Refinishing my Merc Cowling

[jallen355]

I decided I would go ahead and dissamble my cowl and skirting on my 150 this week in order to refinish. It had a few nicks and scrathes and some of the edges of the vinyl were beginning to lift from age. My mid section is pretty good to go with no scrathes at all and will polish up quite nice. Also, I had very recently refinished my lower unit and the cowling now just looks out of place with the rest of the rig. So here goes my latest project.

After removing all three pieces, I removed the front "placard", the latch mechanisms, and original vinyl decals and began sanding. I started with a DA sander using 240 grit and moved to 400 wet before primer. Here's some pics of the pieces awaiting primer. Here's a shot from before and a few during this process. I will have it primed this evening with PPG 2K chromatic and a final wet sand will be done tomorrow and should be in paint by Saturday.


Before:



Ready for primer

 

[fiftyp]

Man you sanded this piss out of her. Not using a filler primer?

 

[jallen355]

It is the filler primer "surfacer" not the sealing primer. #8007, if I remember right.... I have both from the PPG line. The data sheet shows 4-1-1/primer-hardner-thinner. For surfacing ability, thinner can be adjusted down or deleted entirely. I mixed 4-1-1 becuase my glass was not damaged beyond the paint at all. It should come out nice. I've always sanded anything I paint, too much. Old..maybe bad habit...lol!

 

[merc245]

Have you checked into the price of replacement Strickers. They ain't cheap

 

[jallen355]

No replacement "strickers" needed. Going back black and will opt for some custom made stuff. Nothing fancy, just not eom. A dealer by my house, however, has 75% of the originals in a misc. box of stickers he dug up out the back of the parts warehouse. I was tempted for a moment, but like you said, finding even the remainder could get expensive.

BTW, got any leads on pre-made custom vinyl for this style cowling? I know Wildman has templets for the newer style and can create them in any color you want, but I have not ran across a source for the older stlye cowls like mine.

 

[fiftyp]

It is the filler primer "surfacer" not the sealing primer. #8007, if I remember right.... I have both from the PPG line. The data sheet shows 4-1-1/primer-hardner-thinner. For surfacing ability, thinner can be adjusted down or deleted entirely. I mixed 4-1-1 becuase my glass was not damaged beyond the paint at all. It should come out nice. I've always sanded anything I paint, too much. Old..maybe bad habit...lol!

You plan on filling in the textured areas on the sides?

 

[jallen355]

I'm not exactly sure I understand your question. If your refering to the leather-like striping that was there, it was an oem decal. Actually, I thought that the inlaid section on the side of the cowl would be smooth from the top to bottem. When I removed the leather-like stripes, I found that the part that was hidden below was in fact "rasied". If that is wht your talking about, then no, I do not paln on filling in that entire section. I will say I am some what dissappointed that the area is not smooth from top to bottem becuase I already have a custom made "MERC" decal to go there, but it will overlap from the center to both the top and bottem raised portions of the inlaid area. Here... Maybe this pick will help. This is post-primer......



..and the side skirts post-primer:

 

[jallen355]

Here is a pic of the cowl after wet sanding and loaded up to head for the paint booth at work tomorrow. My painter (GM Dealership) volunteered his services.....!!! That will put me a day ahead of schedule. I had planned on using the heated booth this Saturday. Now, I should be able to bring all the pieces home with me tomorrow evening ready for reassembly.

Post wet sanding:

 

[TR450]

Looks really good. Should look really cool with the paint.

 

[jallen355]

Thanks! I should have it done by this afternoon!!

 

[jallen355]

Paint is done. It came out very nice. I just got finished polishing the mid and reinstalling the skirting and cowl. It looks very nice....very BLACK! I have some vinyl for it already, but not sure if I want to use it.

I'l post pics of the finished product tomorrow in the sunlight if I don't go fishing with my buddies. I'll "mock up" the vinyl I have and get some opinions on whether or not it looks good. Like I said earlier, it's nothing fancy, just a 'lil supmin' sumpin' other than 18 year old oem stuff.....

 

[Boston Predictor]

I cant wait to see how it came out. Im going to re-do mien too this spring and or winter.

 

[jallen355]

Arnold as.......Conan the Barbarian. Right???

 

[jallen355]

Well, as bad as I've been wanting to show off my paint work, I have yet to pull the boat out of the garage to take some shots in the sun light. I've been pretty busy with life lately, but was out in the garage taking pictures of props to sell and snapped a couple of shots of my refurbed ole' Merc. So without further a do.....

 

[175checkmate]

Great work. The cowl came out looking better than new. Well done.

 

[BullittBen]

Man that's motivating me. I've got to do something with mine this winter.

Looks Good

 

[CHECK16]

Looks great!!! That thing really shines.I like that the motor graphics go with the boat.I did the same thing.:cheers

 

[fiftyp]

Lookks Great!

 

[jallen355]

Thanks guys. It looks so much better out in the sun than it does all crambed in the back of my garage under flourescent lights at night. I can't wait to get some shots outside in the sunlight. It really did update the look of the entire boat and drew several people over to it at the launch last Friday while I was prop testing on my day off. Wished I had remembered the camera that day.

 

[jallen355]

bumping it up by request and adding a shot in the sun.