Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Ok all,
I want to paint the upper half of my toons. I use mine in salt water and have the lower half painted with special paint. Now I want to just paint the upper half so it will be easier to keep clean. The salt leaves stains and trash on them. What would you all suggest to use for type of paint. Would using an aluminum primer and then just a regular gloss a car paint work.p?

My logs are painted top and bottom with rustoleum topside marine paint. The paint has been on for almost 5 years and still looks great. The only place any has come off is from me beaching on rocks. I have a very detailed list of my procedure posted on the pontoonstuff forum if that's still around. I used their paint and primer thinned with mineral spirits and enamel harder in the paint. It was applied with my boat on the trailer in the driveway. I used a smooth foam roller. Yes a roller and you wouldn't know it ! I thought about spraying the paint but that sounded like a potential disaster side the boat was just rebuilt. Masking it and the trailer off would have been a huge job in itself. Prep is everything and there is no magic primer or chemical to make it just work easy. Mechanical etching ( hand sanding) is the key to a good job. I used maroon scotch brite on a wheel to lightly scratch up the bare aluminum before the primer. In between coats I hand sanded and issued then scratched again with scotch brite. I tacked in between coats with mineral spirits. I get a lot of compliments on my painted logs. I was real nervous when I first started but so glad I did it. Cleaning them is so easy. I just spray on a vinegar water mix and wipe with a rag. I have put rainex on them also and that keeps the spots to a minimum. I boat on a reservoir with hard water ( part of the now famous flint river here in mi) so I understand water spots some what. My boat has never been in salt water but before I painted the logs I did a couple of test panels that sat around over the winter before my paint project. I put one in a bucket of liquid calcium chloride ( I use this for deicing in my snow removal business ) and it didn't mess the paint up one bit. Any question feel free to ask
,shaun

Any chance we could get some pics of that?

I thought about painting before I polished the Premiers. Kind of strange to see this post, right now, because I was thinking about "Bluing" the new Manitou's. I just got done bluing an AR I just built and thought, wow, this may make a cool pontoon finish. Anyone have thoughts on this?

Never thought of that. No clue what it would involve

Soonertoon wrote:Any chance we could get some pics of that?

Just a few of the finished product. I'm having trouble finding any pics during the paint job.