restoring anodised aluminium mast colour?

MM5AHO

MM5AHO

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Having done a few other jobs on my mast while its down for the winter, I noticed how faded the aluminium is in most places. It's a Kemp mast (original mast on a 43 years old Rival) in gold coloured anodised aluminium. The boom (which is shaded by a boom cover when not in use in summer) is much nicer colour, but the mast has in some parts almost lost all the colour.

Is there any low cost method of bringing some colour back?
 
In short, no.

It is a question that comes up, and I have tried with various potions. There is one I read about a while back that possibly has reasonable results on silver anodised but it is expensive. I cant recall its name.

There are some things you can do which will improve the mast a little. Cleaning the mast with a cellulose type cleaner will remove all sorts of built up grime as will a scotch brite pad used carefully with some detergent. People variously talk about finishing off with WD40 or a good quality polish. Both give the metal a little lustre but not much more, but they dont last long.

So in short a lot of hard work for very little return.

The only complete answer is to paint the mast, of course expensive expecially to do well, but it will look great.
 
Any paint will tend to chip off when bashed by shackles etc and look worse than the original. I know, I've tried and used proper 2 pack etch primer and all.
 
Ditto. I primed my crosstrees using red special metal primer from hammerite prior to spraying with gold aerosol. 18 months later the gold colour has all gone leaving red xtrees
 
Some people recommend rubbing with baby oil. Tried it. There was an 'improvement' but did not last for long. On a previous boat (Vivacity) the silver anodising was quite tatty. I simply rubbed it lightly with 320-grit W&D abrasive paper and then painted it black with Hammerite. Great improvement, cheap and easily touched up. Hovever, this was some 20 years ago and I cannot vouch for the modern paint being of a similar quality.
Present boat was commissioned in 1973 and still has the original gold-coloured Proctor mast. It is now somewhat matted but I can live with it.
I have heard about a 'wonder treatment' that is apparently used on aircraft but IIRC it costs the proverbial arm and leg; I am not in that league.
 
I resprayed the section of my mast at the spreaders due to a repair having been carried out in the past and that section now stood out compared to the rest of the mast. It was all gold anodised originally but now somewhat faded.

I used Upol acid 8 etching primer and then the closest match to the remainder of the faded anodising with a can of car spray paint from Halfords.

That was 3 years ago and it still looks like new. I wish I had done the whole mast at time as I had it in a friend's boat tent at the time.

P. S. Thanks for the help with the chain galvanising - it should last a few more years now.
 
Try cillit bang... I work in construction and a very well regarded finishes consultant always recommends it for cleaning anodised finishes...
 
What would a bit of ACF50 applied with a rag do? (Not too worried about aesthetics personally, but would like to prolong the life of my mast).
 
awol said:
If only you had access to a powder colour coater with a long oven. :encouragement:
Click to expand...

yes, what a plum I am. I was thinking boom - as I am about to do something similar myself. We have our own oven, but a mast would be out of the question unless it was of an R/C boat. ;-)
 

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Now there's an idea. Oven is 10m, wonder how long my mast is???
Be a job to strip all the gubbins off it. Thinnk that might be next year's project. Enough on for this winter.
 
I could raptor the mast in about 10 minutes... It sprays on as a two pack. We use it on chassis and hard wearing panel areas here here. Easy to touch up with spray or bruch or roller too, but it's so tough it is unlikely to need it. Downside is it's more expensive!
 
So which is best out of Hammerite smooth, Raptor and Everbrite in terms of sticking longest to an aluminium mast ?

Boo2
 
Don,t know, but sounds like there are enough of us about to do it to have a comparative test maybe. Raptor is very much more expensive, and spraying can be wasteful on this kind of shape - but I happen to have a lot at work, and have seen it's durability in much more extreme situations than a mast sat on a boat in all weathers. It has excellent resistance to just about anything but extreme heat.
N.B; on aluminium it needs etch priming if you can. You do not need to spray it, it can be rollered, but dont hang about as it is a two pack plastic and goes hard. It is also very good for waterproofing canvas, and adds huge strength to tired old canvas as a stopgap before replacement. You can spray it onto waxed melamine to make a rubbery sheet for seals and gaskets. (I qualify that by saying I have not tried that for any mechanical applications, just arsing about to see it's BDR potential)
Do not get it on your hands. Not because it burns, but because it is an absolute beast of a thing to get rid of.
With absolutely no reference to the last sentence, sprayed lightly, it will put a flexible waterproof skin on virtually anything. Very useful stuff. Very very tough, only downfall is it is two pack so must all be used after mixing.
 
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