Painting boat?

I have seen a lot of the members on here with boats similar in style and age to mine, painting the outside and inside of their boats. Is this for looks or for function? My boat was in pretty good shape and I hadn't even considered painting it. Is there any reason why it would need to be painted?

Paint really does nothing for aluminum protection. The aluminum oxide (aluminum rust) forms on aluminum almost immediately and protects it from corrosion. Paint is primarily cosmetic for looking good or camo, some of the interior paint has an additive for traction on the decking. Simply, you don't need paint.

gouran01 said:

Paint really does nothing for aluminum protection. The aluminum oxide (aluminum rust) forms on aluminum almost immediately and protects it from corrosion. Paint is primarily cosmetic for looking good or camo, some of the interior paint has an additive for traction on the decking. Simply, you don't need paint.

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I agree...also, painting aluminum can be quiet a process if done right.

Quite a few guys have used paits such as Steel-Flex on the exterior to seal any leaky rivets, but by no means is painting necessary.

Paint may not be necessary in fresh water, but in salt water, I think it's necessary, to seal the aluminum from corrosion. ESPECIALLY if it's below the waterline. If you don't paint anything else, you should at least paint anything below the waterline, using zinc chromate, then a couple of coats of interprotect, then your anti-fouling paint.

While it's true that aluminum forms an oxide almost immediately, this oxide can continue to form until the aluminum looks like alka-seltzer, and at that point, it's screwed.

Remember that when painting aluminum, you need to etch it with phosphoric acid, followed by a good rinse. Then prime it with zinc chromate primer. You absolutely must use the zinc chromate primer, if you use other types of primers, you won't get good adhesion, the paint will almost always flake off.

Agree on the zinc chromate primer, I used it on aircraft. One other step you can take after the phosphoric acid bath and rinse is using Alodine before the zinc chromate primer. All this stuff is available at a good body shop finish supplier.