The side grab rail paint or powder coat is flaking off. Trying to decide whether to paint in place or remove the rails to paint them. Is powder coat better than painting. And, what would be the optimal paint. Any advice would be great. Thank you!
Per Google "Powder coating provides better performance than wet paint—it is more resistant to chipping, scratching, and other wear because of the thermal bonding it undergoes during curing, and because it can be applied in much thicker layers. ... In addition to its physical toughness, powder coating provides superior color retention."
Remove and Awlgrip them. All mediums will eventually bubble, Awlgrip is easy to touch up, powder coating not so much and then looks really bad. Maybe strip and polish?
Are you talking about the white ones that are in the cockpit ? If so let me know how you get them off.
There are 4. Two on the sides of the house and the two in the cockpit where you step up to go forward. The sides are in much worse shape in terms of peeling, but seem to be stainless. There are rust stains in the cockpit ones, so maybe not stainless. Let you know if/when I figure out how to remove them. Or, I give up and paint in place.
I'd tend to think none are stainless as it's expensive for something that's getting painted, or at least not 316, but you can get rust on stainless. It just doesn't penetrate as fast. So maybe a cheaper grade. I'd guess they'd all be the same metal. Removing them will involve some interior dismantling. Maybe you'd be best off working on them in place and Awlgriping them without removing.
Agreed. If it’s not straightforward to remove and maybe even more importantly reinstall I will paint in place in the spring.
Just protect the fiberglass and don't let the wire wheel or wire brush get away from you. Shouldn't be a bad job.
I removed the two on the sides of the cockpit and the one by the door, stripped them and primed with self etching primer, then sprayed with imron. They are aluminum. Had to cut access holes to get to the nuts that secure them. Covered holes with 4" access plates.
As I recall from painting experience as a young man, for painting a stainless metal you might avoid sanding and etching and focus on a primer intended for metal and make sure that both that and the paint are made for naval use. You can safely sand the prime coat gently to ensure that the paint will stick better. Using two or three coats of paint will help it last longer, another thing to consider is that most paint bubbles when water gets behind it, this can happen if the paint was too wet when it went on, or the surface you are painting allows water to get through somehow, this water penetration is more likely with wood than metal though.