The paint shop assistant was spot on.

Ramona said..
The paint shop assistant was spot on.

That really depends on how the "factory gloss paint" was applied, that being the foundation for anything applied over it.

When the hull is press formed in the die it is usually done with some form of lubricant applied. Did the factory degrease the alloy first, then acid wash, fresh wash and then apply an etch primer such as PA 10 before applying the "factory gloss paint"...??? I seriously doubt it.

I was going to antifoul my 10 ft tinnie but never got around to it or had the need, however I did do the full preparation for it as in wet and dry sand, acid wash, fresh wash, PA 10 and then two coats of Hempel Hempatex Alu Primer 1630.

Despite not coating over the primer with antifoul the tin of which is still on my shelf and it being Hempel Antifouling Mille Dynamic Alu and despite lots of use of the tinnie over the last 10 years, the primer is still looking like new. The primer is such a close colour match to the aluminium you would swear it is not painted.

I will take a photo tomorrow and post it.

Primicon is just an aluminium based underwater primer similar to the other brands used for the same job. I use Jotun but it's just the same.

Thanks gentlemen for the good detail on aluminium primer options and products.

It sounds like it may depend on how thick the factory paint layer on the bottom is - if it is reasonably thick and in good condition, I imagine a "tie coat" rather than etch primer would suit, but for all other circumstances one of the Alu primers mentioned sounds like the way to go. Will suggest he does some scrape tests.