Cleaning the outdrives

[biggerseagar]

I am going take advantage of our 70 degree weather this monday and do a little maintenance.

I am going to replace my decals ( what's left) on my bravo ll outdrives. I picked up a set off of E Bay.

I have used every concoction known to mankind to clean these collector's of scale and crud, so I asking ......what would you use to clean off these outdrives to put the new decals on?

Will have pictures later on....

Roger

[mmwjr]

Never bothered replace decals on the drive. I guess I would try 2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper to prep the area.

[biggerseagar]

One of my thoughts too.... to get all the scale and crud off.

Wash it down with acetone. Thanks Mike

[shrew]

I removed all the badging to prime and paint with aluminum antifouling paint.

[biggerseagar]

Went down to the boat yesterday and replaced the decals. Took my heat gun, dremel and big drill with a sanding attachment to use. All the decals have a clear plastic coat over the decal, scrap that off and acetone took care of the print. I just wish I could find the magic formula to get the scale off.

[mmwjr]

So when you paint the drive do you paint over the decals? If not do you get much growth on them?

[biggerseagar]

Mike nothing a pressure washer can't take off but no I do use any anti fouling paint on the drives. Not a practice done in this area.

[jimq26]

I cleaned mine with Interlux 216 stripper.

It had never been done before, and since I am a fussy second owner, I wanted it like new. It worked amazingly well. Used new paint stir sticks to reach into the tough areas and they scraped away the crude perfectly.

Rather than pay high price for fancy paint, I used Tremclad gloss black and you can see how it turned out. The formulation is practically identical to the Mercruiser stuff.

The pictures speak for themselves.

[shrew]

Originally Posted by mmwjr

So when you paint the drive do you paint over the decals? If not do you get much growth on them?

I assume that was to me. I removed the decals, then sanded the entire drive, then primed with primicon and then painted with Trilux33. I've never seen an outdrive in this area NOT painted. I'm not sure how well it would do unpainted. We do get a good deal of growth around here.

[mmwjr]

Originally Posted by shrew

I assume that was to me. I removed the decals, then sanded the entire drive, then primed with primicon and then painted with Trilux33. I've never seen an outdrive in this area NOT painted. I'm not sure how well it would do unpainted. We do get a good deal of growth around here.

Actually it was to Roger as in post 4 you had said you removed all badging.

Growth is an issue here as well. Since I am in a rack I just use Mercs paint to coat any exposed metal.