Repair Saildrive Coatings

[Sonosailor]

Amazingly, this thread does not exist yet.

I damaged my coatings while replacing perfectly good diaphragms with identical newer diaphragms.

Can we discuss how we should repair saildrive coatings for saltwater use?

I'll start with a proposition:
1. Clean the area with the antifoul solvent to get as much of the antifoul paint out of the way;
2. Clean with acetone to remove oils and possibly other contaminants;
3. Sand the area, feathering over the layers of original or hardened paint, and further backing up the antifoul paint from the repair area;
4. Without recleaning, dust sanded area;
5. Spray or paint bare, abraded aluminum with zinc chromate, and allow to cure/dry;
6. Paint with acceptable primer over zinc chromate;
7. Paint over primer with two-part epoxy paint;
8. Paint over epoxy paint with tin-based anti-foul paint.

How would you improve that, what would you change, and/or what are the favoured (by you) sources for each product?

After we get this out of the way, maybe we can move on for those who want to repair any pitting they have.

We're all in this together (Red Green)

[Ostinato]

I repaired mine using West epoxy. Brought metal back to bright unfinished state and then cleaned with wipes disigned for cleaning aluminum (probably overkill). I'm told it is important to coat aluminum within 24hrs of removing any tarnish otherwise oxidation sets in. International told me to coat the West with their epoxy barrier paint so paint would have better chance of sticking. Did this 5 years ago; no problems so far that I am aware of.