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i am going to paint the lower leg of my 83 40 hp mercury, the p.o. left it in the water and it is not as nice looking as the upper portion of the motor, not to mention it will look really bad once i put my newly varnished interior back in. so 2 questions, has any body had there lower unit sand or bead blasted with out taking out all the internal gears and just masking everything? also what type of primer should i use? i purchased moeller phantom black merc. paint, is this brand a good original match? or do i need to by quicksilver brand?
thanks in advance
danny

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I would discourage you from bead/ sand blasting with seals and gut left in unless you run a piece of tape and paper or similar around the end of the housing and seal it off really well. It would leave you a little to have to sand off but that is the only way I would do it. as far as primer, When I need to paint aluminum I use a Zinc primer of good quality.

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i have the lower unit off, i was gonna try and mask it all off before i would, although its not all that much to sand maybe that's the better way to go. is there a brand you recommend for the primer?

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I used a Zinc Chromate primer (spray can) on the bare aluminum leg of an old Johnson we used to have before painting it and it held up great. I happened to have some West System aluminum etch on hand, so I did a quick etch before applying the primer. Never had a problem with it for years after.

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When I had my outboard powerhead rebuilt the mechanic had to heat the lower unit bolts to disassemble because they were salt frozen. This really made a mess of my lower unit paint obviously. I was let down because it was well cared for. now it looked horrible. I figured I would have to sand/strip down the entire lower unit and mid-section to get a good paint job back on.

The mechanic suggested I NOT go to all the trouble of stripping down to the bare aluminum. He made the comment; "Old paint makes the best primer". That is; if looking ugly is it's only drawback, not if it's flaking off in large areas. If there are any small spots where electrolosys has bubbled the paint up, or along the seam where the lower unit meets the mid-section, sand down to the aluminum with 100 grit sand paper, then feather those sections and scuff the entire lower unit/midsection factory paint with 220 grit. As per the above members' comment; prime the bare aluminum areas with a few coats of zinc chromate primer.

Luckily you can paint your Merc with a good quality single stage paint. That is, you would not need to 'clear coat' the color coat. Those mid-eighties Evinrudes in the silver blue, and the Yamaha grey silver are two stage paint systems; one, a color coat that dries to a matte finish and a second clear coat that gives the paint it's gloss and depth.

You can get a good result from a rattle can (I did) or better yet shoot from a compressor with a pro-grade paint gun used for automotive applications. My local marine jobber sells OEM colors by a paint company called Mar-Pro, which also offers the zinc primer. It's great paint. The 'Evinrude White' for my model year dried to a nice even gloss. No runs, sags or rough over spray. I considered going the compressor/air gun route if the rattle can yielded a poor result. There is an automotive paint supplier in town called "Ben's Paints", not sure if they are a national chain or not, but they, and most any automotive supplier I would imagine could cross reference the OEM color for a good match. Believe it or not, when it comes to paint, "Mercury Black" is not necessarily black and "Evinrude White" is not necessarily white. Using Krylon or Rust-o-leum for example may not match your cowl or bracket color.

I included a pic of my end result in my profile (scroll to the bottom)http://www.whalercentral.com/infusion...r_id=13468. It turned out well, two seasons on it and holding up well.

Good luck!

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I will agree that if you can afford to leave the factory paint as your base is better, However if you have bare spots use the Zinc primer. There are ecthing solution out there but some Zinc primers have ecthing properties. The few etching primers that I have bought at a retail store where not true zinc primers but just a yellow-green color and did not last(flaked off) the last primer I bought was at an up scale auto motive paint supply. That zinc primer has held up very well but it has only been a year, I don't remember the official name only that I think it was made by "Norton". I love Krylon paints for the convience and some times I'll get very impressive finishes but DONT use their Zinc primer.

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I got the primer and paint in a rattle can from the dealer, I sanded down the rough stuff and feathered smooth the old paint where the bare Aluminum met it, I put on 2 coats of primer (let dry) and then 2 coat's of engine paint (dry between coats). I then put the "Anti-Fouling" clear coat ($29.99 a rattle can) on the lower bracket and the lower unit where it touches the water.

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thanks for all the info, i will feather the rough spots and prime.
thanks again
danny