Yamaha TRP lower unit. Pretty ate up with corrosion. Removed all the cancer, scrubbed/sanded it down, put four coats of self etching primer, it's ready to be painted.

I'm seriously considering putting roll on bedliner instead of paint. Unless someone gives me a decent reason that would be a bad idea.

Don't use bed liner I get a raddle can of Phantom Black , and yes zinc chromate first

Paint lasts maybe a day here, we are constantly running through shallow stuff that instantly rubs paint off. Thinking the bedliner might last a little bit longer, but sure as heck don't want to scrape that stuff off if it's a mistake.

I feel with bed liner will cause you prop issues and possible over heat

Since you're gonna put it on aluminum, maybe the pro bed liner guys might share their procedure for the Ford aluminum truck beds. Seems to me, you might have to prep the aluminum housing some special way, to make the bed liner stick? The aircraft folks have very stringent processes to make paint stick to their aluminum landing gear castings. At least, if it doesn't work, it shouldn't be too hard to bare metal it and go to plan B. Nice looking skiff! Good luck. IslandJim

Maybe just stick with the primer coat. Easy touch up when needed.

It's a TRP, which already runs higher than any prop rig I've ever seen. Props are still digging hard with prop shaft 2 1/2" ABOVE the top of the tunnel. That and the props were built by Jack Foreman in Port Lavaca, they are built thick and for extreme elevation. As cruddy as the lower unit was anyway, nothing I could do would make it worse.

In addition I added the aftermarket water scoops from J&L in Tivoli, they made a really bid difference keeping water pressure up at extreme high height. So, neither one of those would be an issue. But if I was running a bass hull, then absolutely would be a concern

Do like the sportmasters used to be, and should still be... bare aluminum.

^^^This^^^

Its cheap and easy to touch up.

So,
Update.
Recap, did a lot of prep work, wire brushed naval jelly the entire area, scrubbed any oxidized places down to bare aluminum. Twice to make sure. Then four coats of self etching primer. Then time was getting short, daughters and granddaughters were bugging hard to go fishing. So, made a executive decision, went to auto parts store and got two rattle cans of engine paint. Put them on, went fishing. Actually ran through some really shallow mud, right on the edge of going down, but pushed through without incident. Expecting the skeg to be polished smooth. Not a scratch.

So, waiting on a skeg mounted and internal mounted anode, put them on and we'll see what holds up. From discussions with guys who fish LLM, which is twice as salty as San Antonio bay, until you install the anodes, any paint is a waste of time.

Sweeeeet rig!

If we don’t get some rain in N Tx, I’m gonna needs boat like that to get on the lakes!


That is one cool machine !!

Great, Pat. The secret is getting the primer to stick to the aluminum. Hopefully, the primer you used isn't a secret. What brand did you use? Also, your prep work on the aluminum must have been just what it needed. IslandJim

My grandfather was the body man at the Chevy dealer in Belton. Spent a lot of summers watching him do his craft, he was very good at it. A few things sorta stuck, like prep, prep, prep. I used a wire wheel and naval jelly to get rid of all the oxidation, did that twice. Wet sanded so there was no shiny paint left on it, and wiped it down with acetone until there was nothing but a clean rag left.

Used rustoleum self etching primer, four coats, wiped down after each coat. Then just used krylon engine block paint for the final color, four coats of that. I plowed a fifty yard path through the mud, and didn't leave a scratch, so I'll guess we'll see. The anodes should be at the house when I get home, pretty sure that's what will do the job keeping the cancer out.

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There's shallow and then there's shallow!