Thread: Painting raw aluminium (from spray cans)?

I have painted a lot of aluminium, used just the etch primer followed by various top coats from enamel to epoxy, even acrylic exterior house paint on sign frames to match surroundings. No middle stage primer and no issues either. Make sure you completely clean the aluminium first with alcohol or metho, any grease left on will cause problems. The etch primer I have used mostly is DyMark (from Bunnings etc), though any of them should be OK. The etch primer is there to seal and stop the oxidisation process of the aluminium (and galvanised metal), and to provide a barrier between the metal and the final paint. If there was a middle primer required its maybe because its specified for a particular top coat?

On a note about cleaning - I was watching a program the other night that had some top notch painter doing up a car and he said you should use both a water based and alcohol / metho type cleaner prior to painting because the two different cleaners remove different types of "dirt" which using only the one type could leave stuff behind.

Originally Posted by crash

On a note about cleaning - I was watching a program the other night that had some top notch painter doing up a car and he said you should use both a water based and alcohol / metho type cleaner prior to painting because the two different cleaners remove different types of "dirt" which using only the one type could leave stuff behind.

i watched that show too. the car came up a treat. the painter was high on fumes or high on life, hard to tell.

MLD