Quickie spruce up for my outdrive

[thunderroad]

I've made it to the end of my list of mechanical things to fix before the season so I started cleaning up my boat. Got it lookin pretty good but the outdrive (160 Merc) looked kinda tired. The paint on it isn't in bad shape but it's kinda chalky looking. I didn't want to go the way of a complete sand/paint so here's what I did...<br />I sprayed it down with brakleen to get rid of the grease, then wiped it down with a rag lightly soaked with lacquer thinner. The skeg and bottom of the lower unit were missing some paint so I sprayed some semi gloss black Dupli-color on that area. Just as soon as it dried I sprayed the whole thing with some Dupli-color clear lacquer. Let it dry and gave it another coat. Looks great. The chalky areas look just as shiny as the freshly painted ones. Didn't have to mask anything. No black paint to try to get off of stainless bolts and nuts or trim cylinder hoses. Sprayed carefully where the housing meets the transom then wiped the clear overspray off the gelcoat with another thinner rag when I was done. Has a nice clean shine but not that greasy, just-painted look. May not last forever but hey, it took a whole 15 minutes. I can do it once a week if I want.<br />Nothin earth shaking here...just thought I'd pass it along.

 

[Always Broke]

Re: Quickie spruce up for my outdrive

Let me know how it holds up after a few runs. I always had a hard time getting paint to stick on an outdrive unless I used the proper primer and paint.

 

[thunderroad]

Re: Quickie spruce up for my outdrive

I doubt it will make more than a few runs without needing to be redone....but I did it "right" last year and it didn't last the whole season...but the Missouri river is pretty sandy at times and that can't help much.