DaySailer.org Forum

New member, life long sailor - congrats on a very informative forum and class organization! We are happily restoring a DS2 to cruise the beautiful SC waters, done the racing big boat thing raising a family. So we want safe, easy for retired folks, and fun. We want her to be a proper looking vessel, but not hung up on perfection.

She came with a black boom, a little roughed up, but functional. Thinking bout painting white - if you've even touched a black boom in August in coastal SC - you would understand!

Have searched forum and Google and not much advice other than on Google looks like an expensive and pain in the a•• project. Any advice on if project is doable or worth the effort?

Thanks,

John Havens in Beaufort SC
Carolina Girl
10374

I feel your pain John! TRW's boom and mast are also black, and I'm down here in littler latitudes than you are. The black spars are the main reason the first thing I do before rigging up is put on my sailing gloves. Have thought about stripping the spars, but if I were to do that I'd want to get them anodized rather than paint them, and I just haven't been able to justify that cost, plus removing/re-installing all fittings, vs. just wearing gloves ... ;-P

In what ways is painting a boom supposed to be more/less difficult than painting any other outdoor metal item?

Thanks Tim, too funny as I dug through all the old gloves yesterday! Quickly coming to your conclusion.

Green lake, haven't painted much metal other than yard stuff. Research told me for aluminum spars that it was more difficult than painting a flat metal surface - ie - boom shape causes propensity for drips vs flat, rebedding all stainless hardware to prevent corrosion, lengthy multiple coat process in a climate controlled environment, etc.

Would love to stand corrected, but wasn't ready to hear bout my "Tim Allen" boom painting job from the real captain Caroline!

Thanks and really enjoy the forum,

John Havens in Beaufort SC
Carolina Girl
10374

I recently restored an old proctor gold mast and boom. After finishing some welding to cover up holes, I decided to paint. After much research and talking to a fellow member of our sailing club, I first sanded the mast and boom with a 80 grit sandpaper to rough them up. I then applied two coats of Rust-oleum etching primer. After letting it dry a few days, I lightly sanded it with 150 grit sandpaper. I then applied four light coats of Rust-oleum Almond colored High Performance Enamel, sanding between coats. The results looked great and after two seasons it shows no sign of problems. The best part, it was cheap and it is easy to touch up.

Roger, did you remove/re-install hardware and fittings, or work around them?

The few that I was not replacing, I masked. But I had to replace the main halyard pulley, the jib halyard pulley and two exit pulleys at the base of the mast.

Thanks Roger - between the 4 finish coats did you use the 150 grit or go to a 180 or 220? In your opinion would a white over black work, as in your case it appears you stayed in a similar color family. I would think 4 finish coats would do it.

Sounds appealing to try and much simpler than what I had researched - Tks again.

John Havens - Beaufort SC
Carolina Girl
10374

Hi John

I just used 150 grit between coats. I think the key to covering the black is a good base coat of the etching primer.

Hmmm ... might need to re-think this, at least with the boom first, see how that goes, then maybe the mast.

When I first considered it, I was thinking of using paint stripper rather than sanding off the old black paint. Bad idea?

Some materials don't like strong bases, and I thought aluminum might be part of that group. Can't quite remember, but it does discolor in the dishwasher. If you have a paint stripper that's just an organic solvent (no lye or anything in it), then I'm not sure the aluminum would care. But I haven't tried anything like it, myself, so all is speculation.

Perhaps someone like Dwyer Mast may have a product that will help remove the black anodized color or have a suggestion to best prepare the surface for painting.

John

Well, according to some other sources:

Practical Metalworker wrote:A good clean anodized part, free of oils or waxes, is an ideal substrate for paint.

Thanks all - going to go for it! Plan is to use Roger's suggested method and add a good cleaning with interlux 216 pre base coat and perhaps pre first finish coat.

If don't report results end of next week may not tackle till late September. I should have joined association before the summer - never had black anything on a boat - that black boom is a burner!

Thanks again,

John Havens - Beaufort SC
Carolina Girl
10374

I refinished a corroded aluminum boom, and it's worked well. It doesn't look like professional powdercoating or spray, but it's held up. I sanded, used a spray-can aluminum primer, then applied 1-part Petit EasyPoxy white enamel. The next season, I did the mast to match. In both cases, I removed all fittings prior to painting. It helped to mount the spars (end caps off) on spindles on the work bench (boom) and yard trees (mast). Otherwise, yes, you can get some drip and sag on the low side.