Clear coat over old paint

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Drock

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I have an 84 Johnson 25hp the original paint on cowling is not bad but has no shine. I'm getting to the point that this transom replacement only turned into 1 thing leads to another project, paint inside and outside the boat, paint trailer and do all recommended prep, replace trailer wires and lighting, replace hubs, wheel bearing, etc. needs to finish.

I'd like to paint the cowl but wonder how just spraying clear coat would work and look.

I will put a picture review together soon.

Thanks again for your help.
 
It will have great gloss but when you look at it close the color will be muddy.

For a little more work you can spray the base coat 1st. It will already be masked so it is not much more work.
 
If the color is real good you could clear coat it and it would look fine. If it has faded too much it will shine but you will still be able to tell it was faded. Clear coat is there to protect what is underneath it.
 
Maybe just a good wash and wax to see how it looks?

Getting clearcoat to look good over old paint seems like trouble. Are there decals involved, or just paint? If it’s just paint you could use a cutting compound to strip off the worst of the fading prior to clear coating, but that would shred decals.


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Try it on a test area if you can, but usually it will look pretty good. The dull cloudy areas seem to absorb the clear and get a much brighter color. If it was me I'd just go ahead and do it... it can't look worse than it does now... and will likely be more than good enough until you're ready to do the big makeover.
 
Shaugh said:
Try it on a test area if you can, but usually it will look pretty good. The dull cloudy areas seem to absorb the clear and get a much brighter color. If it was me I'd just go ahead and do it... it can't look worse than it does now... and will likely be more than good enough until you're ready to do the big makeover.

Agreed

I wet-sand between color coats with 2000 grit when refinishing a cowl (with wet sanding, silicon carbide, waterproof sandpaper). After the clear goes on and cures, the result is glossy, with even color and sheen, but not super glossy. You should get similar results if you wet sand first (just be careful not to go through the existing color).

New paint sanded:
IMG6381.jpg


Clear applied, then decals applied:
IMG6439.jpg


For higher gloss, you can polish after sanding (before clear coat) with compound such as Meguiar's "Mirror Glaze 9 - Swirl Remover 2". After polishing, make sure you thoroughly clean with a wax remover such as Rust-oleum "Wax & Tar Remover".
 
Thanks for the all the good ideas.
I went by a friends sign shop and showed him the cowl decal and he said he can duplicate it in vinyl for a kin folks price. So I'm going to do it right and paint it, I'd like to see it looking so good.

Renn90 let me ask you if you ordered the paint for your Johnson to get the exact color, and how about the decal where did you get it?

Thanks again.

Now back to the Fall Classic boy it been a good one.
 
The aluminum primer was Zinc Chromate from marPRO in a spray can, purchased on eBay. IT went on beautifully (used for the aluminum lift handle).

Fiberglass primer was the flexible type made for rubber bumpers, acquired from an automotive paint supplier.

The color paint was Moeller in a spray can, purchased from boats.net. Color was a match, but the spray tip was spitting paint. Won't be using Moeller spray color again. Going to try BRP/OMC paint from boats.net on my 1994 Johnson 20 (going to do a full restore). I hear that if the can is shaken for 10 minutes instead of the directed 1, it will not spit, but I don't know if that is true.

Clear was Moeller in a spray can with a decent tip, purchased from boats.net. Worked well.

Note: Don't trust boats.net "available in _ days" notes. Went through three orders to find out products "available in 2-3 days" weren't available at all. No problems for items that say "in stock".

Decals came from discontinueddecals.com (1970 Johnson 6). High quality prints that went on easily. They got the most difficult part of the main decal right, but it was noticeably smaller than the original. To their credit, they followed up on their own accord, but never heard back after sending photos showing the size issue. The auxiliary decal for the front wasn't close (was closer to that on a 1973). A capable decal producer, but not a serious player.
discontinueddecals.com front decal next to original it was supposed to replace:
frontdecalmismatch.png


frontdecalmismatch2.png


I've been studying decal producers to find a good facsimile for my 1994 Johnson 20, a seemingly difficult one to produce; and the producer with the closest looking match seems to be decal-fx on eBay (Canadian company).
1994 decal needed:

IMG7025.jpg

Black fading to bluish silver? You have got to be kidding! LOL
 

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