Time to paint the engine room, what to use?

[Capt. Tobb]

I am having to pull my transmission so I figured I would do a little painting while I have some (not much) extra room. I have been told to wipe down old paint with acetone, then roll on Imron or Awlgrip. I wanted to know what yall think. I am planning to use a small roller and brush. I am open to any suggestions, thanks!

 

[Capt K]

Inerlux Perfection (2-part) is very user friendly and readily available.

K

 

[Captned]

Bilgekote paint is pretty good.

 

[67hat34c]

do not use awlgrip. it is not ment to be below water line, will blister. bilge will hold water.

degrease, sand, then wipe with acitone and paint with interlux bilgecoat.

 

[Maynard Rupp]

Using the most expensive paint is not always the correct answer. If you use Awlgrip in the bilge make sure you have an external source of breathing air. That is some nasty sh*#. There is no benefit to using 2 part paints in an engine room. Their main advantage is thier ability to withstand ultravilot sun rays. Not an issue in an engine room or bilge. Bilgecoat should do just fine.

 

[wndsr]

If you are talking about the bilge and not the engine room walls, disregard this post. Don't make the same mistake I did. I removed everything from my walls and repainted with epoxie paint. Looking back it would have been much easier and would have ended up with a nicer job if I would have covered the walls with Formica etc.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

If you want to match the original gray paint in the bilges, BilgeKote is the stuff. It rolls on easily and sticks well even in slightly oily areas. It also matches the old stuff almost exactly. You can't tell where you left off except that the new paint is clean and shiney.

The only problem with BilgeKote is that it smells really bad. And the smell lasts for a couple of weeks. Plan on doing that job when you aren't going to be sleeping on the boat for a while.

 

[dastahl]

Clean the bilge with solvent which means you need to turn all systems off so that you don’t blow up. Sand as best you can and re-wipe with solvent with a clean rag. Again there is a real risk of explosions on boats cause its so difficult to vent the area enough.

For paint I would use BilgeKote like others have recommended. The epoxy and urethanes are too sensitive to surface prep. The BilgeKote is formulated with strong solvents (that’s why it smells so strong) to cut thru bad surface prep and is formulated for immersion. Some epoxies are good for immersion but none of the polyurethanes are.

IMHO - I changed from grey to white in my little ER. Looks cleaner and brighter to me.

BTW In a former life I was air dry product manager for Dupont Finishes including Imron and the gentleman who invented Imron for Dupont lives next door.

David
Skooch LRC 42

 

[the kuz]

David, tell your neighbor that he made a fine paint. Our factory original (1977) Imron still shines so well that no one can believe it is 30 years old. I re-painted the knee boards and cockpit rails with Imron and did some minor touch ups (with great advice from this site) using an air brush. After buffing with 1500 and then 3000 Dupont compounds, you can't tell (from 1 foot away) where the old/new paint line is. I wouldn't spray (or try to brush) in a confined area w/o breathing air, (don't know about adhesion in greasy areas) but if you are carefull it sure does a nice job and matches the original paint perfectly. That said, Im thinking about rolling perfection when I get around to doing the decks in a few years (they still look pretty good, but have a few thin spots and dings. Thanks for your great advice on spraying Imron last year.

Best Regards, Bob K

 

[Boatsb]

I love imron too but not for any contaminated surfaces. Grease, wax and even moisture will screw up its adhesion and the ability to coat. Bilge coat is made for the engine rooms.

 

[luckydave215]

Yeah, bilgecoat, or, as it's also marketed when it hasn't been relabled to rip off ignorant boaters, Rustoleum high gloss oil based industrial enamel. You can't tell the difference (except the price).

 

[Jaxfishgyd]

PAINT THE ENGINE ROOM !

I still have yet to clean the damn bilge I've been "saying" I'll do for the past 4 yrs.... "but will do so THIS WINTER"...

 

[Brian Degulis]

Alkyd paints like bilgecoat or plain old international (one part) Are the most surface tolerant and the best choice for an interior surface that will not be throughly sanded.

This is one of those jobs that you can over complicate and end up with a very expensive mess.

Brian

 

[mtadamek]

We recently pulled the engines and gears and gutted the entire engine room. I don't think it had been cleaned since 1965. Oil and grease was soaked into the fiberglass in the bilge and engine room walls. We spent about a 5 days cleaning and re cleaning. The only solvent that was used was water and paint thinner. We used some dry laundry detergent and scrubbed with a stiff brush. After all that, there was still oil seeping out of the fiberglass everywhere. We finally just decided to wipe it all down one more time with thinner and paint it. We rolled and brushed on a 2 part hatteras white epoxy made by interlux or international. To our surprise the paint has stuck perfectly. Even after installing the engines and gears, insulating, and wiring. The amazing part is that the oil still seeps out in places, but the paint won't come up even if you scrub it. One word of caution on painting in any confined space. Do it, just make sure you don't do it alone. I have actually seen several people die due to asphyxiation. It is not a joke, be careful and have an extra hand on board.

 

[Capt. Tobb]

Thanks for all of the help....so who wants to come down and help with the painting this weekend???? haha

 

[Searipper]

When we re-powered last year with the engine room "empty" even all conduits etc we cleaned it with a common de-greaser followed by water/Liquinox scrub and an acetone wipe down. The floor was painted gray and the walls white with Easipoxy. It looks great and cleans easily.

I've never tried Bilgekote, but it must work well given the above comments.

 

[mike]

Did my entire bilge with commercial grade Ameron 235, 2-part epoxy. It is used in commercial tankers for ballast tanks and inside of cargo areas. Cost is about $70 a gal. and 1 gal did the entire job.

 

[67hat34c]

in a case where you have oil soaked resin, would keep cleaning it unitl it is all out. you can dry the area and coat it with kitty litter. it will help dry out the surface. also some heat can help. you can take towels and cover the area and soak with mineral spirits. The mineral sprits will draw the stuff out.

we started cleaning ours when we bought it , kept up the job for about 3yrs then finaly got around to painting it. of courese ours had other issues. prior owner painted it with gray laytex paint. didnt even clean it, just painted over everything. it pealed on sheets. heck a water hose with pressure nosel knocked most of it off. our paint job is not done, ran out of paint. still cleaning and will finish the job one day.

 

[Maynard Rupp]

When you do paint, and whatever you use, I saw a photo on our site of an engine room that had just been painted. Here I found the perfect answer for the horrible masking problem. Remove as many clamps as possible from wiring and plumbing. Instead of masking, as that stuff is tough to use and even tougher to remove, this brilliant forum member used aluminum foil from a grocery store. I tried that this summer when I repainted the inside of my sailboat hull. That is the best idea I have seen in a long time. Just eyeball the width required to wrap the bundle and tear off enough pieces to do the entire length of the bundle or piping. Now slip the sheet between the hull and the bundle and wrap it around, kinda' like you would wrap an ear of corn for the barbeque. Overlap these lengthwise until everything is covered. When the paint is dry just pull the foil off. Very neat and a definite time saver.

 

[67hat34c]

funny, i thought i invented foil masking. I used it last sunday when painting an engine. masked with foil. had valve covers off so i masked off the valves with it also. quick and easy and it stays in place.