Unpainted mast after stripping the paint - What Happens?

[robwilk37]

unfortunately lefeill is out of the marine game entirely with no support or spares available. minnies in costa mesa picked up some of their old inventory i was told, might be worth a call if youre looking for bits...

[Viking Sailor]

Originally Posted by robwilk37

unfortunately lefeill is out of the marine game entirely with no support or spares available. minnies in costa mesa picked up some of their old inventory i was told, might be worth a call if youre looking for bits...

Called Minnies and no LeFiell mast parts. Emailed LeFiell don't expect to hear back before next week.

[robwilk37]

well to be fair you have to actually GO to minnies. found a lefeill mast base there that fits my section even though they said they didnt have one. the place is a zoo and you just have to hunt. and i gave up on emailing lefeill over a year ago, they are done with boats...

[anacapaisland42]

We painted ours with Rustoleum.....it lasted 20 years
bill

Originally Posted by maxingout

I am trying to decide what to do when I strip the paint off the mast.

The color of the mast does not matter to me. If it is natural aluminum in appearance, that would be fine with me.

Our 55 foot mast is Lefeill presumably from France on our Privilege 39.

If I paint it, I guess I will have to do it in sections.

The boatyard told me they would do the job for $11,000 and I think I can probably do the job for a fraction of their quote.

I should have made my living painting masts. I could have retired sooner.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by anacapaisland42

We painted ours with Rustoleum.....it lasted 20 years
bill

phospheric acid is great for treating aluminium,it is the active ingredient in rustoleum but wash off with fresh water to stop the etching process once ally becomes bright.

[kryg]

Another solution is to stip the paint polish the mast so it has a nice finish, the apply Altex Magnum FMJ it is a clear coat, (Not a varnish but looks like it) that is formulated to protect Aluminum. FMJ stands for FULL METAL JACKET. I have an Aluminum boat and tried it over the years on different parts of my boat, it does a good job.

I need also to strip the paint off my mast that is going to be my solution some time next year. The only preparation is removing the paint and applying a thin coat of this product.

No Priming just use a roller to apply thin clear coat.much less weight added to the mast then priming and painting.

Hope this helps,

Kryg

Originally Posted by maxingout

What happens if you strip off the paint on a mast down to bare aluminum, and then you never repaint it?

Would that be a bad thing to do?

[The Garbone]

Stripped my white mast in 2014 and still looks very good today. Our slip is pretty close to the ocean as I can hear breakers at night so it does get a bit salt air. We hit the mast and boom with a few coats of Alodine. No issues so far.

https://svknotaclew.wordpress.com/20...tillers-spars/

[maxingout]

It's good to hear about the alternatives to painting the mast that people are using.That's one of the good things about cruisers forum - you get the collective experience from many people who have alternate ways of achieving the goal. Lots of things to investigate in this thread.

Once I get my mast stripped in a few weeks, things will become clearer. I hope there is not a lot of pitting.

[bletso]

Yeah, I am thinking of changing what I have started. I already stripped the mast and primed it with self etching primer, but have been holding off on the two parters due to the application procedures and complexity. It would be easy enough to remove the green primer compared to the paint that was there if necessary.

[Thumbs Up]

Don't stop now! All the hard work is done. Find someone that paints cars. Use automotive paint. Paint it a shade of white. It can be done in one day.

[Sailorbob8599]

When it comes to painting spars, a good place to check out would be your local manufacturer of aluminum railings because, they are doing it on a daily basis, and have large ovens. They produce a good hard coating to withstand constant handling of their handrails by the general public.
I got my spars powder coated (white) at a local shop, and although I no longer recall what it cost me, it was definitely far, far cheaper than the spar shops in Vancouver. It was also closer to home and easier to transport the spars to an industrial site as opposed to driving downtown, to the big city waterfront.
It's now four years since I had mine done & they look like the day I received them back from the shop. I stripped the mast, boom and airfoil spreaders myself removing all attachments, and reinstalled same after the spars were painted. It was a rewarding and fun project that I was initially somewhat hesitant to try, but once I got into it the whole job went exceedingly well.

[MyStars]

My 60 ' mast was bare for +/- 15 years at which point I bought it. Every fastener was seized hard in place and, after the screws were out (impact driver), there was putting under most fittings. Everything that brushed up against the bare mast looked dirty.

So! We removed all hardware and sanded to bare metal. The trick is to only sand what you can go back and prime in 15 minutes or less. Aluminum loves oxygen and more than 15 minutes of oxydization is too much for the primer to fight. The first primer was a self etching spray can (bought in case quantities from NAPA). This was followed by a second one to join the self etch to the one part poly that followed. Another trick is to be sure the second primer is held back from the working edge of the sanding. Don't forget the spreaders and other aluminum bits.

A 60' mast is surprisingly heavy. We primed all of one side and then rolled it over to do the other. Again, don't let the second primer foul the bare aluminum before the self etching material is applied.

We used a nickel based anti-seize on all the stainless fasteners when re-assembling. That seems to have worked.

That was about 6 years ago. All still seems OK.

Oh! If you have the mast down and apart, don't forget to check all your wires at the same time. That is both the standing rigging and electrical wires too. We put all of our electrical wires into a conduit that slid into the mast.

John
sv My Stars