TOPIC: Time for new Phantom black paint on Old Merc

This is not a pro job, just a 100 foot away on the trailer paint job by a complete amateur. I have wanted to do this for over a year and no progress until today... that last day of nice weather to paint in Wisconsin until likely April or May. The prop shop welded a broken skeg over a year ago and I couldn’t put that freshly painted lower unit on a motor that also needed paint. Looks like I forgot how to hold camera again... sorry about that.

Awesome great job!!!!!!!!!!!

Bob

OOOH! Shiny!!! Looks good.

Thanks. Hope to put on the lower unit this weekend and swap the gear lube while I am thinking about it. Hoping over the winter I can replace some hardened internal fuel lines and replace some small wires as you know the exposed insulation crumbles. I want to do this slow and steady so one day I don’t strand myself because of shortcuts.

Could have fooled me. Looks professional baked on. Don't kid yourself, it's a two footer for sure.
Keep on pluggin' away.

Thanks. Every time I saw one of your painted outboards at one of the shows, there certainly were plenty of people enjoying how new they looked. Took me awhile, but your results (and others on this site) inspired me to try. It will never get done if I don’t at least try to advance the ball now and then.

That looks REALLY good!
What type of paint did you use?
Aerosol, single stage, or or base-clear?
doc

I used the Merc official Phantom black in the rattle can that you buy at the Marina or boat dealers. I believe there is also supposed to be a clear coat rattle can from Merc, but I didn’t have that on my shelf during this last warm day of painting on a Sunday before the temperature dropped from 75 to 40s. I have a complete new decal set, but likely won’t get around to that until spring because once I put on the wrap cowl and top hat, I likely will paint that as well so it all looks the same. And Doc... you will want to know I will be using the face plate I got from you, so thanks for that! You can see how slowly I move.

Here are the 2 different paint cans I used. The white labeled can was older and not from Merc dealer, so tried it first. It looked nice, but also appeared to have a sparkle like you see on the white pear Cadillac paint. I used that can up and then put 2 coats of the official Merc paint and decided it looked more like Merc black Like was under the decal before I roughed it up.

Really surprising how many shades of black there really are. I always thought black was "black"....wrong. Did my son's Jeep fenders two years ago and used a rattle can black, didn't even come close to the original Jeep color, was almost a dark gray side by side. Went to a local body shop and got the "official" Jeep black and it was spot on.
At least you have a good solid undercoat now and should last for years to come.
Looks amazing.

Yeah there are many colors of Black but almost 3 times as many for white. I used to do body work with My Uncle and he alwasy hated painting a WHITE car as it was a bitch to match the paint back in the day.
Yes the "Chromatic" paint had a slight metal flake if I remember correctly.

Bob

As long as we're on paint. The first car I painted, back in mid 50's (really) was a '38 Nash Lafayette. Paid $10 for the car and it ran. In those days salt was not used on the roads so it was in decent condition. Used regular house enamel, black, thinned with gasoline and a Kirby vacuum cleaner. They did have a spray attachment for them. Now you would call the car a 30 footer where you wouldn't notice the runs and fish eyes.
Makes the Dr.'s motor look factory.

Cool story on the Nash. I am not a painter, but wish I had some more warm days for the top hat and cowl... I am presently still disassembling my trailer so that have have room to put on the lower unit. Presently I have the motor pinned between the stand alone trailer and the boat on blocking. Finally heading back into the garage. I had purchased that chromatic paint from a guy at the antique outboard motor show in Tomahawk many years ago. If I ever do a random fishing Merc, I might try the metallic for fun , but I think it cost more than the factory paint??!!

After a lot of yard work and prep loading my trailer for powder coating, I squeezed a little time to advance the short shaft Merc. I haven’t worked on it since a little painting. I put the lower unit on after greasing the splines of the main shaft and shift shaft. It went together well and shifted properly. Filled with new gear lube to be safe... and it has a new impeller. I added the painted shock on one side and the shiny 2 blade for fun. The only reason this motor needed painting was the previous owner was spraying white paint on the transom of it’s boat where a kicker motor bracket was removed and the overspray was all over this motor... oh well.

Pictures of the motor mount covers that I had forgotten to paint when I painted the motor. Also painted the washers for the other shock that had white overspray. I used my thumbnail and then 600 grit sandpaper wetted down to remove old white paint overspray. I may have to wait until spring to paint cowl and top hat. I have some bad wires to replace and will try to replace fuel pump diaphragms and fuel lines over winter. I am trying to work on the trailer rebuild as well, so going back and forth. Doing shocks and brakes on a vehicle gets in the way of the fun stuff.