OMC Charcoal Metallic on the cowl and the zinc chromate and OMC Metallic on the lower unit. Ordered the decals and new sound foam from Evinrude.

I didn't clear coat mine. The more I thought about it the more I realized that I wasn't going to be banging lures off it or tossing lead weights at it, etc.

 

[russ010]

Thanks dan! That's what I was looking for.

What is sound foam?

 

[huntinfool]

I've done them all the way from a paint can to base coat/clear coat.

I'd highly suggest going with the spray can. That is considered a single stage paint. Meaning it has a clear coat in it that rises to the surface while drying. Clean the cowling, sand it and then wipe it with a tack cloth/cheese cloth. Then spray light coats allowing to dry in between. I would not put clear over your decals. I would not even put a clear coat on a single stage paint.

Good luck.

 

[danmyersmn]

The inside of my cowl was lined with black foam about 1/2" thick. Squishy open celled stuff that was broken down and a mess. It was sold on the evinrude site as sound foam or sound blanket or something like that. Basically to keep some of the noise inside the cowl I suppose. I was hoping it would make the engine a little less noisy but I don't know I noticed much of a difference. A better solution is to go to the front of the boat and make my buddy man the motor



Here is a pic of sometime during the priming/sanding stage.

Wet sand after a top coat.

The rubber gasket that seals the cowl to the hood was stabled on. When I put it back on I didn't mess with the stables. I installed it over the lip and then pealed it back away from the lip and put a light bed of silicone in it. It is seated between the cowl and lower unit so when installed it can't go anywhere. the silicone keeps it attached for when you pull the cowl off. The 20+ huge stables where a bit of overkill IMHO.

 

[russ010]

how many cans of each did you use?

I'm probably going to do mulitple light thin coats...

 

[danmyersmn]

most of 1 can of the sanding primer. not much at all of the zinc chromite. 1 can of top coat on the top and 2 cans on the lower unit. I probably could have done less. I applied 2 top coats with wetsanding in between and then I just kept applying light coats every 20-30 minutes until the can was gone on the top. Same with the bottom and then after I kept looking at it thinking I could see spots that didn't look as "deep" (the metallic) so I picked up another can the next day.

 

[russ010]

thanks man. I'll get started on that one pretty soon... the next few weeks are going to be too hectic to get anything done, but I'm getting everything ready