Mast refinish

[BugTussel]

i am looking to make the boat look a little better. the mast had some corrosion when i got it. i used rubbing compound to get it smooth again but there are spots where the corrosion was.

i was thinking of painting it but i was told alumn was tough to keep paint on. does any one have a suggestion? i also considered polishing to a gloss but reconsidered cause of time and effort.

[Matt Haberman]

Bug,

I would agree with the tip not to paint the mast. It is pretty tough to get the paint to stick to aluminum and when (not if) it comes loose it usually flakes off in big pieces. The other issue is if salt water gets under the paint it will corrode the aluminum and you wont even see it.
We restored a RC27 many years ago that had painted beams. In the end we ended up replacing the beams because there were hundreds of holes right through the beam. At first glance the beam looked OK but when we started poking at it with a screw driver it went right through.

[Kevin Keller]

Maybe wax would work well. Give it a coat of wax occasionally.

[ultrarunner]

i am looking to make the boat look a little better. the mast had some corrosion when i got it. i used rubbing compound to get it smooth again but there are spots where the corrosion was.

i was thinking of painting it but i was told alumn was tough to keep paint on. does any one have a suggestion? i also considered polishing to a gloss but reconsidered cause of time and effort.

If you can find a large enough oven, how about powder-coating the mast. I had some exterior deck posts powder coated a few years ago. Those posts were 26 feet or so in length.

[Matt Haberman]

If you can find a large enough oven, how about powder-coating the mast. I had some exterior deck posts powder coated a few years ago. Those posts were 26 feet or so in length.

The the same reasons mentioned above regarding painting of aluminum extrusions, I would shy away from powdercoating.

[BugTussel]

guess i will just polish it well and put a bunch of coats of wax