Tower Re-Finish - Spray Paint?

[skiguy]

The powder coat on my Type E tower is flaking off in places. I did some checking around and I’m getting quotes in the $700-$800 range to strip it and put a new powder coat finish on it. That’s way out of my budget. I can get it hydro blasted for about $75 to remove the old powder coat. I was wondering if anyone had ever refinished their tower with a rattle can paint like Krylon? If so, Any experience on the quality of the finish and durability?

Thanks!


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[Zackdogg]

Dude, that sucks! You definitely aren’t going to see the durability out of a rattle can, that you are with powder, but you could do it. If I were going with spray paint, I’d have it stripped, then hit it with a decent primer. There are some fairly durable paints in a can like epoxy, industrial, or automotive paints that can be found, I wouldn’t waste my time with krylon or anything like that. I’d also maybe avoid black as you’ll see chalking sooner, I would think. Could probably avoid that with some clear. If that aluminum looks cool after stripping, you could just clear or polish that aluminum maybe, which might look kinda sick.


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[freeheel4life]

If you use the search bar Jetdriver had a thread a while back about stripping PC. He used a product that IIRC correctly could be purchased at Home Depot, Lowes etc.

Seemed like it worked well and saved a lot of time and headache.

[Jetdriver]

If you’re looking to do it on the cheap I’d just strip it and then polish it up. Sanding and polishing the metal is easy, albeit mind numbing work to do. You could strip and shine up the aluminum for less than a hundred dollars for sure. Stripping powdercoat is easy but there is definitely a little technique involved. I learned the hard way.
Attached is a link to my write up.

http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/show...rip-powdercoat

[skiguy]

Thanks Jetdriver. I do remember and appreciate your previous write up. My preference would be to strip and polish. I know it’s a lot of elbow grease so I would probably remove and strip it at the very end of the season and do the polishing over the winter... and drill and wire for tower speakers. [emoji3]

One question on the aluminum. Are there any issues with oxidation that I would need to worry about? I prefer the look of a polished aluminum tower but if it’s just going to oxidize and look bad again in a year I don’t want to go through the effort. I always assumed those pretty polished towers were coated in something to prevent oxidation.

Thanks!


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[Bamer]

On my previous boat, I had polished aluminum speaker cans. They looked good, but I had a hard time removing / cleaning bugs from the cans without dulling the polished finish.

You may have to touch up from time to time to keep a nice polish finish if you trailer a lot.


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[chpthril]

Coat the bare aluminum in Sharkhide once a year.

[skiguy]

Coat the bare aluminum in Sharkhide once a year.

The first I’m hearing of the product. I think the protectant will do the job. Thanks Mike!


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[duffymahoney]

That is a crazy high number for powder coating. I would guess that would be 100-150$ here. If you remove the powder via hydro will the price come way down? Powder shops hate removing powder coating.

[skiguy]

That is a crazy high number for powder coating. I would guess that would be 100-150$ here. If you remove the powder via hydro will the price come way down? Powder shops hate removing powder coating.

I asked one shop and they said the stripping was the least expensive part - around $100. The lowest quote I got for stripping a recoating was around $600.

I really wanted a polished aluminum tower anyway. I’ll make it a winter project. I’ll post pics when I’m done.


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[chpthril]

I had a small tow hoop off a center console PC'd white a couple months ago for $150. I cant imagine a tower being 3-4 time more if its already prepped. Like $250-$300 if prepped.

[Wagonhound]

Last year I had to have some gussets welded the top half of the tower on my 08 RZ2 and the cracks repaired. My friend's fab shop had a pretty tough time removing the old paint, but they only do powder coating so that was the route I went. Even my cost was pretty expensive.