Painting a motor

K

Kevin Puls

Well-known member
It's time to paint my bright white Johnson 30 horse.

It's a shame, the guy I bought it from rebuilds and reprints motors. He did a great job. New stickers and everything.

Oh well.

So do I strip it then paint it? Or just rattle can it? I would like to do a nice job that will last.

Thoughts on paint type and process are appreciated...
Kind of thought of taking it back to the seller to repaint. He does nice work.
 
Why not make a cordura nylon cover for it to use while duckin. You might want to sell it some day and camo paint doesn,t really help with resale , unless its another ducker. Fairly simple to make for anyone with basic sewing skills and the 500 denier can be sewed on most homeowner machines. Ebay has a true timber camo for $6.95 per yd.
 
Interesting, just today I made the decision that I really don't need to worry about resale value on my 1978 25 Evinrude and just keep going with the can of camo touch up paint and brush. If you think you might want to keep it nice to sell one trick is to duct tape the motor up and then paint the duct tape. We used to do that one on dirt bikes we would want to trade or sell after racing it for a year or two. Learned the trick from a service manager who would "borrow" race bikes from the shop for a Sunday and have it back on the sale floor Mon morning. I just heard about guys who would do that. ;-).The camo paint would be hard to hide but so will the trashed out lower unit from duckin use. Just sayin.
 
Good morning, Kevin~

I'm in the cover-the-motor camp......

I gunned for many years with a white Johnson. Unless there were lots of ice and snow around, it always forced me to take the 20 or 30 seconds to put my cover over it before gunning. Like Rich, I always used a burlap bag with bundles of salt hay sewn onto it. I have since upgraded to covers sewn from Sunbrella and nylon webbing and will be making one for a 25-horse in the next couple of weeks (post to follow). Mine look very similar to the one recently posted by Dave Diefenderfer.

All the best,

SJS
 
Bag it is !

Though it may end up being panels of cloth duct taped to the motor.....

Perhaps Steve will have a tutorial when he is done?
 
After one sea trial my brand new Evinrude e-tec was sanded primed and covered with duck boat brown Grizzly grip. I have done the motor cover thing and found that if they don't fit properly they fly off like the hats on my over sized noggin.

A few years back I was hunting with a guy and when he was 1/2 mile up the beach I could see the sun glimmering off of his silver motor cover plane as day.

So for what it is worth I don't buy things ti resell them and convenience is key in my world.
 
I don't care about resale, it's a commercial boat, that occasionally gets used for gunning. I paint them all, don't want anything to look too new and inviting. Just wash it down so there's no oil/grease on them and hit it with any flat primer, or the new camo colors spray can.
THEN cover it with a burlap bag, the coffee ones are big enough to cover everything, if your gunning.
 
Painted my 1955 Johnson 5 1/2 hp with flat camo spray paint so many years ago I can't remember when. Most is still on. Thought about the bag deal, but it's just another thing that I thought was more trouble than it was worth. Resale never entered my mind. I tend to hold on to things forever, or give them away to very good friends.
 
Has anyone tried using Plasti-Dip to paint the motor?

Google or youtube search Dipyourcar

I am going to do try it to mine this year. its abotu $10/can from most places.
not sure on durability compared to regular paint

i am most interested in the matt finish of the paint
 
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It's time to paint my bright white Johnson 30 horse.

It's a shame, the guy I bought it from rebuilds and reprints motors. He did a great job. New stickers and everything.

Oh well.

So do I strip it then paint it? Or just rattle can it? I would like to do a nice job that will last.

Thoughts on paint type and process are appreciated...
Kind of thought of taking it back to the seller to repaint. He does nice work.
Click to expand...

Heat gun will take the stickers off

sand, wipe with acetone or alcohol or whatever, i use a mini roller or brush with duck boat paint (more durable base coat, thicker paint), then rattle can my "pattern" on.

I still like to put some kind of grassy cover over it. You can always shoot it with white gloss later and sell it that way.
 
The ONLY thing holding me back is the fact that it is a 2005 2 stroke, one of the last years they were made and sold as such in the states and in my humble opinion a little more valuable.

I need to just go hit it with a boat oar and run it into a few stumps and I won't care anymore.

I have that theory since I sold my 2005 Johnson 2 stroke 9.9 earlier in the year and it ended up in a bidding war because of the age and configuration.
 
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