MASTering the Art of Painting

The mast is finally painted!  Woo-hoo.  Yay us!  We have been waiting for a non rainy day now for the past week or so so that we could get the very last coat of Awlgrip on the damn thing.  We had decided when we first took down the mast that we wanted to treat and paint it while we had the chance, because we didn't know when we'd pull it again.   To paint aluminum, you start by sanding down the areas of failed paint to shiny aluminum, feathering the edges as you go.  From there, you chemically wash and etch the bare aluminum with Alumiprep 33.  Some people use equal parts water and white vinegar for this step.  If you don't etch aluminum, paint won't stick to it.  You must allow the Alumiprep to stay on 3-5 minutes and rinse thoroughly with fresh water.  The key is, you can't let the Alumiprep dry at any point, so it's important to continuously apply the stuff during the 3-5 minute period.  Also, be careful not to get the stuff on you as it's an acid that will burn your skin.  We found that a spray bottle worked best for this application.  From there, before it dries, you treat the areas of bare aluminum with Alodine.  Alodine is a chemical conversion coating that prevents the aluminum from oxidizing and corroding.  Once again, it must stay wet for 2-3 minutes before rinsing with water.  Then you allow the water to dry before applying Zinc Chromate which is a highly, highly toxic chemical that works as a primer for aluminum.  Most toxic paints are apparently only "known to cause cancer in state of California..." Apparently, this stuff causes cancer worldwide as it states directly on the can..."WILL CAUSE CANCER."  Hmmm...I wonder if this stuff causes cancer.

From here, after allowing the zinc chromate to dry, it was business as usual.  545 Primer, sanding, waiting for the rain to subside, taping, wiping down with denatured alcohol, another coat of primer, sanding, more waiting for weather, taping, wiping, Awlgrip topcoat, sanding, waiting, yelling at NOAA weather forecasters, taping, wiping, and finally the last coat of topcoat.  Then.....flip mast over and repeat.  During our last coat, this #$%&* that had his boat parked next to ours decided that he wanted to wash his boat right after we painted.  When Frank came down to drive me to work, he noticed that there were these blue spots all over our brand new paint job.  When he confronted him, the guy was so rude that he didn't even apologize, merely dismissing his actions by claiming he didn't realize we had painted.  I guess seeing us out there painting for 2 hours, and seeing all the blue tape on the mast wasn't indication that we had just painted.  I mean, we were only wielding paint rollers 4 feet from his boat, painting...I couldn't really tell if he was actually that stupid or if our paint fumes had started to cause some damage.  It took me several hours to convince Frank not to break into the guy's boat in the middle of the night and take a crap in his bilge (I'm serious here).

Anyhow, since we had been set back another couple of days because we had to sand it back down, we lost our good weather window.  Grrr.  A helpful tip, aside from having a giant WET PAINT sign, is that during the painting process, have someone hold a shade over you, it is hard to see where you've missed, especially when you are painting with white.  (Note: the guys at the yard will inevitably make jokes about your wife holding an umbrella over you, so be prepared to feel like a princess.)  I can't tell you how psyched I am to be wrapping up with most of our painting projects (we still have the bottom job and boot stripe).  I have finally stopped having recurring nightmares about having to sand everyday....oh wait, that was real.

Since we finished painting yesterday, we spent today putting most of the hardware back on the mast and boom.  We still have some more hardware to install, wires to run, rigging to put back, and roller furlers to assemble, but it's starting to look like a mast again, and not just some project looming over our head.  Plus it's super shiny...

Before

Feathered edges

Evidence that it wasn't a nightmare

Alumiprepping

The yellow stuff is the zinc chromate

Blue spots thanks to the idiot

What it should look like

Teamwork at its best

Installing the steaming light

After zinc chromate

Done!