GL: paint in the engine room

[Jeffrey Siegel]

> In any painting project, preparation is all! 
> ...
> Another product is Ospho which is also a 
> converter/primer.
>

I touch up the painting in my engine room every year.  Like Ron suggested,
prep is everything.  I use a small wire brush on all metal surfaces that
have rust or paint chips flaking off.  The wire brush does a good job of
evening out the surface and preparing the surface for paint.  For non-metal
areas, I scrub the areas that look like they need freshening and do some
light sanding to remove the old paint.

I've always use Oshpo on metal that became exposed especially if there was
any of that red/orange rust starting to show (brush it on and leave it
overnight).  Ospho turns the metal to a flat gray that accepts paint.  It
works like a charm.

Always clean up the dust and paint sandings before applying any paint.  I
vacuum everything up and let it settle for a couple of days before painting.

I used to use Awlgrip paint that matched my engines and engine room
floors/stringers (everything in my engine room is the same color white).
Awlgrip was very expensive and required mixing and measuring.  As a test, I
used some inexpensive car spray paint from Napa.  The product/color that I
used was DupliColor Acrylic Enamel DA1670 Gloss White.  It matched my
engines perfectly and is a snap to apply.  For really bare areas there's
also a DupliColor primer.  Each can costs about $5.  I found that it lasts
as long as the Awlgrip so I switched to it and haven't looked back.

Spray painting requires some taping to protect areas where you don't want
paint.  I had to do some of that with the Awlgrip too so that wasn't really
much of something new.  Obviously you have to be more careful with spray
paint though.  It is much more important to keep the engine room
well-ventilated when using the spray paint because it is wicked strong and
flammable.

Here's a picture of what it all looks like when it's done correctly:
http://groups.msn.com/TrawlerMV/mvacappella.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=70
4

And here's a video walk-through taken last year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MIW7Af2Krw


==================================
Jeffrey Siegel
M/V aCappella
DeFever 53PH
W1ACA/WDB4350
Castine, Maine

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