95 355 motoryacht radar arch painting?

3M and Star Brite compoud cleaners for gel coat, that is if the damage is minor and you are looking for waxing it off, other than that, for minor gel coat repairs Evercoat repair kits would do fine on small areas. The best way though is to treat the areas with gel coat and then do a buff and wax job on the whole thing to make it look even in color and finish. For very small treatments, evercoat have a small tube called scratch patch which comes in white or clear to be as close to the rest area as possible.

Hang on, I guess some of the professionals around will get back to you with a better advise, you can also attach a picture of the area to make it easy for everybody.

Cheers.

The arch on my '98 350 Mariner is aluminum. It took a crane to set it in place after I moved it from FL to TX, so I don't think it would be easy to remove by hand. Anyway, mine too is chipping. I had one estimate for an "epoxy" repaint of $2200, and that was when it was off the boat at the yard.

Good luck...

Aluminum is harder than gel coat which can be done in place without needing to remove it. Good luck for sure.

Cheers.

Mine is not chipping but I would like to have it repainted since its lost its luster over the years and the gel coat is almost perfect on my boat.

I am actually in the process of getting a quote to re-paint with alex seal or awlgrip.

I will let you know when they get back to me.

The best solution would be to sand blast the arch, then repaint with an marine grade epoxy paint. To save money you could rent a small sand blaster, tape the arch a short way up from the chipping and then blast the area you want to repaint. Problem with doing this in place is obviously avoiding damage to surrounding gel coat. You could also try wire brushing all the paint off and then repainting. As with any paint job preparation is the key to good results (which is probably not what the previous owner did)

Repainted my Aluminum arch 2 yrs ago sanded lightly and used white rust-o-lium paint,I rolled it on and have had no problems with it since.a light wipe with a magic eraser in the spring and good to go. best of luck

I had my painter that paints around my house (he also paints his own cars as a hobby)paint just one section of my arch, he actually took a razor blade and peeled the paint from the aluminum, then he applyed a yellow primer and rolled the area with a color match paint and you cannot tell it was painted.

I painted my arch on my carver 370. The procedure I used was to sand with a palm sander and wiped with ammonia. I then used a tack rag for finial prep. A small foam roller is the best for application and a medium size brush for tipping. I did small areas at a time. The results were excellent. The secret is tipping, it really smoothed out the paint took all of the roller marks out. The only problem I had was matching the gelcoat I bought 2 quarts of easypoxy one white and one off white and mixed the off white into the white in small amounts until I matched the white gelcoat. I used a primer for the bolt heads and any spot that had bare aluminum. My only word of caution is use a respirator when painting fumes are bad with the easypoxy.
Hope this helps I also painted my hard top so I would not have to get on top and wax it. By painting I prevented oxidation from forming and it oly needed to be washed to get dirt off.
I hope this helps
Paul

MOELLER Zinc Chromate

Our 1986 3697 Mariner the arch was a mess. It had many coats of paint on it. Chips and holes and such. So I sanded the arch down to base metel with a palm sander using a mix of 80 -120 paper. I filled in all the holes with 2 part epoxy and used Zinc Chromate for primer. I sprayed emamel for finishing. Looks great now!

Paul, the sun deck roof on my '98 Carver ACMY has oxidized so badly that when it rains the oxidized gel coat leaches off and on to the plastic windows on the sundeck permanently staining them. What paint did you use to paint over the oxidized gel coat and how did you prep it. Thanks

The oxidation was why I painted mine, and this paint process has cured the problem.
I cleaned the top by washing with a solution of 2 cups household ammonia per gallon of water and then rinsed well. I removed some mildew in the corners with Clorox clean up, great stuff.
I then used a scothbrite pad and Pettit fiberglass degreaser D95. Be careful with this as it will stain. My top was very rough did not need to be sanded, if you have shine, then need to take the shine down with sandpaper and re apply the degreaser. I then used a tack rag on the entire surface and then used the easypoxy I had left over from the radar arch. I used a small foam roller It came out perfect!! When you roll a small section you need to then tip it Tipping is taking a brush with very little paint and going in straight lines to smooth the paint. I did not thin my paint but I had trouble keeping a wet edge and you can see a line if the light hits it just right.
Hope this was clear enough the paint process was easy the entire project took about 8 hours.

Thanks Paul.
Did you add a coloring agent to the easypoxy?

No I used the white and off white and mixed until they matched the gel coat,

captain pj,
Interlux also has a similar product called brightside. Since I am a member of their forum I requested and got some info on this paint. I have no preference to interlux, but I did find out that brightside which is also a one part poly, will downgross over time. I think this means that it will fade. I'm trying to find out how long this will take on the application we intend to use (top of the sundeck cover, fully exposed to the sun). If left without attention, the paint will eventually break down and require removal. Again I'm trying to find out how long this will take. Interlux as I'm sure Petit also has a 2 part poly top side paint which lasts longer, but of course is more difficult to apply.

Do you have any info as to how long you can expect easypoxy to last?

Tim I have no info on the longevity of finish of easypoxy

Some info I've received from other forums indicate the 1 part epoxies don't last near as long as the 2 part epoxies.