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My son and I are almost done removing the paint from the leg and lower units on the motors. We used wire brush cups and wire wheels to remove the paint. We plan to sand the parts and paint them.

What should we use to fill the pits in the aluminum before painting?

What is the most effective means of removing the stickers from the hoods?

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MIke, I 'm not sure if this will work on your stickers or not, but I have found that if I spray decals with WD-40 and rub gently with a fine steel wool it will loosen them up with no scratches

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I used citristrip to remove the registartion stickers from my hull. There were several layer and it worked fine. If you will repaint the hood anyway, this may work for you. I let it sit 6 hours and used a plastic scraper. No scratches when your done.

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Tom and Pete - thanks for the tips. I'll try one or the other. Maybe both. I have the WD-40 and the steel wool on hand so that'll be first. I have a small amount of patchy bottom paint that I'm going to remove so the CitrusStrip might do the trick there and I can try it on the decals if they're tougher than the WD can handle.

Soon to be sanding the motors where we've removed the paint - hopefully that will get the surfaces smooth enough to go without having any pits to repair.

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Fill in the pits and any scratches in the lowerunit with auto body surfacing putty. It comes in a tube. This is not Bondo. It dries fast, sands easy, and then prime with zinc chromite primer, found in auto parts store. You could have saved a lot of labor and effort, and done a perfect removal job with no scratches, if you bought a couple of spray cans of Aircraft paint remover, also found in auto parts stores, sprayed a heavy coat on, took a break for 1/2 hour, and then blasted to paint off with a pressure washer. I does a perfect job with two applications, and the aluminum is as smooth as it was when it was new, with very little effort.

Rich:|

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Binkie,

Thanks for the info. It looks like I'll be giving the surfacing putty a try. I found some by Evercoat. It sounds like the aircraft paint remover would have been great for the paint removal.

In any case I still have filling to do. There are large areas on both motors where the paint has been gone for a long time and there is considerable pitting and not just pin holes either. Another learning experience!

Mike

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When I get my next boat, I am going to rename the 18 Outrage; "Learning Experience"

Thanks for the tip on Citristrip on decals. It works great on bottom paint.

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Thats funny!!

I like it!