How to take an aluminum boat back to bare aluminum and keep it that way.

[ryanpratt]

Hello,

Question for the board. We are thinking about taking a zodiac Rib that is made of aluminum then painted back down to the bare aluminum and not repainting it.

1. Is this a wise thing to do?
2. How should we do it? We are assuming sand blast then clean. Any special coatings we need to put on it after sand blasting or any special cleaners to use?

Thanks to all who offer their advice.

[marshmat]

If it's already painted, I'm not sure why you'd want to take it back to bare metal. The big advantage of leaving aluminum bare is that you don't have to pay for the paint job in the first place.

Left to its own devices, aluminum quickly forms its own protective oxide coating; no special coatings are needed. Although it won't corrode away on its own once the oxide layer has formed, it will still be vulnerable to the mixed-metals problem and to stray currents.

[ryanpratt]

So we should just leave it?

Only concern is the boat is not the color we would like for the boat. Could we paint over existing paint or would that cause issues?

[alidesigner]

Once the paint is off you can orbital sand it and then coat with nyalic (www.nyalic.com)