Home Tweakers' Asylum

Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

Painting aluminium is really easy.

This methods works and lasts forever.

Get some good quality laminating epoxy - the sort used for fibreglassing. Don't use vinyl ester, it must be epoxy.

Clean the aluminium (I stick it in the dishwasher) then wearing polythene (not rubber) gloves place it on your work surface and coat it in epoxy. Now take an abrasive cleaning pad (3M type) and scrub the surface of the aluminum while the epoxy is still wet. Scrub hard enough to remove the thin oxide layer on the surface of the aluminium but not so hard you displace the epoxy. When you've finished, allow the epoxy to set. The surface will not reoxidise because epoxy has very low oxygen permeability.

You can then top coat with whatever you like - I use hammertone spray paint for a retro look. If you use an epoxy based coat remember to protect it from UV - two part linear polyurethane is the best for this.

More is learnt from one bold error than from a hundred craven equivocations - Daniel Dennett

Mark Kelly


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