painting the lower unit

I have a lower unit of a 1966 Evinrude Fastwin that is in need of a serious paint job. Right now, I am in the process of stripping the old paint off of the lower unit.

When it comes time to primering the lower unit and painting it, is there a specific type of paint I should use in order to do so?

I was thinking i'd use the self etching primer for the base. Then ?? after that, followed by a clear coat.

Can you recomend any cheap/good spray paint that would work for this?

how many coats of paint/clear coat should I do?

I used a self etching primer and then coated with Duplicolor on my Evinrude. Did probably 3 or 4 light coats, no clear.

looks good.........

why no clear coat?

any advice on removing any grease/oil up near the top of the cowel (sp?) (part the motor is sitting in). mine is pretty grimey up in there with a lot of little parts. obviously not ruining the engine in order to remove the grime

crankbait09 said:

looks good.........

why no clear coat?

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The engines of that era never had a high luster. No clear coat was ever used. Back then it was a straight lacquer finish.

crankbait09 said:

any advice on removing any grease/oil up near the top of the cowel (sp?) (part the motor is sitting in). mine is pretty grimey up in there with a lot of little parts. obviously not ruining the engine in order to remove the grime

Click to expand...

On this one I ended up pulling it all apart and it has no lower cowling so cleaning was rather easy.

Others I take off as much as possible and the soak the exterior in a grease cutter. Then blast it with a pressure washer.

I just painted mine with good results. Been out 4-5 times and still looks great but I cannot speak for long-term yet. I sanded, cleaned with water and rag, and then cleaned with alcohol to remove any remaining grease. I painted with SW oil based industrial primer and then rolled on the oil based industrial enamel in black with a satin finish. I'm not done yet as I still need to finish painting the rest but see attached. I had the cowl sprayed with LineX.

Before:


After:

crankbait09 said:

any advice on removing any grease/oil up near the top of the cowel (sp?) (part the motor is sitting in). mine is pretty grimey up in there with a lot of little parts. obviously not ruining the engine in order to remove the grime

Click to expand...

Oven Cleaner.

Oven cleaner is nasty stuff...eats everything.
Try kerosene in a Windex bottle. Let it sit for a while, keep it wet. Brush on hot water with Dawn dish liquid. Rinse with small electric pressure washer. Keep the engine tilted up with a paper towel stuffed in the carb during wet work. Blow it off with air, tilt down, pull towel, and run the engine at idle until dry. Re-lube all linkages, pivots, and zerks. I've done this a bunch of times. Some of these old motors clean up pretty nice.